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Nigerian militants raid town, kill 48 Christians
Militants, reportedly Muslims, raided the dominantly Christian Nigerian town of Yelwa, in Plateau State, yesterday. Four dozen people, including women and children attempted to take refuge in a Church of Christ in Nigeria church. The militants, armed with guns and bows and arrows, killed them all.

The attack seems to be the latest in a series of Muslim-Christian attacks. Christians have not turned the other cheek in the renewed violence: a Christian militia earlier this month launched a retaliatory attack against a Muslim village, killing 10. The Lagos newspaper This Day reports, "not less than 117 men, women, children, and policemen have been brutally killed in renewed hostilities in the Southern part of the state in the last two weeks."

Kerry endorses Massachusetts constitutional amendment against gay marriage
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told The Boston Globe that he supports amending the Massachusetts constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman—so long as the amendment wouldn't rule out civil unions, with all the benefits of marriage.

"If the Massachusetts Legislature crafts an appropriate amendment that provides for partnership and civil unions, then I would support it, and it would advance the goal of equal protection," Kerry said.

It's news, but it's not necessarily new news. On Tuesday, CNN covered a Kerry press conference where he made much the same point. CNN came into the conference just as Kerry was saying, "Because I believe, as a matter of belief, that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's my belief.'

The follow-up question was unintelligible, but Kerry responded,

If the amendment provides for partnership and civil union, which I believe is the appropriate way to extend rights, that would be a good amendment. I think that you need to have civil union. That's my position. Everybody's known my position. There's nothing new about my position.

The Globe says that Kerry stressed "that he was referring only to the state, and not the federal, Constitution. … Kerry has said he opposed amending the US Constitution, because he believes the issue of marriage should be left to the states."

Indeed, today's Washington Times has an article on Kerry's stance that doesn't include this latest endorsement twist, but concentrates on his opposition to a federal marriage amendment, and to his 1996 opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act.

"I share the same opposition [to gay marriage], but I think it's absolutely wrong to ask for a federal constitutional amendment, when for 200 years the states have always had the right to take care of this," Kerry told the CBS Early Show. "They have the ability even today. They will take care of it. And I think [Bush is] doing this as a political wedge-driving strategy and not because it's necessary."

Miss our second helping?
We posted a big Weblog yesterday afternoon summarizing the Supreme Court's Locke v. Davey decision, and linking to 4,724,563 articles about The Passion of The Christ. If you missed it and only read our pre-Weblog about Ash Wednesday, it's here.

Gay 'marriage':

• Same-sex marriage splits state | California voters remain deeply split over gay marriages, yet they seem leery of changing the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, a poll released today shows (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Ca.)
  
  
• Activists push county on gay marriage issue | Infuriated by President Bush's "unprincipled attack against gay people and our families," activists did an about-face Wednesday—they shifted the battleground over gay marriage to the Cook County Board (Chicago Sun-Times)
  
  

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February (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48