Would Roberts recuse himself on some matters of morality?
Everyone waiting for an armageddon over a Supreme Court nomination was disappointed. GetReligion's Terry Mattingly thought he heard a bomb drop when Chuck Colson said Christian conservatives were talking about forming a third party if Edith Clement had been named instead of John Roberts.

But Roberts was named, not Clement, so even if it had been a bomb, it's a dud.

Monday's Los Angeles Times contained an opinion piece by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. Consensus today seems to be that it, too, is a dud—unless it backfires on Democrats. Turley wrote:

According to two people who attended the meeting [with senators last week], Roberts was asked by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) what he would do if the law required a ruling that his church considers immoral. Roberts is a devout Catholic and is married to an ardent pro-life activist. The Catholic Church considers abortion to be a sin, and various church leaders have stated that government officials supporting abortion should be denied religious rites such as Communion. (Pope Benedict XVI is often cited as holding this strict view of the merging of a person's faith and public duties).

Renowned for his unflappable style in oral argument, Roberts appeared nonplused and, according to sources in the meeting, answered after a long pause that he would probably have to recuse himself.

Turley said Roberts "could now face difficult questions of fitness raised not only by the Senate but by his possible colleague, Justice Antonin Scalia." Turley seems to think the remark could disqualify Roberts entirely. "A judge's personal religious views should have no role in the interpretation of the laws," he says. "None of this means that Roberts is unfit due to his faith. But in the end, the Senate is left a question that seems to grow each day: Who is John Roberts?"

"Turley defines the issues so vaguely that he can't see how rare and hypothetical a case this would be," responds National Review Online's Ramesh Ponnuru. "If the law were such that a judge would be implicated in the evil (stipulated for this post) of abortion or capital punishment—perhaps the judge would have to rule in a way that forced someone to have an abortion—then a question of recusal or civil disobendience from the bench would arise. But we are very far from having such unjust laws."

National Review Online's Andy McCarthy says the law clearly refutes Turley's conclusions: "Evidence of the beliefs or opinions of a witness on matters of religion is not admissible for the purpose of showing that by reason of their nature the witness' credibility is impaired or enhanced," say the Rules of Evidence.

(Bill Dyer of BeldarBlog has a detailed reply. Ann Althouse discusses the scenario in light of Scalia's speech on Catholic judges and the death penalty. Edward Whelan calls it "nonsense on stilts." The Catholic League's Bill Donohue says he's " angry at … Durbin for asking these questions, and at Roberts for his replies." The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins is just upset with Durbin, and says his question amounts to an unconstitutional religious test for office.)

Denial
Today the war is less between Roberts and his critics than it is between Durbin and Turley. "Jonathan Turley's column is not accurate," Durbin press secretary Joe Shoemaker told The Washington Times. The Times says Shoemaker also said "that his boss never asked that question and Judge Roberts never said he would recuse himself in such a case."

Turley reiterated that he had two sources for the exchange. They were, he said, none other than Durbin and Shoemaker.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn told The New York Times he talked with Roberts about the column.

"I hate bringing this up, but since someone else already has and I know it is going to come up, is there anything about your faith or religious views that would prevent you from deciding issues like the death penalty of abortion or the like?" he says he asked.

"Absolutely not," Roberts reportedly replied.

Other recusal concerns?
It seems unlikely, then, that the Turley issue will be raised in the confirmation hearings. But might recusal questions have some staying power, especially since they became a rallying point for religious conservatives who opposed an appointment of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to the Supreme Court? There the question was not on church-state relations, but on Gonzales's job as White House counsel and attorney general and the obligations of Section 455 of Title 28 of the United States Code.

One might be wondering, since Roberts served as special assistant to U.S. attorney general, associate counsel to the president, and deputy solicitor general, doesn't he face the same recusal issues that Gonzales did? Doesn't Roberts's now-famous brief that said, "We continue to believe that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled," mean he'd have to recuse himself in any case that might overturn Roe? (The law says a judge must recuse himself "where he has served in governmental employment and in such capacity participated as counsel, adviser, or material witness concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy.")

Why is no one talking about this? For pro-lifers and Republicans, the answer may be that they don't want to see Roberts recuse himself, or to see questions raised about his ability to serve. Democrats, meanwhile, don't want to draw attention to 28USC455 because they're trying to get him to say directly where he stands on abortion. Roberts isn't saying because of 28USC455—the law is the basis by which appointees have maintained their silence on Roe and other decisions, and it's why Justice Scalia recused himself from last year's Pledge of Allegiance case.

But Ethics and Public Policy president Ed Whelan, who led the charge against Gonzales on the recusal front, says there's nothing to worry about.

"Gonzales's recusal obligations were uniquely severe," he said in an e-mail to Christianity Today Online. "Roberts probably would not have any recusal obligations under 455(b)(3), since it is very likely that any proceedings he took part in as an executive-branch employee (in January 1993 at the latest) have long since terminated. Nor would he have the sort of recusal obligations at the core of 455(a), since, unlike Gonzales, he would not be reviewing the legality of conduct (in the war on terror, for example) that he had specifically advised on or approved. … The fact that Roberts co-authored a brief in a case 16 or so years ago that included a statement about Roe would not require him to recuse from any case involving Roe."

Whelan is the expert. We'll trust him that Roberts won't have to recuse himself. Turns out there's nothing exciting about the Roberts nomination after all.

More articles

More on John Roberts:

• Anti-abortion advocacy of wife of court nominee draws interest | Mrs. Roberts has led an independent and unapologetic life that defies any attempt at pigeonholing (The New York Times)
  
  
• Santorum: Mrs. Roberts' work not relevant | "My wife has opinions on things that may or may conform with mine and I think most couples are in that situation," Santorum said on NBC's "Today" show (Associated Press)
  
  
• Nominee supported by a majority in poll | But 64 percent want judge to state his views on key issues such as abortion (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Opponents of nominee taking populist tack | Critics of John Roberts Jr. for high court justice are talking economics, not abortion rights (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• The great conservative hope | Make Roberts talk (Thomas Oliphant, The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Pro-lifers are selling out | America has fallen so far that our national pro-family organizations will fight to confirm a man who so recently defended a genocide philosophy (Jefferson George, The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.)
  
  

Supreme Court:

• Supreme modesty | The highest court isn't as powerful as its critics and champions suppose (Jeffrey Rosen, The New York Times Magazine)
  
  
• Sex and the Supremes | Why the Court's next big battle may be about gay rights (Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker)
  
  
• If high court overturns Roe v. Wade, decision would undermine the GOP | The problem for Republicans is that it would throw the issue back into the arena of legislators who have to face the voters (Michael Hill, The Baltimore Sun)
  
  

Life ethics:

• Abortion pill deaths puzzle officials | Federal health investigators are baffled: Why have four California women died from a bloodstream infection after using a controversial abortion pill? (Associated Press)
  
  
• Stem cell bill, once seen as a sure thing, is now mired in uncertainty | It's is tangled up in a procedural dispute that will probably delay a vote until fall — and could wind up killing the bill, its chief Republican backer said (The New York Times)
  
  
• Judge orders transfusion for Fla. boy | A judge has overruled a mother's religious objections and ordered a blood transfusion for a 12-year-old boy who is battling sickle cell anemia (Associated Press)
  
  
• Half premature babies survive at 23 weeks | Almost half of babies born prematurely at 23 weeks now survive, according to research that undermines a central plank of the abortion law (The Times, London)
  
  
• My abortion would have spared my mother | Remember the agony of mothers who give birth to the afflicted (Michael Read, The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
  
  
• The organ factory | The case for harvesting older human embryos (William Saletan, Slate)
  
  
• Christians and the death penalty | What kind of justice can a Christian allow modern democracies to claim for themselves? (Joseph Bottum, First Things)
  
  

Politics:

• Dobson keeps focus on the fight | Champion of Christian right sets his sights, political clout on battle over courts (Rocky Mountain News)
  
  
• Where the Right is right | Liberals should be embarrassed that it's the Christian Right that is taking the lead in spotlighting repression in North Korea (Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times)
  
  
• Christian group vows to counter religious right | Maryland Christians for Justice and Peace is the latest of such groups (Associated Press)
  
  
• Spiritual progressives need to listen to numerous sides | Network tries to build a truly inclusive movement (Byron Williams, WorkingforChange.com)
  
  
• Critics: State efforts intrude on family life | New initiatives aim to promote better parenting (Lansing State Journal, Mi.)
  
  
• Terry brings activism to Florida Senate campaign | Randall Terry still opposes abortion and homosexuality. But the longtime Christian activist says he's no longer the in-your-face activist who drew headlines in the 1980s and 1990s leading protests outside abortion clinics and getting arrested more than 40 times (Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fla.)
  
  
• South Dakota gets 15 federal grants for faith-based programs | During its fiscal year 2004, the federal government awarded $2 billion nationwide through 151 federal programs at six federal agencies to grantees that it considers faith-based and community organizations, according to the White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives (Associated Press)
  
  
• Christians gather on steps of Capitol to pray for state | Efforts aimed against poverty and abortion (The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.)
  
  
• Santorum book keeps 2008 White House talk alive | One of the more ideologically and outspoken conservative members of the Senate, Santorum argues that fostering a culture in which the traditional family -- a married man and woman with children -- is preferable to government intervention as a way to replenish what he sees as America's dwindling stocks of social, moral and cultural capital (Reuters)
  
  
• Christian conservatives find a common crusade | The U.K. lobby groups uniting over homosexuality and abortion (The Times, London)
  
  
• Politics & prayer | An influential Langley-based 'family values' group is taking its message to Ottawa, where roughly half the Tory MPs are religious social conservatives, and others sit as Liberals and New Democrats (Vancouver Sun)
  
  

Church and state:

• Pa. pilgrims join exodus to South Carolina | Evangelicals want a biblically governed state (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  
  
• L.A. won't foot bill for pastor's honor | The City Council names an intersection after the Rev. Frederick K.C. Price but doesn't waive fees for event because of his views on gays (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Boy Scouts gather under legal cloud | The temporary village, created every four years at Fort A.P. Hill since 1981, is in jeopardy because a federal judge recently ruled that the Pentagon can no longer financially support the event (Associated Press)
  
  

Religious liberty:

• Priest accused of conversion arrested in Madhya Pradesh | Some tribal parents complained that his school was charging higher admission fees from non-Christians (Sify, India)
  
  
• Festival comics will defy religious gag | Outbursts of blasphemy will dominate the Edinburgh Festival fringe this summer - at least if a large contingent of stand-up comedians have their way (The Observer, London)
  
  
• Churchgoer loses Sunday appeal | A devout Christian who lost his job after refusing to work on Sundays has lost the latest round of his legal fight with his former employer (BBC)
  
  
• Also: Christian loses Sunday working appeal | A devout Christian who claimed he was sacked for refusing to work on Sundays lost his legal fight with his former employer today (PA, U.K.)
  
  

Social justice:

• For Zimbabwe's displaced, returning home to rubble | Many shun resettlement camps and tentatively rebuild (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Dominion over the Earth | There's a lot of ground to cover in caring for God's creation (Bill Tammeus, The Kansas City Star)
  
  

Prostitution:

• The question of rescue | The leading advocate for prostitutes in Cambodia has little patience for aid groups that seek to liberate them from their work (The New York Times Magazine)
  
  
• Prostitution puts U.S. and Brazil at odds on AIDS policy | Brazil has decided to forgo up to $40 million in AIDS assistance rather than comply with a demand that it condemn prostitution (The New York Times)
  
  

Crime:

• Police say priest could be behind bishop killing | Source says the priest had recently differed with the bishop after he (the priest) was asked to return a vehicle he bought for his parish (The East African Standard, Kenya)
  
  
• Also: Police close in on Isiolo bishop killers | Police are closing in on the killers of Isiolo Catholic Bishop Luigi Locati. Sources close to the investigation told the Sunday Nation that a suspect has confessed hiring five killers at Sh10,000 each to kill the Bishop (The Nation, Nairobi)
  
  
• Man gets up to 15 years in assault with Bible | Charles E. Averill says a relationship based on drugs contributed to him viciously assaulting his former live-in girlfriend on Halloween, possibly with a Bible (The Saginaw News, Mi.)
  
  

Abuse:

• Journalist sues Iowa archdiocese for abuse | An NBC News correspondent has accused the Catholic archdiocese in Iowa of covering up sexual abuse he suffered while an altar boy (Associated Press)
  
  
• Man who protested at Mass is charged | Prosecutors filed misdemeanor charges Friday against a man who handcuffed himself to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's chair during a recent Sunday Mass to protest the archdiocese's handling of the priest sex abuse scandal (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• The Wisconsin and New Hampshire supreme courts rule against clergy abuse victims | Two decisions that illustrate why the law in this area must change (Marci Hamilton, FindLaw.com)
  
  
• 6 new sex-abuse claims brought to Davenport diocese | They are among the first claims brought to the diocese since it paid $9 million to settle 37 civil claims in October, and include two priests not previously named by the diocese and believed to be deceased (Quad-Cities Times, Davenport, Ia.)
  
  

Catholicism:

• Catholic congregation doesn't fault father over son | A Whittier pastor has the support of his parish after it is revealed that he has a 12-year-old son (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Also: Priest and his son are bound by poverty | A Whittier pastor fends off a woman's legal bid for more money to raise their sick child (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Parishioners seek to save church, keep Latin Mass | As parishioners struggle to save the Holy Trinity Church in the South End from closing, they say they are both fighting the loss of their spiritual home and resisting the possible demise of a tradition found nowhere else in the Archdiocese of Boston -- the Latin Mass (The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Local woman to be ordained priest in unsanctioned Catholic service | Marie David, a Cape Cod innkeeper, is taking her vestments and her family to Canada to participate in a renegade ordination ceremony, led by a group of women whose own participation in an unsanctioned ordination ceremony three years ago led to their excommunication by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Catholic dissent over mystery of the pregnant Madonnas | Italian author claims paintings are linked to suppression of Knights Templar (The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Inland diocese to get first married priest | The pope approved the ordination of Gregory Elder (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Ca.)
  
  

Denver Post's "Far from Rome" series:

• Introduction: Far from Rome | One parish. Five families. A look at Catholics at the crossroads (The Denver Post)
  
  
• For a church insider, an outsider's status | To Brigid Mosley, the church is like a team, and you do what the coach says (The Denver Post)
  
  
• A faith interrupted by circumstances | For a mom, three gay sons led to a journey of self discovery and spiritual certainty (The Denver Post)
  
  
• A woman asks: Do I belong? | Thoy Smith keeps the faith, even though a painful truth can't be overlooked (The Denver Post)
  
  
• A marriage failed, a faith renewed | Divorced? No problem. But a church ruling affecting his new marriage could be. (The Denver Post)
  
  
• For two newcomers, fellowship over rules | A desire to have their faith challenged takes couple on a spiritual exploration (The Denver Post)
  
  
• Church's future: Does it lie in the past? | Some want return to Celtic church (The Denver Post)
  
  
• A global truth, a local view | At one church, a priest helps the faithful guide themselves (The Denver Post)
  
  
• An ocean away, old rules clash with modern sensibilities | Once in America the faithful knew just what to do. (The Denver Post)
  
  

Pope Benedict XVI and terror:

• Pope prays for God to stop terrorists | Pope Benedict XVI prayed Sunday for God to stop the "murderous hand" of terrorists, stepping up his condemnation of the recent attacks in Europe and the Middle East blamed on Islamic extremists (Associated Press)
  
  
• Pope terror 'snub' angers Israel | Israel has summoned the Vatican's ambassador to explain why the Pope left the country off a list of those recently hit by terrorism (BBC)
  
  
• Israel angry at pope over terror comments | Pope Benedict XVI faced the first major conflict of his 3-month-old papacy when Israel summoned the Vatican envoy Monday to express outrage that the pope "deliberately failed" to condemn terrorist attacks against Israelis (Associated Press)
  
  

Christians and Jews:

• Papal benediction | For centuries one of the reverberating issues in contemporary Western civilization has been the relationship between the Vatican and the Jewish people. What now of Pope Benedict XVI? (Arnold Beichman, The Washington Times)
  
  
• The rabbi who loved evangelicals (and vice versa) | Yechiel Eckstein is an Orthodox rabbi and a registered Democrat, so why has he built an empire for Jewish causes on the contributions of Red State born-again Christians? (Zev Chafets, The New York Times Magazine)
  
  

Christianity and Islam:

• Christians face jail for giving treats to children of Muslims | Three Indonesian housewives face up to five years in prison for allegedly trying to lure Muslim children into Christianity at a Sunday School "Happy Week" (The Times, London)
  
  
• U.S. guards said to stop abusing Quran | An Afghan man released from Guantanamo Bay said he saw guards throwing the Quran, but all such abuse stopped late last year after a loudspeaker announcement that U.S. soldiers have no right to touch Islam's holy book (Associated Press)
  
  
• Fundamentally speaking | Muslims who preach hate are to be deported and subject to new restrictions, Charles Clarke announced in the Commons on Wednesday. So what would the home secretary have to say about stuff like this: "Blessed is he who takes your little children and smashes their heads against the rocks"? (Giles Fraser, The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Lords to rule on Muslim clothes | The case of a girl excluded from school for wearing Muslim dress is set to be heard in the House of Lords (The Times, London)
  
  
• Bigger sins than offending | By now, many people in America - and likely around the world - are familiar with my statements regarding a possible response to a nuclear attack on U.S. cities by fundamentalist Islamic terrorists (Tom Tancredo, The Denver Post)
  
  
• Also: Tancredo's crusade and its costs | No serious Christian theologian can endorse what is obviously an immoral threat against another faith. Tancredo is drawing encouragment from the small percentage of Americans who have fallen into the erroneous belief that all of Islam is arrayed against the West (Hugh Hewitt)
  
  

Missions & ministry:

• Volunteers not welcomed by all | Migrant aid splits S. Ariz. Town (Arizona Daily Star)
  
  
• Faith-based programs help inmates' families | When a person goes to prison, the family also does prison time (Reno Gazette-Journal, Nev.)
  
  
• Growing devotions | Diverse religions bring needs for more facilities and community outreach (The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Ca.)
  
  

Church life:

• Dislodging of old church causes unholy uproar in Coryell County | The removal of an old church in Coryell County from the rock of its foundation some 146 years after its establishment is shaking the rural community of Eagle Springs (Waco Tribune-Herald, Tex.)
  
  
• 'Mega-churches' evoking hostility | After two years of hearings, an application by Church of the Hills for a use variance was turned down by the Bedminster Board of Adjustment in May. The church's response: sue (Courier News, Bridgewater, N.J.)
  
  
• Sale of a chapel pits some parishioners against pastor | The trouble began in October, after the summer worshipers left town. It was then that Msgr. Richard P. LaRocque announced that Our Lady of Good Counsel would be sold (The New York Times)
  
  
• Extremism puts church at risk | I am an outspoken advocate of conservatives remaining in mainline churches, but UCC leaders are making it more difficult by marketing the church through advertising and headline pronouncements (Robert M. Thompson, The Charlotte Observer)
  
  
• Also: Church role is to welcome all | The reports of the death of liberal Protestantism have been wildly exaggerated (Warren Goldstein, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.)
  
  
• Churches mix spirituality and summer fun | Fewer churches offer Bible schools, but those that do see the relaxed venue as a way for youths to grow in faith (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Diocese goes green | Congregations in Herefordshire and South Shropshire are taking immediate steps to avert climate change by embarking on an energy saving scheme developed for the diocese (The Birmingham Post, U.K.)
  
  
• Movement spurns the megachurch model | Stripped-down Christianity is the goal of the decade-old "emerging church" movement that spurns the model of jumbo congregations, corporate-sized staffs and choreographed services (The Virginian-Pilot, Hampton Roads, Va.)
  
  
• Churches grapple with thorny issue of men who stay home on Sundays | Women outnumber men by a 3-to-2 ratio in the pews (Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.)
  
  
• Also: Christian guys' night out: spiritual rock 'n' renewal | Praise the Lord and pass the testosterone. (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland)
  
  
• Borrowing sermon ideas | I was astonished to read Craig Brian Larson's article, "Plagiarism, Shmagiarism," on the PreachingToday.com Web site reporting that some pastors don't have a problem with preaching someone else's sermon without giving credit (Shirley Ragsdale, Des Moines Register, Ia.)
  
  
• Praise the Lord - and pass the popcorn | Movie theaters are just the ticket as an alternative to traditional church buildings (The Baltimore Sun)
  
  
• Calvary pastor to leave church | About 2,200 members attend the Pentecostal services at Calvary Assembly in Winter Park on an average Sunday morning (The Orlando Sentinel)
  
  
• South Florida megachurches are setting up satellites | With an instant congregation of 700, Christ Fellowship seemed big when it sprang into existence in Wellington last August. Since then, though, it's more than doubled -- to about 1,500 a week (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
  
  
• Q&A with Brian McLaren | "There's nothing wrong with the old kind" of Christian, he says (The Dallas Morning News)
  
  
• Board addresses racist remarks | Some Unitarians assumed youth of were hotel service people (Religion News Service)
  
  
• Questions for Phillip Aspinall | New head of the Australian Anglican Church Phillip Aspinall tells Sarah Price about the challenges to come. 'People are not to be exploited, especially the most vulnerable' (The Sun-Herald, Australia)
  
  
• Kenyan pastor a face of Christianity in Africa | Christianity is on the rise in Africa, with more than 400 million adherents. Much of the growth has been in unaffiliated churches. At the Neno Evangelism Center in Nairobi, Pastor James Ng'ang'a preaches to overflow crowds (Weekend Edition, NPR)
  
  

Sexual ethics and family:

• Gay clergy can 'marry' but no sex | The Church of England will today give its blessing to gay clergy who want to enter into civil partnerships (The Times, London)
  
  
• Presbyterians issue draft report on gay debate | Task force urges church to reject simple solutions (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
  
  
• Lautenschlager's impartiality questioned | Attorney general spoke at gay pride rally (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
  
  
• ''Til death do us part' is dying out | Vows like "For as long as we continue to love each other," "For as long as our love shall last" and "Until our time together is over" are increasingly replacing the traditional to-the-grave vow — a switch that some call realistic and others call a recipe for failure (Fox News)
  
  

Religious education:

• Let's banish God from the classroom | Religious Education lessons are badly taught and fail to instill faith and tolerance. They should be axed, (Chris Woodhead, The Times, London)
  
  
• Keeping faith in secular schools | The system works well (Editorial, The Sydney Morning Herald)
  
  
• School worship: from sports to death | Sport, politics and terror attacks might seem odd subjects for religious contemplation by young people, but they were all recently recommended as the focus of collective worship in schools (BBC)
  
  

Higher education:

• The good news | Nick Paumgarten visits King's College, the city's only evangelical college (The New Yorker)
  
  
• Fundamentalist Bob Jones U. loosens up, but just a little bit | The turnover of university leadership positions, moving much younger people into the top posts, "won't change the way we view the world, but may provide a greater awareness of how others perceive us," says vice president Gary Weier (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  
  
• Matters of faith | Faculty members at the Air Force Academy understand that combating religious intolerance is important on the campus. Give them time to help students sort it out, writes Barry S. Fagin, a professor of computer science and president of the U.S. Air Force Academy Faculty Forum (The Chronicle of Higher Education, sub. req'd.)
  
  
• Pepito's comedic legacy | Tucked in a tiny back room in the basement of the Biola University library is a very strange collection that's about to be auctioned (San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Ca.)
  
  
• Professor's program honors C.S. Lewis | Foundation sponsors studying abroad program combining academic, faith (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Ontario, Ca.)
  
  

Evolution:

• New professor finds science seriously fun | Niall Shanks often aims darts at intelligent design supporters (The Wichita Eagle, Kan.)
  
  
• Evolution battle grows in schools | Michigan districts debate whether to teach intelligent design; critics call it disguised religion (The Detroit News, Mi.)
  
  

Studies:

• A prayer for health | Scientists attempt to measure what religions accept on faith (The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Weighing investment of time in family | Clayton Christensen's work and faith convinced him that there is an analogy between the troubled companies he studies and troubled families in which one member is a high-performing overachiever, the kind of person one encounters, say, at an Ivy League business school (Rich Barlow, The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Religious group funding science research | The John Templeton Foundation aims to create a dialog between science and religion. Each year, it gives out its version of the Nobel Prize for spiritual progress. Recently, it has been generously funding physics conferences. Many physicists welcome the funds, but others feel uncomfortable and don't want to attend (Morning Edition, NPR)
  
  
• 59 ways to test yourself, Christians | Boston University's Religiosity Scales Project hopes to come up with a comprehensive and systematic way to measure religiosity among Christians (David Waters, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.)
  
  

Books:

• Purpose-driven interference? | What happens when a powerhouse author demands changes in a book another writer is doing for the same publisher? (Publishers Weekly, sub. req'd.)
  
  
• 'Divided by God': One nation, under whomever | Franklin Foer reviews Noah Feldman's latest (The New York Times Book Review)
  
  
• Also: One nation, divisible | Do evangelicals and secularists want the same America? Legal scholar Noah Feldman says yes, and he has a plan for a more perfect union. Too bad it will never work (Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com)
  
  
• Harry Potter fits in fine with Christianity | Books draw on symbols, virtues of faith (Scott Moore, Waco Tribune-Herald, Tex.)
  
  
• Also: The danger here is not 'Harry Potter' | I am an Evangelical Christian and a "Harry Potter" fan. Is this a contradiction? Well, yes and no (H. Edgar Hix, Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
  
  
• Mere apologetics | C.S. Lewis is best known today as an apologist—probably the most successful Christian apologist of the twentieth century (Avery Cardinal Dulles, First Things)
  
  

Video games:

• Religion demystified in Civilization IV | 2K Games and Firaxis reveal details on the new religion-based gameplay in the highly anticipated strategy sequel (Gamespot)
  
  
• Video game biz converting to Christianity | While such Mature-rated games as "Resident Evil 4," "Doom 3" and "Halo 2" are widely known for raking in millions for the video game industry, a small but growing number of game developers are creating titles for Christian gamers (Reuters)
  
  

Hip hop:

• Hip-hop seeks saving grace | Christian rappers confront suspicions of the faithful (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  
  
• Crunk for Jesus | Founders say Da' Remnant has 'something the streets can't offer' (Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.)
  
  

Media:

• Alabama billboard's message changes | For a decade, a local billboard on land along I-65 north of Montgomery, Ala., read: "Go to church or the Devil will get you!" This week, the billboard changed to endorse a political candidate. W.S. Newell, the 84-year-old property owner, tells Scott Simon why he made the change (Weekend Edition, NPR)
  
  
• Also: Baxley supporter replaces I-65 'devil' sign | "Go to church or the devil will get you" is now "We Love Lucy." (Associated Press)
  
  
• Russia gets its first religious TV channel | Russia's first television channel devoted to religion will launch Thursday as part of the subscriber services of satellite broadcaster NTV-Plus (Hollywood Reporter)
  
  

People:

• Tony Campolo: Evangelical aids the poor, and presidents too | Many are called, but few seem to have the passion that drives Evangelical Baptist minister Tony Campolo (Delco Times, Pa.)
  
  
• Charles Colson and the mission that began with Watergate | Charles Colson, the quintessential Watergate-era hatchet man, has taken a long, strange trip from dirty trickster to impassioned prison reformer (Adam Cohen, The New York Times)
  
  
• Earlier: Charles Colson | How a Watergate crook became America's greatest Christian conservative (David Plotz, Slate, Mar. 10, 2000)
  
  
• One man's fantasy | Eugene F. Rivers eschews any kind of nontraditional family (Adrian Walker, The Boston Globe)
  
  

History:

• Catacombs' Jewish origins shown | The ancient Roman burial sites are 100 years older than similar Christian sites (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Catacombs show Christianity-Judaism link | The finding adds a new element to the debate about the extent to which Christianity has Jewish roots (Discovery News)
  
  
• Rare photos offer glimpse of Scopes Trial | A surprise find at the Smithsonian includes 60 unpublished shots of the famed evolution case (Los Angeles Times)
  
  

More articles of interest:

• Spirited debate | Scientology isn't the only religion that looks askance at psychiatry (The Orange County Register)
  
  
• Faith value | There are some indications that young, hip Christians' numbers are multiplying (The Daily News, Longview, Wa.)
  
  
• To reduce the cost of teenage temptation, why not just raise the price of sin? | In just about every state that increased beer taxes in recent years, teenage drinking soon dropped (The New York Times)
  
  

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