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The apostle Paul could not be reached for comment.

The case now heads back to the lower courts for trial.

Politics and law:

• Constitution:  Religion in, enlightenment out | After many a heated debate on the Convention floor, the preamble of the E.U. Constitution now reads: "[The E.U.] … Draws inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, which, always present in its heritage, has embedded within the life of society its perception of the central role of the human person and his inviolable and inalienable rights, and of respect for law" (EU Observer)
  
  
• Also: Constitutional wrangling enters last phase | The most recent text, presented yesterday by Convention president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has come in for some heavy criticism (EU Observer)
  
  
• Rights debate over Sabbath working | Councilors in the Western Isles have been told they may be breaking human rights legislation by not allowing some businesses to operate on Sundays (BBC)
  
  
• What would Jesus do? Sock it to Alabama's corporate landowners | Alabama's Republican governor thinks he can convince the voters that Christian theology calls for a tax system that is fairer to the poor (Adam Cohen, The New York Times)
  
  
• Promote govt agenda, church told | President Yoweri Museveni has urged the Church to actively promote government programmes for development (New Vision, Kampala, Uganda)
  
  
• Also: Bishops have right to speak | It is impossible to divorce religion from politics because churches do not operate in a vacuum (Editorial, The Monitor, Kampala, Uganda)
  
  
• Peers' alarm over religious law reforms | Old common law offences, including blasphemy, were examined by the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences to see if they should be scrapped or updated (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Persecution:

• St. Paul pastor arrested in Laos | A Hmong pastor from St. Paul and two European journalists have been arrested in Laos while trying to document human rights abuses and religious persecution that advocates say the Hmong and Lao are suffering at the hands of the communist government (Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.)
  
  
• Also: St. Paul pastor, 2 journalists detained in Laos (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
  
  
• Jailed Chinese pastor is suffering after beatings, his relatives say | The jailed leader of an evangelical Christian sect has severe health problems as a result of beatings and mistreatment in prison (The New York Times)

Faith-based initiative:

• Too much faith in faith | Americans aren't as supportive of the faith-based initiative as the Bush administration would have us believe (Susan Jacoby, Newsday)
  
  
• Faith-based talk—where's the action? | Bush still talks about his faith-based initiative. But when the big money is divvied up, almost all of it goes to tax cuts, mostly for the wealthiest Americans (E. J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post)
  
  
• On a crusade: Miami's mayor wants to help poor | Perhaps more than any other mayor in Miami-Dade County, Manny Diaz has embraced President Bush's controversial faith-based initiative by reaching out to religious groups to help Miami deal with its growing social problems (The Miami Herald)

Church and state:

• Supreme Court's 1963 school-prayer decision didn't ban school prayer | Schempp case, far from 'kicking God out of school,' said kids can pray but not be led or forced in prayer by public schools (Charles Haynes, First Amendment Center)
  
  

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June (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47