values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.

Holiday Toy Glorifies 9-11
Dec. 2 - WorldNetDaily.com
   As family members of Sept. 11 victims brace for a third holiday season without their loved ones, the celebration of the hijackers' atrocity on 9-11 continues among Palestinians in the West Bank through the sale of children's toys.    StrategyPage.com, a military insiders' news site and forum, has posted a photograph of one of the toys being sold in the streets of Gaza and Ramallah. The toy depicts a joyous Osama bin Laden holding a replica of the Pentagon in one hand and gesturing to miniature Twin Towers crowned with flames and smoke with the other.
   Palestinians glorifying the 9-11 massacre is nothing new, as hundreds danced in the streets of the West Bank in reaction to the first reports of the news. Palestinians blamed the United States for condoning and assisting their perceived oppression by Israel.
   WorldNetDaily has reported on the association between the head of the al-Qaida terror network responsible for the 9-11 attack and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, bin Laden was set to join Arafat's uprising against Israel. According to an intelligence report, the U.S. tipped off Israel that al-Qaida cells in Lebanon were complete and ready to launch strikes in Israel. They operated under the command of Imad Mughniyeh, terrorism and intelligence consultant to Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the report.
   The 9-11 toy represents a tribute to bin Laden and reflects the deep-seated hatred toward Israel manifested in scores of suicide bombings aimed at Israelis.

The Enemy Learns
By Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families
   Remember Army Lt. Col. Allen B. West? He is facing a possible court martial because he fired his pistol near an Iraqi prisoner to frighten him into providing information on a planned attack against U.S. troops. Four other interrogators had failed to get the terrorist to talk, but Lt. Col. West's approach worked and U.S. lives were saved.
   Now word comes out of Iraq that overall, we are getting very little information from terrorist suspects we arrest in Iraq. Why? The enemy has learned our rules. The word has gone out among prisoners that they don't have to talk because the U.S. can't do anything to them. One source said all the "bad guys ...know we can't touch them. We can't even so much as threaten them."
   I'm sure these politically correct rules of interrogation make Dan Rather and the media elites feel good. And the ACLU and its allies - safe in their offices here in Washington - no doubt think treating Iraqi thugs with kid gloves is the way to go. But in the real world of Iraq's mean streets, where every U.S. soldier has a bull's eye on his back and a price on his head, asking our troops to fight with one

hand tied behind their backs will guarantee more dead Americans.

Rising Tide of Jew Hatred
By Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families
   Every man and woman of good will should be deeply disturbed by the growing wave of anti-Semitism that is sweeping the Western world. Incidents of vandalism, arson and assault against Jews and Jewish targets are daily occurrences throughout Europe. And European leaders continue to be in denial about what is happening and what is fueling this hatred - radical Islam.
   The latest example comes from the European Union, which recently commissioned a report on anti-Semitism. After an exhaustive study, the authors of the report concluded radical Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind a majority of the incidents. The report was quickly "spiked" by the European Union because its focus on Muslims was considered "inflammatory."

Gay "Marriage" And 2004
By Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families
   Both parties are predicting that the 2004 presidential election will be decided in the industrial Mid-West and Great Lakes - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, etc. And guess what issue is hurting the Democrats the most? Gay "marriage." One Democrat strategist is quoted in the New York Times as saying, "The same-sex marriage (issue) is a killer." In many states that Gore carried in 2000, including Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, men are moving to the Republican Party, "because of cultural issues...and recent court rulings on gay rights." And this from the pro-gay New York Times!
   The bottom line: Preserving traditional marriage is the right thing to do morally and it is the right thing to do politically too.

Library Bars Painting of Jesus
From Covenantnews.com, Dec. 3rd
   Meriden Connecticut Public Library officials have barred a local artist's painting of Jesus, prompting a debate about the separation of church and state and free speech. Library officials turned down five images of Jesus in a show arranged by artist Mary Morley. "When it came to anything with Jesus in it, they wouldn't allow it," she said. "I worked so hard on this." Library director Marcia Trotta and Victoria Navin, the library's community affairs director, would not comment to the Record-Journal, of Meriden, which reported the rejection of the images of Jesus. Deborah Moore, a staff lawyer for Meriden, cited the library's exhibits policy that calls for art to be appropriate for all ages. Appropriateness is "at the discretion of the library director," she said.

Scholarships for Religious Studies Weighed
By Keith Peters, Family News In Focus
   The U.S. Supreme Court's decision could set an important religious-liberties precedent.
   The U.S. Supreme Court will decide, likely by July, the constitutionality of scholarships for religious study in a case that could set a landmark legal precedent.
   The case involves Joshua Davey, who wanted to study pastoral ministries at Northwest College in Kirkland, WA. He was told he was not eligible for the aid, however, because of Washington's ban on using state money to fund religious education.
   Davey sued in 2000, on the grounds that his free exercise, free speech, free association and equal protection rights under the U.S. and state Constitutions had been violated. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- the same court that found the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional -- ruled in Davey's favor last year.
   Rob Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the university made the right decision. "We don't believe the government should be in the business of paying for the education of ministers, priests, rabbis or any other religious leaders," Boston said. "That's something that should be funded with private money."
   The Thomas Moore Law Center's Pat Gillen disagreed. "If Joshua loses, it will be clear that citizens with religious convictions can be penalized by the state of Washington for attempting to indulge their academic interests and pursue a career that takes their religious (studies) seriously," Gillen explained.    "The individual choice of a person must be respected by the state when that choice is motivated by their religious conviction."

Utah's Bigamy Ban Challenged
By Terry Phillips, Family News in Focus
   A convicted bigamist argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's legalization of sodomy should make having multiple wives legal, too.
   Utah's ban on bigamy has been challenged on the grounds that a recent court ruling legalizing homosexual sodomy means all variations of sexual activity should be allowable under law.
   A man convicted of having four too many wives, and who is in prison for up to five years because of it, has asked the Utah Supreme Court to turn him loose. His argument is based on the recent landmark Lawrence v. Texas sodomy case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws against sodomy are a violation of privacy.
   Such an argument was bound to be made sooner or later, according to Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, a religious-rights law firm headquartered in Citrus Heights, CA.

"The Supreme Court, in ruling on the issue of privacy, just blew the door wide open," Dacus explained.
"This alleged bigamist may actually be correct. Not only will he possibly be protected as a bigamist, but polygamists, adult incest and even those engaging in voluntary child incest" might be protected.
   That's what John Bucher is relying on. He's the attorney for the Utah bigamist. "I see a light at the end of the tunnel for permitting people to do what they want to in their own house - and that may be cohabiting with three women at once, four women at once."
   Not everyone, though, agrees that the sodomy ruling will necessarily lead to an anything-goes sexual free-for-all, according to Glen Lavy, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, AZ based religious freedom legal foundation. "It was not saying that there is a right to force the state to recognize other behavior as legal," Lavy said, calling the bigamist's case "a frivolous claim." He added that conservatives might even be wrong to speculate that the high court's ruling will one day lead to the legalization of gay "marriage."

Church Doesn't Think Like Jesus
Dec. 3 - WorldNetDaily.com
   A new survey by pollster George Barna finds only nine percent of born-again Christians hold a biblical worldview.
   Barna, who surveyed 2,033 adults in his study, found only 4 percent of the general population have a biblical worldview and suggests many of the nation's moral and spiritual challenges are directly attributable to this fact.
   "If Jesus Christ came to this planet as a model of how we ought to live, then our goal should be to act like Jesus," said Barna. "Sadly, few people consistently demonstrate the love, obedience and priorities of Jesus. The primary reason that people do not act like Jesus is because they do not think like Jesus. Behavior stems from what we think - our attitudes, beliefs, values and opinions. Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, our research found that most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and opportunities of life. We're often more concerned with survival amidst chaos than with experiencing truth and significance."
   For the purposes of the research, a biblical worldview was defined as believing that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views. Those views were that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He still rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share

their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in
all of its teachings. Only seven percent of Protestants overall maintained a biblical worldview, according to the study. Of adults who attend mainline Protestant churches, only two percent shared those values. Among Catholics, less than one-half of one percent had a biblical worldview. The denominations that produced the highest proportions of adults with a biblical worldview were non-denominational Protestant churches, with 13 percent, Pentecostal churches, with 10 percent, and Baptist churches with 8 percent.
   Among the most prevalent alternative worldviews was postmodernism, which seemed to be the dominant perspective among the two youngest generations.
   One of the most striking insights from the research was the influence of such a way of thinking upon people's behavior. Adults with a biblical worldview possessed radically different views on morality, held divergent religious beliefs and demonstrated vastly different lifestyle choices.
   People's views on morally acceptable behavior are deeply impacted by their worldview.
   Upon comparing the perspectives of those who have a biblical worldview with those who do not, the former group were 31 times less likely to accept cohabitation; 18 times less likely to endorse drunkenness; 15 times less likely to condone homosexual sex; 12 times less likely to accept profanity; and 11 times less likely to describe adultery as morally acceptable. In addition, less than one-half of one percent of those with a biblical worldview said voluntary exposure to pornography was morally acceptable (compared to 39 percent of other adults), and a similarly miniscule proportion endorsed abortion (compared to 46 percent of adults who lack a biblical worldview).
   Among the more intriguing lifestyle differences were the lesser propensity for those with a biblical worldview to gamble (they were eight times less likely to buy lottery tickets and 17 times less likely to place bets); to get drunk (three times less likely); and to view pornography (two times less common). They were also twice as likely to have discussed spiritual matters with other people in the past month and twice as likely to have fasted for religious reasons during the preceding month. While one out of every eight adults who lack a biblical worldview had sexual relations with someone other than their spouse during the prior month, less than one out of every 100 individuals who have such a worldview had done so.
   The Barna Research Group, Ltd. is an independent marketing research company located in Southern California. Since 1984, it has been studying cultural trends related to