Religion

First Congregational Church of Glendale, United Church of Christ , will be one of more than 900 congregations from across the country and around the world to participate in Evolution Weekend Feb. 13 to 15, a period designed to recognize that religion and science, two fields of critical importance to humans, should be seen as complementary rather than confrontational. The fourth annual Evolution Weekend event is particularly timely this year since this is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, “On the Origin of Species.

As I try to do every year, I look for something that has happened throughout the last 12 months that has taught me something and has expanded my abilities to see things in a different way. The act of forgiveness by the Amish stands above every other example in my search this year. After five of their children were killed by a mentally unstable man who walked into a quiet rural school house, the Amish immediately put out the message of peace. Without hesitation they sent the word against vengeance.

Alecia Foster NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- Prem Pal Singh was a young man living in India when he first encountered Americans -- they were members of the Peace Corps. All he could think about was how great America must be, with so many people willing give up their lives there to help those less fortunate abroad. "I was very much taken by them," he said. "I wanted to be a part of the American culture." At 35, Singh realized his dream by becoming an American citizen.

The Supreme Court this week ruled that displays of the Ten Commandments on government property are not inherently unconstitutional. In essence, the justices ruled 5 to 4 in two cases that each case of alleged governmental promotion of religion by displaying the Ten Commandments needs to be examined on its own. In one case, they ruled that the Ten Commandments could not be displayed, because they go too far in endorsing religion....

Theorists not quite on the mark I'm afraid some of the points made in last week's In Theory feature ("Pledge row raises its head again") on the "under God" controversy won't stand up under scrutiny. A couple of the respondents argued that the phrase's presence in the Pledge of Allegiance is justifiable because it doesn't refer to a specific or particular religion. I would remind them that the wording in the Constitution is "establishment of religion," not establishment of "a" religion or "one" religion, so the lack of specificity in this context is irrelevant.

Ministers are being urged to stop faith schools in England selecting pupils and staff on the basis of their religion. Accord, a new coalition of secular and religious figures, wants the government to stop state-funded schools engaging in what they say is ?discrimination.? Does segregating students on religious grounds harm community cohesion, or do faith schools boost standards in deprived areas? ? Without understanding everything about British church-state separation issues, this question is a hard one for me. Normally, I?

This is probably the hardest piece I?ve had to write for any newspaper. I?ve had my share of difficult stories to write, but this one takes the cake. Weeks ago, when I was asked by my editors to write a column for this space every week, I accepted it humbly and graciously, with the thought that I did not deserve to have a column yet in this stage of my career, and that instead it should go to one of my esteemed veteran colleagues. What?s funny is, when I finally figured out what I was going to write about, I panicked over how I was going to write about it. So I?

Christians in majority, so they should decide The recent editorial, "Prayer-minded councils are simply missing the point" is missing the point. The writer asks, in effect, why prayer at public meetings can't be said privately and individually instead of formally and publicly. Individual prayer is not the same as collective prayer. Those who have no religious faith often believe that religion is man-made and a form of superstition. Those who have a genuine faith know differently.

I read somewhere that Republican candidate Mitt Romney's presidential hopes are in the snowball-in-hell category. No way, no how, no chance America would select him as its president. And that's not because of his political stances (which I mostly disagree with) but because of his religion. The man's a Mormon and in the eyes of millions of Americans, that makes him unfit for the job. In my eyes, that makes those millions unfit to cast a vote. Ditto for many in this country who would not vote for a woman or an African-American, regardless of their qualifications.