Thirteen embryonic stem-cell lines were approved for use by U.S.-funded researchers today, the first of hundreds of cell colonies that may become available under new polices promised by President Barack Obama. Stem cells taken from days-old human embryos can be kept alive indefinitely in solution, and have the ability to turn into about 200 cell... Continue Reading

Bowing to an outpouring of protests from residents, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors reversed a week-old rule Tuesday that had banned public displays, including Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, at the county courthouse. Supervisors voted 7 to 1 to allow community groups “equal access” to the courthouse grounds. The supervisor who voted to keep... Continue Reading

Until recently, Europeans, including Western Christians, had generally assumed that “the entire world is just as tolerant and indifferent to religion” as they are, an official of the Moscow Patriarchate points out, but for Muslims, Jews, and Eastern Christians, “religion occupies a place of first importance. But the Swiss vote to ban new minarets shows……that... Continue Reading

Rod Dreher is concerned about certain trends in law enforcement. He quotes Reul Marc Gerecht saying: “For the FBI, religion remains a much too sensitive subject, much more so than the threatening ideologies of yesteryear. Imagine if Maj. Hasan had been an officer during the Cold War, regularly expressing his sympathy for the Soviet Union... Continue Reading

According to a Kentucky Baptist Convention official, 2,587,995 Kentuckians “are lost without Christ.” Ross Bauscher, Evangelism Growth Team Leader for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, announced those figures at the convention’s annual meeting earlier in November. The context was a talk he gave promoting a major evangelistic campaign planned by the state’s largest denomination for early... Continue Reading

Of all the many venerable institutions in Tuscaloosa, Stillman College has one of the longest and proudest histories. Authorized by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States in 1875, what was to become Stillman held its first classes in 1876 and was chartered as a legal corporation by the state of... Continue Reading

Oregon’s prohibition on allowing teachers to exercise their faith by covering their heads or wearing other religious garb dates to a shameful anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant period in state history and is overdue to be changed, House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, said. Hunt plans to introduce a bill to repeal the 1923 law and says he is... Continue Reading

The Swiss vote to ban minarets reflects the fears of many Europeans but has tarnished the country’s reputation, many international commentators believe. “The irrational fear of Islam has struck once again in Europe,” said the French Libération newspaper in an editorial headed “Absurd”. “The ban on minarets has cast a sudden pall on the image... Continue Reading

For political analysts, the lesson in Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman’s loss in November in a special congressional election in New York is obvious: The right overreached. After pressuring Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava out of the race with charges that she was too liberal, conservative activists watched New York’s 23rd District go to a Democrat... Continue Reading

A Letter to the Editor of Wall Street Journal by Floyd Abrams. Abrams is an expert on constitutional law, and many arguments in the briefs he has written before the United States Supreme Court have been adopted as United States Constitutional interpretative. Regarding the Nov. 12 letter from Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley (“U.S.... Continue Reading