January 8, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Victories for God?
David Domke and Kevin Coe/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (01/08/2008)
The victories by Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses last week make one thing clear: In America's heartland, the God strategy works. Recent history suggests it won't stop there.

In N.H., candidates' faith trumps denomination
Andrea Billups/Washington Times (01/08/2008)
As the nation's political eyes are focused on the Granite State, candidates here face a different landscape than the open arms of Iowa. Faith, New England-style, is in full view, with churches as ubiquitous as convenience stores across the small, bucolic towns.

ABORTION
Abortion foes won't yield to legal setback
Chris Christoff/Detroit Free Press (01/08/2008)
Michigan's leading anti-abortion group said it would not give up on trying to pass another ban on so-called partial-birth abortion, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal Monday to revive debate on a 2004 state ban struck down by a lower court.

Changing abortion's pronoun
Stephanie Simon/Los Angeles Times (01/08/2008: chicagotribune.com)
'We had abortions,' say men whose lovers ended pregnancies. It isn't just a women's trauma, they insist. But critics see a political calculation.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Alaska Old Believers spend Christmas planning funerals
Mary Pemberton/Associated Press (01/08/2008: denverpost.com)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Alaska's Old Believers are accustomed to struggle. But even for them, these are the most trying of times. Five followers of the Christian sect, which broke from the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century and has been persecuted since, were killed along with their pilot when their small plane crashed Saturday as they returned to Homer to celebrate the Russian Orthodox Christmas.

Insurer Judges a Church's Stance as Too Risky
M.P. McQueen/Wall Street Journal (01/08/2008)
A small Protestant church in Adrian, Mich., has weathered controversies surrounding abolition, the Civil War, desegregation and Vietnam since it was established in 1836. Now, because its denomination supports gay rights, the church has been deemed too risky for property insurance.

ARTS AND MEDIA
Cruise Is Scientology's Second-in-Command, Say Biographer
sfgate.com (01/08/2008)
British writer Andrew Morton, best known for his books about the late Diana, Princess of Wales and David and Victoria Beckham, claims the 45-year-old Hollywood superstar's life has been taken over by the controversial religion.