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You've got to love a civil rights group that says the U.S. attorney general can't stand up against discrimination if it's a divisive issue. (No, really. You've got to love them. It's in the Bible.)

While most reports focus on the church-state controversy, the Rocky Mountain News digs the love. "Attorney general couches controversial proposal in 'I love you' terminology," says the article's deck. Here's what Ashcroft told the charity workers:

While government programs provide for entitlements, when one citizen reaches for another, or one organization, or a group of citizens, does so based on an overwhelming conviction within them that we are one, it says something more than "You are entitled." It says "I love you," and "I love you" is something that needs to be said more frequently in our culture.

The full text of Ashcroft's speech should be posted on the Department of Justice's website, but the page of Ascroft's speeches hasn't been updated since November.

Paper's ban on Scripture irks readers, writers
The Daily Journal of International Falls, Minnesota, like many other smalltown papers, has a column written by local clergy. "For almost nine years area clergy have submitted articles without creating any major controversy," Evangelical Covenant Church pastor Larry Connors writes this week. "But change is in the air." The paper has issued new guidelines, including one banning the quotation of Scripture.

"One of the best ways to keep from just writing down a sermon on paper is to not use Scripture, so we ask you to refrain from quoting Scripture in your columns," says a letter from the paper to the pastors. "Although Scripture is an important aspect to religion, we feel it is inappropriate for our newspaper's church column. When a writer uses a Bible or other religious text, as a resource, it seems that they are attempting more to write a sermon than a church column and they may turn off readers. Besides, if a clergy member [feels] strongly enough they can always write a letter to the editor, which is published on The Daily Journal's opinion page. In a letter to the editor, a reader may quote Scripture."

Connors says the policy makes no sense. "The Bible is not just something I use for a Sunday morning sermon, but it is at the very core and heart of my life in every aspect," he writes in what he says will be his final column. "My opinions without using the insights and principles of God's Word are just my opinions and ideas."

Other readers and writers are similarly upset. "The Daily Journal is showing its bias and anti-Christian views," writes Helen Clark, whose husband, a Baptist pastor, also received the letter. "I feel that the evangelical Christians in International Falls are being shortchanged in the local print media."

"Pastors, I would say pull your column and shake the dust from your feet," says reader Jutta Goetz in another letter to the editor.

Supreme Court rejects Columbine tile case:

• Court rejects Columbine suit | Religious tiles won't go up after justices decline to hear case (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
  
  

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January (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47