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Bush sounded a similar note. "Across the town of Blacksburg and in towns all across America, houses of worship from every faith have opened their doors and have lifted you up in prayer," he said. "People who have never met you are praying for you; they're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There's a power in these prayers, real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God. As the Scriptures tell us, 'Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'"

These are just a few of the faith tidbits appearing in the media so far. Christianity Today has a reporter in Blacksburg and will be looking for other news about campus ministry, the church, and what God is doing at Virginia Tech.

2. Supreme Court supports ban on partial-birth abortion
The government has a "legitimate, substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote today for the five-justice majority upholding the federal government's 2003 ban on partial-birth abortion. "The government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman."

But this won't save lives, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg responded in her dissent: "The law saves not a single fetus from destruction, for it targets only a method of performing abortion." (Strange bedfellows: The American Life League made the same claim in its 2003 "no compromise" dismissal of the ban.) The ban and the court's decision, Ginsburg said, "cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court — and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."

And yet, Roe and the Supreme Court's later rulings on abortion have always allowed limitations on that right in theory. In this case, Kennedy wrote, the ban's opponents "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases." Nor is it "void for vagueness, or that it imposes an undue burden on a woman's right to abortion based on its overbreadth or lack of a health exception."

We'll have an original reaction story on the decision shortly. In the meantime, be sure to read our editorial (most of which was originally written to address South Dakota's abortion ban). National Review's editorial is remarkable as well: "Four justices on the Supreme Court have accepted all the premises for a constitutional right to infanticide. They lack only the nerve to take their reasoning to its logical conclusion."

3. Christian publishing house attacked in Turkey; three workers' throats slit
From the Associated Press: "Assailants tied up three people at a publishing house that distributes Bibles in Turkey and then slit their throats Wednesday, adding to a string of attacks apparently targeting the country's tiny Christian minority." The BBC adds, citing unnamed local media: "Nationalists had protested at the publishing house in the past, accusing it of involvement in missionary activities." A German national was among the victims.

4. Zimbabwe deregisters all aid groups to fight "agents of imperialism"
Not much good news out of Zimbabwe. One exception: A prayer rally to pray for democracy occurred without violence. But that happened only after police forbade opposition figures from addressing the congregation. At another recent rally, lead opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was severely beaten by police and hospitalized. Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe praised the police for "bashing" those who attended the "illegal" prayer rally.

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April (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51