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• Bush on God | Quotes from the President. (St. Petersburg Times, Fla.)
• King's Legacy: Black church re-emerges as a pivotal force | As we celebrate the anniversary of Dr. King's birth, the black church is again particularly pivotal. Why? The black church stands as one of the few institutions that can speak both to left and right. (Dallas Morning News)
• We're a nation of religious illiterates | The sociologist Peter Berger once remarked that if India is the most religious country in the world and Sweden the least, then the United States is a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes. Not anymore. With a Jesus lover in the Oval Office and a faith-based party in control of both houses of Congress, the United States is undeniably a nation of believers ruled by the same. (Stephen Prothero, Los Angeles Times via Tallahassee Democrat)
• O come, all ye faithful | Those Dems are getting religion. On Wednesday, the very liberal Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) went to the National Press Club and proclaimed the need for Democrats to talk more about values and said it was useful that a Democratic candidate "talked about God." (Washington Post)
• Supporter of abortion rights is choice for Republican job | Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, has asked an Ohio Republican who supports some abortion rights to be his co-chairman, stirring the ire of social conservatives. (New York Times)
• The man who puts words in the President's mouth defends his style | Michael Gerson, President Bush's 40-year-old speechwriter, had a mild heart attack in mid-December that put him in intensive care for two days. The timing could not have been worse for Mr. Gerson: it was the height of speechwriting season, and Mr. Bush's second Inaugural Address and 2005 State of the Union address were menacingly close. (New York Times)

Judge allows prayer at inauguration:

• Judge refuses to ban prayer at swearing-in | Ruling says Bush may invite ministers to speak despite church-state divide (Washington Post)
• Judge denies bid to block inaugural prayer | An atheist who tried to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance lost a bid Friday to bar the saying of a Christian prayer at President Bush's inauguration. (Associated Press)

Religious hatred cited in murder of New Jersey Coptic couple:

• Mourners link religious feud to 4 slayings | Two days after an Egyptian immigrant family was found bound and stabbed to death in their Jersey City home, hundreds of mourners gathered at the family's church yesterday, many chanting for justice and decrying the killings as a crime of religious hatred. The case has taken on a life of its own, threatening to localize a centuries-old schism between Egyptian Muslims and Coptic Christians. (New York Times)
• Relatives sadly arrange funeral for slain family | Relatives of a slain Coptic Orthodox family on Sunday prepared for funeral and burial services as authorities continued to investigate the brutal killings (The Record and Herald News, N.J.)
• Coptic Christians and Muslims in U.S. distrust each other | In Egypt, they lived as a Christian religious minority in a predominately Muslim country. That, along with economic troubles in Egypt, is what led many Coptic Christians to immigrate over the last 40 years to the United States, where several hundred thousand now live, mostly in New Jersey, New York and California. (Newhouse News Service)

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January (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49