Exactly 35 years ago, I was interviewed for my first daily newspaper job and was hired on my first try. It helped gobs that Ira Bill Cole, dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (1957-84), where I was getting my masters degree, was a professional friend of the editor of the newspaper in Waterloo, Iowa. The interview itself seemed like a mere formality. I was hired, assigned to the courthouse beat and paid $110 a week. Tens of thousands of news articles, features, columns and blogs later, I have a bitter sweetness about newspapering and the media. Barring the unexpected, I soon begin my five-year countdown to retirement, so that I retire on June 17, 2012, on the precise 40th anniversary of the start of my work in dailies and 49 years writing for publication.Plenty of stinging things are said these days about the media and especially the major media. A relentless criticism is that countless important issues are going unreported and ignored as if there were a cabal to repress stories. Herd journalism tends to narrow the range of what goes reported and what is marginalized or ignored. Any of us who care deeply about compelling matters and who give our time and resources to causes and movements are continually astonished by the blindness of media to OUR issues. And then when reporters do take our issue on, their reports fail to be balanced or fair. A godsend, of course, has been the Internet, where communities are built around our favorite issues and everyone elses. Those who gravitate to each topic community see how it grows with each successive website, all linked together with others. Readers and members are diligent at finding news stories, columns, blogs and reports, then link readers to those materials, or extract the best parts. Its all to educate, proselytize and change beliefs.Mass medias future is anyones guess, and I am somewhat glad that I worked some good years when the newspaper that landed on the driveway was a dominant force. We in the secular media are particularly sensitive as to what role we will still play in bridging people of many faiths and no faiths, at a time when it seems cooperation among religious groups has stalled, and when polarization seems to be growing. This week, a progressive group, Media Matters for America, along with one called, Faith in Public Life, held a press conference in Washington, D.C. They complained about the major new media have paid way too much attention to conservative religious figures and voices. That, they said, is leading to a false implication that to be religious is to be conservative, and worse, that to be progressive is to lack faith or even be against faith. Media Matters research found that in major newspapers, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned or interviewed 2.7 times as often as progressive leaders; the major television networks, cable TV outlets and PBS quoted, mentioned or interviewed conservative religious leaders 3.8 times as often; and, when combining TV and newspapers coverage in a 25-month period, the conservative faith folks were quoted 2.8 times as much as progressive leaders.The general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, the Rev. Bob Edgar, put it this way, I have long felt the media have given Americans a distorted view of what people of faith believe. This research from Media Matters proves that. I hope both the print and electronic media in this country will now seek the balance so many of them profess to have as they continue to report issues of religion and its impact on our society, government and the American culture.People of faith have long been and will continue to be active leaders on progressive causes for justice our faith compels it, said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.The media need to make sure not one side takes control of the conversation, said the Rev. Jim Forbes, noted senior pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City and host of the show The Time is Now on Air America.

One of the great benefits of working in the media is feedback from a public that cares enough to register comments. They cause us to think about what we do and whether we are fair.My voicemails, on return from the long Memorial Day weekend, included two angry callers about what we featured on May 26 in the Tribunes Spiritual Life section. There were three feature articles two written by me and one by an Associated Press writer. There was the Clergy Corner column, penned by an Imam a Muslim cleric from Tempe. (The Clergy Corner is written weekly by a different clergyman, and sometime lay people, from panoply of faiths. We rotate through about 40 different writers). As the way things fell in that issue, my two features were; 1) about SuSu Levy of Scottsdale, a Wiccan who was forceful in calling for preserving creatures large and small and honoring the Arizona desert by not transforming it into what was never intended to satiate ex-Midwesterners; and 2) coverage of a talk in Tempe last Tuesday by a daughter-in-law of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church. The AP article, titled God is Not Great hits best-seller list, dealt with atheist writer Christopher Hitchens, along with other atheist writers who have been gaining wider respect in wake of the excesses primarily from the Religious Right. And Ahmad Shqeirat, the imam of the Islamic Community Center in Tempe, sought to show the common ground that the Prophet Abraham has with Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Its predictable that any Muslim-related article will draw anti-Islamic comments. One male caller said SuSu Levy, the Wiccan, already get plenty of press, especially given her success in her opinions printed in the Tribune. Said the caller, She gets her letters published in the paper on a regular basis just for years that I have seen, and it seems that she has no problem getting her views across. And here today, you have this big spread. What is it about this lady that you guys idolize her the way you do? Enough of SuSu Levy. My gosh, give us somebody else.Another caller said Christians got left out totally in the Saturday section: I have just now read the Spiritual Life section of the paper and read about Wicca, and the Unification Church and the non-believer who doesnt think that God is great and how the Muslims seem to think they worship the same God that Christians do, she said. It would have been a little bit better if, at least, you would have printed one article that pertains to Christians, the believers. I really am disappointed today. There was nothing uplifting for a Christian at all. Thank you very much.When the mix of stories and Clergy Corner column started shaping up for that section, I suspected that someone might complain. My mind heard echoes of a reader years ago who called and said she wanted to get something into the Christian section of the paper. First, no faith tradition has guaranteed or reserved space in the Tribune each Saturday. By the sheer dominance of Christianity, I can say week in and week out, the offerings are distinctively Christian. Secondly, the wire service religion features offered for the nations religion sections are limited to one or two articles weekly. Sometimes neither is a Christian article. We choose those that seem to be most compelling. The argument could be made that the Hitchens article mentioned Christians and Christian position extensively, albeit in a generally negative light. Yet is still was useful for a Christians to recognize. Thirdly, the Unification Church formally declares strong respect for Jesus Christ and it prides itself on drawing Christians and followers of all faiths into its many cooperative programs for world peace. Fourth, the Clergy Corner seeks to represent as many viable beliefs as we can find in the tapestry of Valley religions. Christian writers have the lions share of weeks assigned. Representatives of some faiths are reluctant to participate. An examination of the listings and local briefs on Saturday, and every week, shows that Christian congregations and organizations consistently dominate. Finally, I have learned in the approximately 16 years of religion-writing for the Tribune that our own personal beliefs can be defended and reinforced simply by seeing what other faiths and doctrines are all about. We see the common ground and the contrasts. We learn how history, culture and spiritual leaders have shaped faith systems. I have readers applaud a steady offering of stories about minority religions. In the end, I hope we are less apt to adopt the us-against-them mentality as if each column-inch of space about our faith is ammunition against the dark forces of belief.

I always wonder why city leaders are so anal about signage. They put some of their most creatively repressive skills at crafting sign ordinances hostile to private property rights and human commerce. Their ordinance enforcers patrol neighborhoods cracking down, writing up citations so written words are kept to a minimum on the landscape.I often ask who is that demands reigning in signage and promoting near postage-stamp size, boring and information-devoid signs? Cities are so begrudging at allowing signs. Their stinginess serves no one. If signs are so bad, then why can home sales and leasing signs, political signs and rummage sales signs even be allowed? Probably because there would be an ugly outcry if they were banned, as well there should. Certainly cities’ belligerence to signs is really not about creating a pleasing ambiance.Youd think cities were protecting some mountaintop, idyllic scene from sign pollution when they put their controls on what businesses, churches and others want to tell the passing public along plain city streets.A salute to the Alliance Defense Fund in Scottsdale for successfully getting the Town of Gilbert to back off of its practice of sharply limiting what a church could do to make its place of worship better found. Gilberts Code Compliance Department cited the Good News Presbyterian Church for putting temporary signs out on sidewalks and street corners near its rental site on Saturdays and keeping them there until services were over on Sundays. The congregation has met for four years in Coronado Elementary School, 4333 S. DeAnza Blvd., about a third mile east of Higley Road and midway between Germann and Queen Creek roads. The school is well off the beaten track and deep into a quiet neighborhood. The ordinance dictates that religious assembly signs must adhere to a time limitation of two hours before and one hour after the service. The Good News folks had been placing 17 signs in strategic places near the school. Then in September 2005, the church was cited by the town. It was forced to reduce the number of signs and hours of posting them, down to the legal limit. The Alliance sued the town on the churchs behalf, arguing that the restrictions violated the rights of religious organizations and pointed out a seeming inconsistency whereby political and protest signs can be up in more locations around the clock. Alliance counsel Jeremy Tedesco argued that if the Town of Gilbert allows others to post signs well in advance to express a viewpoint or invite members of the community to attend some type of meeting or event, then the town must allow churches to do the same. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton approved a request to allow the church to post the signs in a way the code has not allowed. A Gilbert spokesman told the Tribune that the Town Council is discussing amending those policies to accommodate the agreement. Tedescos point is that ordinances cannot place greater restrictions on religious groups than it places on non-religious groups, in keeping with the Constitution.Recently, I found a citation on my own Tempe churchs office door because a volunteer had staked up, at a street corner, this years vacation Bible school banner, a mere 1 by three-foot all-weather vinyl sign. The church was ordered to remove it or go to city offices and obtain a Significant Event Permit for $103, good for just 14 days out of the year. Want to put another banner up for Easter services? $103. Want to put one up for Christmas services? $103. Want to put one up for the womens cookie sale? $103. So much for "free" speech.The church has been at that corner for 46 years, and putting up banners that long, and, I believe, doing plenty of community outreach and good. Now, presumably because one neighbor complained to the city, weve been nailed and are on the citys enforcement radar. Maybe we should get an old panel truck, affix a banner to its side or paint the side with the message, and park it in our lot near the corner.In some live-and-let-live communities of America, houses of worship have signs with moveable letters, often witty statements and lines of wisdom. Or they pitch a concert, preview the pastors weekend sermon title, or give the date of the chili supper or a special speaker coming to town. And banners sprout up for special events without checking in at city hall. But somehow poker-faced folks in city offices, likely taking the advice of the city professionals borrowing and replicating boilerplate best practices from other sterile cities, push their rules through. Like so much that government does, it happens in the vacuum of people not paying attention. We dont challenge proposed and petty rules that lack practicality and common sense, before it’s too late.Heres another thanks to the Alliance Defense Fund for taking on the Town of Gilbert. And in Tempe, I plan to continue to ask the question, If all the public signs serve a purpose, why such restrictions on messages placed on private property? Government can always set the rules because they can.

Im usually a pushover for surveys. I welcome those telephone surveys, especially the political ones. And I will usually answer the mail surveys, unless it is one of those six-page consumer products questionnaires about my buying patterns of paper towels or household batteries.The Pew Forum surveys are well-established in their examination of the spiritual realm of this country. For example, they recently conducted more than 55,000 interviews to get a national sample of 1,050 Muslims living in the U.S. The report, released Wednesday, found they are middle class, largely assimilated and happy with their lives. About 65 percent are foreign-born Muslims and 35 percent U.S. born. Of the American-born Muslims, three out of five are blacks. Thirty-nine percent of all Muslims here have come to the U.S. since 1990 and only 11 percent before 1980. Interviews were conducted in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu. They are decidedly American in their outlook, values and attitudes, the report said. This belief is reflected in Muslim-American income and educational levels, which generally mirror those of the public.Muslims in other countries were also surveyed. One of the most interesting findings was one that compared the life for Muslim women in five western countries versus their living in predominantly Muslim countries. It was fairly consistent in the countries: the U.S. (62 percent saying it was better), Great Britain (58 percent), France (62 percent), Germany (50 percent) and Spain (46 percent). Interestingly, Muslims concerns about Islamic extremists were considerably higher in the U.S. and Great Britain, the presumed toughest fighters in the War Against Terrorism than with those Muslims in other four Western European countries. Very concerned about Islamic extremism in the world these days?: U.S., 51 percent; Great Britain, 52 percent; France, 35 percent; Germany, 29 percent; and Spain, 29 percent. Could some of that concern emanate from the incessant government-driven mantra about terrorists in the U.S. and Britain?One encouraging finding: Nearly twice as many Muslim Americans (63 percent to 32 percent) dont see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society. One finding that has gotten a lot of media is the fact that younger Muslims in the U.S. are more likely than older followers to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can at least sometimes be justified. Yet absolute levels of support are paltry compared with other parts of the world.All in all, the survey underscores the phenomenon of countless groups that have come to settle in the U.S. across the nations history. Once they taste America en masse, once to see how they can immerse themselves in a wide-open place of opportunities, they tend to transform and become wholesome citizens. They tend to embrace what makes America special from due process to religious pluralism to strong public education. Loyalties to Old Country ways and warts dwindle. And America is better for the threads they become in the tough national fabric.When they join us, they become us, and we are changed as well. Yet it is a race to see whether we can tip the scales in favor of trust and acceptance before aggressive forces of division and fear of Islam poison the discussion and longer delay the time when Muslims will be just another part of the American scene.

A Catholic womens reform organization has surveyed 23 of the nations 146 Roman Catholic dioceses and found that while women may be getting upfront, or public, roles, when you look behind the scenes, women are meeting barriers.It is behind closed doors where women face the most daunting barriers in Catholic education, on diocesan advisory boards and in diocesan employment settings, the report said. (womensjusticecoalition.org). In The Report Card Project, an annual undertaking, the coalition issued grades from A to F in various areas, based on what they found out in the 23 dioceses chosen and responding. Dioceses were not identified.Pope Benedict XVI has said that it is theologically and anthropologically important for women to be at the center of Christianity, but our study shows that women are relegated to the margins when it comes to positions of influence within the Catholic Church, said Professor Susan Farrell, a lead analyst of the report. Weve issued an F to the dioceses when it comes to representation of women in religious education and a D in hiring women for top jobs. Farrell is associate professor of sociology and coordinator of the sociology area in the Behavioral Sciences and Human Services Department at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York.The study found that while women are the majority in the pews, relatively few hold seats on diocesan councils, in seminary faculty chairmanships or in decision-making offices. With the release of this report, were working so that Catholic women have a seat at the table, not just in the pews, said Rea Howarth, coordinator or the coalition. She calls on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to address the inequalities.There were As for bright spots: 1) providing tuition assistance and scholarships for both men and women preparing for lay ministry; 2) including both genders in the Mass as Eucharistic ministers and lectors at cathedral liturgies. And some B grades: 1) girls participation as altar services at cathedrals; 2) including women in the ritual foot-washing ceremony of Holy Thursday; 3) women serving on diocesan pastoral councils (42 percent); and 4) dioceses having grievance procedures for employees.The failing grade was given for: 1) woefully offering seminary education about the scriptural and theological foundations for the equality of women and roles of women in the church; 2) the number of women teaching in seminaries (29 percent of faculties); 3) paucity of female faculty teaching the most important seminary courses; 4) the lack of teaching on the history of women in the church at the middle school and high school levels; 5) how women are selected for the diocesan pastoral council; 6) how women are selected for the Catholic Charities boards; 7) how women are selected for the diocesan finance councils; whether dioceses have offices on womens concerns; 9) having offices for a range of minority groups; and 10) having a grievance procedure for employees. The coalition wraps it up with some pointed comments. Here are a few:n When the institutions training future priests fail to expose them to competent women in positions of authority and as colleagues, it is not only unjust, but it sends a message about the competence of womenn Too many Catholics still believe that the church is incapable of change. Roman Catholicism is not fundamentalist or we would still be arguing that the earth is the center of the universe and that Jews were responsible for Jesus crucifixion. The failure to adequately educate Catholics about the history of women in the early and medieval church denies Catholics a more mature understanding of Catholicism.n Regarding womens participating in roles in the Mass, the bishops have gotten the message, having made enormous progress in terms of incorporating women in their liturgical celebrations.n There remains an old boys club environment on finance councils. If bishops limit their appointments to successful men form the business world, they will merely reinforce the discrimination that continues to occur in the private business sector.n The surveys tell us the bishops are promoting women to upper management, just not in numbers equal to men in these offices.

On May 5, the Spiritual Life section carried an Associated Press religion brief with a headline, Convert wants son circumcised, but mother objects. The conflict between a divorced couple, now in the Oregon courts, has been covered in a variety of media, including Newsweek on May 7. Its a fight between parents that comes up often. Alas, too rarely, the right decision is made: Leave it up to the boy because it is his body, his body alone. And dont rush it. Wait until he is old enough to decide.The boy is only known in news accounts as Misha, and he is 12. Because his identity is being protected, his parents named are not made public either. Misha lives with his father, who has sole custody and recently converted to Judaism, whose tradition is to circumcise, although some progressive Jews choose an alternative brit milah where there is only a prick of a pin to the skin to emit blood and leave it at that. The male stays intact as nature intended.The father, who now lives near Olympia, Wash., began studying Judaism in 1999 and eventually converted. The mother, who is Russian Orthodox, previously had custody of Misha. For three years, the two have battled at whether the boy stays whole or not. So far, the father has been winning because he has custody, but news accounts say the courts want to make sure whats decided is in the best interests of the boy.Noted atheist and author of "The God Delusion," Richard Dawkins took up the issue on his web site and called the father’s intentions "religiously inspired child abuse," according to Newsweek. The Portland Oregonian quoted attorney Lawrence Goring, Youre talking about not just religious instruction or whether youre going to send the child to parochial school or public school. This is a matter of permanent change of bodily structure. The father had first made an appointment in 2004 to have the boys foreskin snipped, but the mother responded by going to court, saying her son told her that he was afraid to defy his father, but didnt want the procedure.Doctors Opposing Circumcision, based in Seattle, have been make it a cause celebre on the Internet and attracting donations to help the mother press her case in the courts. According to Newsweek, DOC posts a list of rabbis nationwide who will perform a religious ritual welcoming boys into the world without cutting. An attorney, working pro bono, has donated more than $20,000 in legal fees to try to get the circumcision blocked in the courts. Unlike some previous father-mother legal fights over circumcision, neither side here argues there are any foreskin medical issues that call for it being performed. This is the clearest case of a parents claimed religious beliefs trumping a childs right to an intact body that I have seen in 26 years of practicing law, said John Feisheker, an attorney and executive director of DOC. It fairly screams out for justice, but justice costs even when most of the legal help has so far been provided pro bono." www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/info/appeal/html.DOC worked hard in a similar case in Cook County, Ill., where last October, the judge settled a similar dispute between a divorced couple in favor of leaving the boy intact. The mother wanted their 9-year-old circumcised, claiming he needed it because of infections under his foreskin. The father objected, saying the mother had wrongly retracted the foreskin in order to clean underneath and had irritated the area, according to Reuters. The judge said there was no clear evidence that the boy would benefit from being cut and said he could decide for himself when he turns 18 and is an adult.Heres hoping Misha also gets to decide for himself. Judaism itself has been deeply conflicted about circumcision, troubled by instincts of humanity versus tradition. The extent of its practice and acceptance among Jews has varied widely through the centuries. Its documented in books like Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective by Ron Goldman to Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America by Leonard B. Glick. Jews have been at the forefront of producing books and articles calling for all circumcisions to end on human rights, medical ethics and cultural enlightenment grounds. May the Oregon court show the same enlightenment.

When I didnt know better, I supported capital punishment. Now each time I read or hear of another person put to death by a U.S. state, I feel the angst of a nation still not civilized. I feel ashamed like we are still a brutal Third World place where violence is always met by violence. Like killing killers is somehow redemptive and makes us safer.I read the stories of Robert Charles Comer, 50, who is sentenced to die Tuesday morning at the Arizona State Prison at Florence by lethal injection and see how pathetic his life has been. The events of 20 years Feb. 23, 1987 are, indeed, nasty and unspeakable. At an Apache Lake campground, he shot Larry Pritchard in the head and killed him. He moved on to another campsite, hogtied a man and raped that mans girlfriend, then kidnapped her. In 1988, he was convicted on 13 counts, including first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and rape. Through all these 20 years, Comer, described as a cold and callous killer, has been completely uncooperative with prison staff, has repeatedly waived rights for appeal (although they are mandatory by law) and has been quite a cuss. His misconduct helps satiates execution supporters justification to drug him to death. According to Tribune writer Gary Grados front-page article today, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in 2000, had refused to allow his execution, ruling that his claims of sanity were not enough to drop his appeals of his conviction. There has been speculation that Comer is just tired of it all and wants the state to help him in what amounts to legalized suicide. Prison conditions can easily drive folks to want to just want to die early. So much of it surrounds his sanity or insanity. I have no original ideas why capital punishment is wrong. Few social issues have been debated more. Its standard fare for debate clubs in schools and colleges. The two sides have exhausted the arguments for and against state-sponsored execution, and why people support or reject it essentially comes down to how they think about a whole parcel of human issues. In 1972, the U.S. voided all federal and state laws calling for the death penalty on the grounds that those condemned to die were subject to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. States, then, went to work enacting more acceptable means of killing criminals. Arizona had killed 104 people before 1976, then went 16 years before resuming them in 1992. Twenty-two have been executed since then, but none since 2000. Nationally, as of March 10, some 1,066 have been put to death in the U.S. since 1976, led by Texas with 387 and Virginia 98.The public state that puts billions into ending murder and mayhem should not be taking life. As a deterrent to major crime, capital punishment doesnt seem to work. Of course, the costs to the state to put someone on the road to execution and deal with the legal appeals and ensure the safeguards trump the argument that it saves money and frees up cell space.You cannot truly value life by valuing the end to a life no matter how hideous it was lived. Im ready for the sickness in my stomach and the shame on Tuesday when my state goes back to killing.

Religious intolerance and persecution are going to bring the downfall of human civilization. The viciousness of those intent on discrediting even destroying the faiths of others is real. In nation after nation, major news regularly features turmoil and death motivated somehow by religion. Some of that is a get them before they get us mentality as if its part of some apocalyptic goal. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has said, The entire world is threatened by religious intolerance. Sure, we can appreciate those who are so fed up with all religions because the fundamentalists of many faiths go to extremes out of their self-righteousness. Its easy to point out that religious extremists, with their blind faith, are undermining whole national communities and using killing and torture as their way to impose their will. Certainly fear drives so much of it: Will the zeal and cunning of the devotees pull in my loved ones and make them strangers? Will they impose their rigid, legalistic values on our society, our government, our schools, our laws, our traditions?Minority religions like Bahais, Jehovahs Witnesses, Scientologists, Falun Gong, Palestinian Christians, Jews and Mormons, for example, regularly receive forms of hostility and persecution worldwide. Christianity itself commonly is called the most persecuted religion. Given its ubiquity worldwide, it stands to face the most opposition, not to mention facing resistance because of its aggressive mandate to "go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. On Tuesday, May 22, for example, the PBS series, Independent Lens, will zero in on the way Jehovahs Witnesses have been resisted and checked. The report is called From the Doorstep to the Courthroom: 400 Religious Persecution Cases on the Jehovahs Witness Docket Worldwide. It tells how governments themselves are sanctioning suppression and persecution. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based worldwide religion contends that how its cases are litigated in their quest for rights to worship, speak out and assemble will shape how other religions will protect and retain its freedoms.And its not just tin-horn dictators in Third World countries doing the crackdowns. Its countries like France, India, Mexico, South Korea and Russia. (www.knocking.org/ReligiousPersecutionReport.html). There have been arrests, widespread vandalism, confiscation of land, denial to open houses of worship and prevention of evangelistic work.Clearly the peculiar distinctions of various religions are exploited by persecutors. Theres the Jehovahs Witnesses objections to blood transfusions or their doorway ministries; Mormons hard-to-shake history of polygamy; or the accusations that Scientology is pseudo-psychiatry and more a business than religion.The term cult is bandied about, a cheap and easy way to discredit. Established, longtime religions use their own forms of intense indoctrination on the young, and others emotionally vulnerable, often insisting theirs is the true and only way and all others are false and dangerous. That attitude, that arrogance alone, is so formidable that interfaith work calling for acceptance and respect are viewed by some as dangerous accommodation, polluting the stream.Muslims, of course, seem to be at the center of the debate. In the U.S., many Muslims feel constantly under suspicion, even surveillance, and they hear the considerable rants about Islam and whether is truly is a religion of peace. Meanwhile, that religion wins few friends because of the outrageous extremism, violence and human rights (treatment of women, for example) found across so many predominantly Muslim countries and in their sects. As I work with Valley Muslims, I constantly see that stereotype debunked. I must remind myself that there are some pretty rotten factions in many religions. And if civilization is to survive, fundamentalists and extremists need to be marginalized or held in check by faith moderates. We can start in the U.S. by adopting a true live-and-let-live attitude combined with strong dialogues with all faiths to insist that its in everyones interest that we maintain our tradition of religious pluralism.We should expect responsible and disciplined faiths that strive to develop spiritually healthy people on a fragile planet. Even those faiths that are especially persecuted need to examine their tactics and understand what is inherent in their faiths that leads to hostility and distrust. Faith and values, it seems, are too integrated into the fabric of political societies to wish religion away as muck-up-the-works trouble. Barriers put up to keep religion out serve no one. Barriers like that recent mistake made by a yearbook adviser in Higley to order the removal of God for seniors biography because of some notion that its a public school and theres something in the U.S. Constitution regarding church-state separation. The district apologized but the damage was done.Whether its denying a nurse from wearing a cross on her hospital rounds or some boneheaded decision by a fast-food chain to tell Muslim workers they cannot take a prayer break or that a hijab, or head scarf, cant be worn on the job, weve got to stop punishing people for being who they are, that their faith is part of what they are. Our goal should be to expect them to live up to, and display, the lofty ideals and values of that faith.

Seems to me the U.S. presidential debates are MUST TV. So far, I have watched the two Republican debates and the single debate of the Democratic hopefuls. I watched the first half of Tuesdays nights GOP debate from Columbia, S.C., then had to record the last half for viewing later because I had to go to a church meeting.I am dumbfounded how few people I know are watching these debates. Apathy and cynicism. And it doesnt help that the debates are limited to cable TV channels. We may say this every four years, but what can be more important than the presidential election in 2008? The upheaval, tumult and breathtaking actions of the current president require that we have our collective eyes wide open when we go to elect the next one. We cant get a clinker the next time. It isnt a choice just for America but for the planet and civilization as we know it. Responses to questions proffered by the eight major Democrats and 10 Republicans seeking the White House must be listened to with earnest orchestrated, rehearsed and measured as they are. The body language has to be examined, the nuances detected and the what-they-did-not-say noted. Candidates religion and moral values are clearly being scrutinized. And thats good. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to try to move beyond the relentless reminders from everywhere that he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I predict any doubt people have about whether America is ready for a Mormon president wont matter because of other troubling weaknesses in his candidacy. Did you notice that the graphics with biographical information that went up on the TV screen as each candidate was introduced almost immediately put up the candidates religious affiliation? But one has to go to the Internet to see what variation, or branch, of a denomination they really belong to. You wouldnt know it from the media reports, but unattractive and crabby Congressman Ron Paul, R-Texas, won the South Carolina debate Tuesday for the bold way he explained why the U.S. is a target for terrorists. It was precious moment when Paul said, They attack us because weve been over there. Weve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. Weve been in the Middle East. He went on to explain, if we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem They come and they attack us because were over there. Yet former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, widely called a one-trick pony because he only has his Sept. 11, 2001, experience to drive his campaign, grandstanded by discrediting Paul and saying his explanation was "extraordinary."As someone who lived through the attack of September 11 that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq I dont think Ive ever heard that before, and Ive heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th, he said.Nice try, Rudy. The candidates are in fantasyland if they fail to see that bullying American tactics and policies widely across the world over the past several decades have created enormous bitterness, resentment and hatred. The next disaster would be to elect someone who would continue such hubris and the madness that the U.S. can do what it darn well pleases in the world because it has humankinds best interests in mind. Watch the debates, folks, read about these presidential wannabees and start doing some critical thinking.

My first college roommate had the last name of Falwell. He lasted in school scarcely more than a couple academic quarters. I cant even recall his first name, but he was sour, negative and unmotivated, so he joined the slew of first casualties of college by the winter of 1964. So when Jerry Falwell emerged into national prominence in the early 1970s, I was first reminded of that roommate who also was from Virginia. My first college roommate had the last name of Falwell. He lasted in school scarcely more than a couple academic quarters. I cant even recall his first name, but he was sour, negative and unmotivated, so he joined the slew of first casualties of college by the winter of 1964. So when Jerry Falwell emerged into national prominence in the early 1970s, I was first reminded of that roommate. The Rev. Jerry Falwells place in American Christendom is getting, and will get, massive analysis in the coming weeks. He cast a long shadow because of his outgoing personality, guts and fearless statements.Surely, he had a key place in defining and rallying evangelical Christianity as a political force and as relentless critics of American culture. His prominence grew with his empire: first the development in 1956 of his mega-church, Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va.; then a national TV weekly show, the Old Time Gospel Hour that included his hard-nosed preaching; the formation, in 1971, and growth of Liberty University; and the founding of the Moral Majority movement, which quickly took spirited stands against abortion, feminism and homosexuality. By 1980, he was instrumental in helping elect Ronald Reagan president.In 1983, U.S. News and World Report identified him as one of the 25 most influential people in America. His outspokenness made him a favorite personality for Saturday Night Live caricatures. Portly and double-chinned, Falwell could be found on many network and cable news discussions, always putting American issues in a perspective against Christian teaching. His TV ministry suffered some in the late 1980s when evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker were caught up in sex scandals and fund-raising corruption. The Moral Majority that he founded in 1979 would attract as many as 6.5 million and almost $70 million a year to help elect conservative politicians who supported his moral agenda.I personally only saw Falwell when he came in June 2003 to Phoenix Convention Center for the Southern Baptist Conventions annual meeting. I was covering a protest and rally organized by Soul Force, the national movement to gain full acceptance of gays across religious communities. The Rev. Mel White, Soul Forces co-founder and author, led that rally. White had once been a closet gay working for Falwell and helped write Falwells autobiography. But when he revealed he was gay in 1993, White turned to debunking whatever Falwell said about gays and lesbians. He and his partner even moved to Lynchburg to step up their watchdog dogging of Falwell. White and Falwell were able to hold public debates on homosexuality neither side giving ground. White, I believed, longed deeply for Falwell to see the light and come around to fully accept gays as Gods children and creation.I recall that rally. Falwell was all smiles as he walked across Civic Plaza with Baptist colleagues passing through the corps of protesters and then across Second Street. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, issued as state Wednesday, sharing his condolences, but then said, "Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of Americas anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nations appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.Falwell and the Rev. Pat Robertson were the twin towers for the religious right. Falwell was pummeled for his post-911 comments: I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’" The pastor said the attacks represented God’s judgment on America for "throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked."Days later, he apologized and said the hijackers, instead, bore the guilt of the tragedy. Whether you sided with the Moral Majority or an amorphous moral minority, you can view Jerry Falwell as an example of how far tenacious faith can take one in America when the message is clearly defined and it resonates with a segment of the people. Let the long eulogies begin.