Monday, March 19, 2007

New York Times (NY): The U.S. Supreme Court ponders the boundaries of free speech as it considers whether or not a high school had the right to discipline a student who displayed a banner that read: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." Many conservatives are backing the student's right to free speech, despite the seemingly pro-drug content, because they fear that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the administration's right to limit speech it could mean that schools would be justified in limiting religious viewpoints, especially against abortion and homosexuality.

Boston Globe (MA): All fundamentalisms, from Protestants reading the Bible uncritically to Roman Catholics reading papal statements uncritically, are dangerous.

TransWorldNew (GA): Should Christians become involved with politics?

Union College News
(KY): Philip Jenkins speaks about Christianity in the South (in the U.S.) and the circumstances that formed a unique relationship with the Bible. See Jenkins' book "The New Faces of Christianity: Believing in the Bible in the Global South."

Midland Daily News (MI): Many herbs we use today merit mention in the Bible. A detail of references from the Bible to such herbs as dill, thyme, coriander, leeks, hyssop, mint and more.

The Age (Australia): The televangelists couple Tim and Tammy Faye Bakker of Brazil are being charged with smuggling $9,000 cash from the U.S. concealed in a Bible, casting a shadow on their careers as preachers of the "prosperity gospel."

Ekklesia (UK): Giles Fraser: What was remarkable about Christian abolitionists like William Wilberforce and John Newton "is that they fought their society’s prejudice, as well as the uncritical biblical theology that reflected it."

Inside Bay Area (CA): The debate over adding a course on the Bible in a California school district continues as teachers object that they do not have time in their school day to teach students about the complexities of religion while other community members counter that a course on the Bible would help students make "better moral decisions."

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