January 22, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Planned Parenthood to Push Candidacies
Brody Mullins/Wall Street Journal (01/22/2008)
WASHINGTON -- For the first time, abortion-rights advocate Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. is launching a major effort to elect pro-abortion-rights candidates to Congress and the White House in November.

Huckabee accomplishments offer lessons in the value of faith, perseverance
Scott Canon/Kansas City Star (01/21/2008)
Huckabee’s record is that of an openly religious man who periodically injects faith into politics and of a conservative who’s willing at times to make government bigger.

ABORTION
Antiabortion cause stirs new generation
Stephanie Simon/Los Angeles Times (01/22/2008)
Thirty-five years after Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, opponents are pouring resources into building new generations of activists. Young people are responding with passion.

Why Have Abortion Rates Fallen?
Nancy Gibbs/Time (01/21/2008)
Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the U.S., abortion rates are at their lowest level in three decades — which gives both sides in the culture wars something to celebrate and plenty to fight over, while the rest of us try to figure out what happened.

As Abortion Rate Drops, Use of RU-486 Is on Rise
Rob Stein/Washington Post (01/22/2008)
Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision, a pill that has largely faded from the rancorous public debate over abortion has slowly and quietly begun to transform the experience of ending a pregnancy in the United States.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Dallas church's renters stress about eviction as demolition nears
David Flick/Dallas Morning News (01/21/2008)
Although residents of the Douglas Square Apartments had heard rumors the last couple of years that they might be asked to move one day, it nonetheless came as shock. The proximity to Christmas was even more surprising, they said, given that the apartments are owned by a church – St. Michael and All Angels, one of the most affluent parishes in the Dallas Episcopal Diocese.

CONGREGATIONS AND FAITH GROUPS
Gwinnett's 12Stone church features glitzy amenities, Starbucks
Rebecca McCarthy/Atlanta Journal-Constitution (01/22/2008)
The new building for 12Stone Church on Buford Drive doesn't have a sanctuary. It has a worship experience center. And what an experience it will be for the thousands of people expected to attend the Lawrenceville church, which had its grand opening Sunday. In addition to the 2,500-seat high-tech worship center, the 105,000 -square-foot building features a full-service Starbucks cafe, facilities for children, from birth through college, and film and recording studios.