[1]
Michigan Scout Funding
A Boy Scouts chapter in Michigan received more than enough money from concerned citizens to offset funds withheld by the local United Way. In response to the Boy Scouts' refusal to appoint homosexuals as troop leaders, the Allegan County United Way opted to withhold $3,500 from the Gerald R. Ford Scout Council in Grand Rapids. Since then, however, pro-family groups and citizens have sent the Scouts more than $5,000.
Among the contributors were Save Our Scouts (a Utah-based group formed in response to backlash against the Boy Scouts of America's policy to exclude homosexual leaders) and the American Family Association of Michigan.
Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, commented, "Financially, certainly they have received appropriate support for their defense of the best interests of young men. And as a matter of principle and philosophy, we're convinced that the overwhelming majority of citizens in West Michigan support the Boy Scouts of America, as we think families do all across America."
[2]AgapePress, January 26, 2001
"Get over it. Why can't a woman be depicted as Christ? Nothing is sacred." – Photographer Renee Cox responding to criticism of her photograph, "Yo Mama's Last Supper." The photograph portrays Jesus attending the Last Supper as a naked woman. The work began to receive criticism when it first appeared in the publicly funded, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Among Cox's other works, Christ has been portrayed on the cross, castrated, and dressed as a nun with naked women kneeling before him in prayer.
Baptist Press, February 19, 2001
Jesus Freaks
U.S. News & World Report reports that in March Atlanta billionaire Ted Turner referred to CNN workers with Ash Wednesday ashes on their foreheads as "Jesus freaks." He continued, saying that Christianity is "a religion for losers" and mocked Italians and Poles.
U.S. News & World Report, March 19, 2001
School Prayer
A Gallup poll recently found that the majority of Americans still favor several forms of prayer in school. Seventy-two percent of those surveyed favor using school facilities for religious groups after school. Sixty-six percent favor daily prayer in the classroom, and 80 percent favor graduation speech prayers.
U.S. News & World Report, March 12, 2001
"It will be like giving the household seal of approval. What is currently a crime will be transformed into medical treatment." – Rita Marker, executive director of the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, commenting on the legalization of euthanasia in the Netherlands.
A bill passed by the Dutch parliament late last year allows physicians to administer "mercy killings" under circumstances of unremitting and unbearable suffering. After approval by the Senate, "mercy killings" will be officially government-sanctioned in the Netherlands.
Formerly, the practice was illegal. In 1993, however, the Dutch adopted euthanasia guidelines by which it was understood that doctors would not be prosecuted for euthanasia although it technically remained a crime punishable by up to twelve years in prison. The new legislation makes law of the former practice of dismissing by ignoring.
CNN.com, November 28, 2000