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There are hundreds of other stories that can and should be done on forced conversions. This isn't a "conservative" issue. It's a human rights issue that gets to the core of what it means to be human. This subject belongs on the front page, not just the op-ed page.

2. Is it over yet?
Last week, it looked like the debate over religious imagery had ended at Bridgeport High School in West Virginia. The Head of Christ painting had been stolen, leading the board of education to drop its objection to a lawsuit against it. The moral of the story: If you don't like something, steal it.

Maybe this is the epilogue, or maybe just the newest chapter. Students on Friday donated a mirror to replace the Head of Christ painting. At the bottom of the mirror was a brass plate: "To know the will of God is the highest of all wisdoms. The love of Jesus Christ lives in each of us." The school put up the mirror, but removed the plate within three and a half hours of its hanging. At least one school board member says the plate removal was unauthorized and violated students' rights.

"I don't understand why the board wasn't consulted and why they'd do what the ACLU says to do," Mike Queen said. "But if the lawyers say take it down, I guess we have to take it down. But at some point we have to stop apologizing for being Christians and step up to the plate and do the right thing."

3. A KOCE deal
For those of you just joining the extremely long KOCE story, here's the short version. A community college district put its television station up for sale. The highest bidder was Daystar, a Christian network. The district instead sold the station to a foundation for $18 million less than Daystar's $40 million offer, saying the foundation was the "highest responsible bidder." Daystar sued and won, then won again. California's Fourth District Court of Appeal voided the sale, calling it "the rankest form of favoritism." And now the update: The college district got the California legislature to pass a bill allowing the sale to the foundation for the lower price. "The community college district didn't follow the law, and now they're asking us to change the law to authorize this sale and steal $20 million from these community college students," Assemblyman Ray Haynes complained. "It's wrong. It ought not happen, and it particularly shouldn't happen this way."

4. Managing conflict
Rick Warren's "purpose-driven movement is dividing the country's more than 50 million evangelicals," The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. "Some evangelicals … say it's inappropriate for churches to use growth tactics akin to modern management tools, including concepts such as researching the church 'market' and writing mission statements. Others say it encourages simplistic Bible teaching. Anger over the adoption of Mr. Warren's methods has driven off older Christians from their longtime churches. Congregations nationwide have split or expelled members who fought the changes, roiling working-class Baptist congregations and affluent nondenominational churches."

As that paragraph indicates, Suzanne Sataline's front-page story in some ways conflates Warren's "purpose-driven" specifics with the general church growth approach that has been around for decade. The story itself is full of interesting anecdotes and specifics, including some very sad details about the ways in which churches split. But it also gives too much credence to the accusation that Warren's approach is more therapeutic than evangelistic. "His sermons rarely linger on self-denial and fighting sin, instead focusing on healing modern American angst, such as troubled marriages and stress," Sataline writes. That Warren's approach is too anthropocentric is a bit of an odd charge against someone whose best-selling book begins, "It's not about you."

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September (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50