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• Religious groups try to defuse war threat | Full-page ad appears in The New York Times (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)

Crime and persecution:

• A jury torn and fearful in 2001 terrorism trial | A clearcut example of jurors violating the judge's admonition involved the decisions by two jurors to seek religious guidance as they struggled to weigh the factors for or against execution for Mr. al-'Owhali (The New York Times)
  
  
• Vatican warning on danger of 'online confession' | Warns that "ill-intentioned people such as hackers" may intercept confessions for purposes such as blackmail (The Times, London)
  
  
• Police prepare to evict rebel monks | Their crime: refusing to acknowledge the authority of the Eastern Orthodox leadership, which they blame for committing the ultimate sin of dealing with Roman Catholics (The Times, London)
  
  
• Churches, businesses receive rash of hate mail | FBI: Threatening letters are a federal crime (KMBC, Kansas City)

Sex abuse cases:

• Canada fights church's win in abuse case | Native residential schools: Government appeals Alberta ruling (The National Post)
  
  
• Bishop tells of shielding priests | McCormack says aide's plea ignored (The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Priest pleads no contest to sex abuse charges | Minister gets probation for touching parishioners  (Associated Press)

First Amendment:

• Inuit cleansing ceremony creates stir | A decision by Greenland's top civil servant to use an Inuit healer to chase away evil spirits in local government offices drew criticism from the Danish territory's political leaders (Associated Press)
  
  
• Free-speech dispute deepens chasm between Mormons and non-Mormons in Salt Lake City (Associated Press)
  
  
• Judges ponder kindergartner's role in free speech case | A federal appeals judge expressed frustration Thursday that a 9-year-old boy remains at the center of a lawsuit testing First Amendment issues (Associated Press)
  
  
• Civil rights group sues library, claiming policy violates 1st Amendment | Liberty Counsel says it was denied access to the public meeting room when it asked on two occasions to use it for a public discussion of "America's Christian heritage" (Tampa Tribune)
  
  
• Bible club v. school district | Virginia group files lawsuit on behalf of Monarch High students (Boulder [Colo.] Daily Camera)

City ordinances:

• Cedar Rapids may lift fortune telling ban | City staff decided it would be best to repeal the law because a court challenge based on freedom of religion might win (Associated Press)
  
  
• Amish preparing for battle over town's ban on horses | Families arguing that curbs deny them means of travel (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
  
  
• Also: Pa. Amish complain about zoning laws | Two Amish men cited for keeping horses on their properties (Associated Press)

Sexual ethics:

• Why some teens are putting off sex until marriage | The percentage of U.S. high school students who say they have had sexual intercourse has fallen from 54.1 percent in 1991 to 45.6 percent in 2001 (Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
  
  
• The secret war on condoms | Conservative groups in President Bush's support base have declared war on condoms, in a campaign that, if successful, could lead to millions of deaths from AIDS around the world (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times)

• Archbishop faces new threat over gay clergy | The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, faced a fresh threat to his authority yesterday after one of Australia's senior Church leaders joined critics of his liberal stance on homosexuality (The Daily Telegraph, London)
  
  

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January (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47