This is what Boykin said about one Somali warlord who believed Allah would protect him from being captured by Americans: "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

Muslims reacted with outrage from that one statement. Boykin's response?

"Let's go back to the day that we captured Osman Atto [the Somali warlord]. He was a corrupt, evil warlord who was stealing from and robbing his own people. He's a man who worshipped graft, corruption, power and money," says Boykin. "My reference to his God being an idol was not to Allah. My reference was to his worship of corruption, of power, of money. He was a thug. He was not a good Muslim."

That may have been what Boykin meant by his statement, but the words "my God was bigger than his" are what everybody heard, and they went off like a bombshell, just when the United States was trying to convince the Muslim world that the war against Islamic terrorists had nothing to do with religion.

Was he trying to make it seem like his God was against theirs?

"No, that's not what I meant at all. Look, I'm a Christian. I make no apologies for that," says Boykin. "But I'm also not foolish enough to deliberately offend or in any way ostracize any religion....I'm not anti-Islam, I'm not anti-Allah."

In a country where Christianity flourished after the arrival of the first Protestant missionaries in 1885, Kim Il Sung's policy of Juche, or self-reliance, introduced an elaborate religious mythology around a Juche Holy Trinity that placed the Great Leader at the pinnacle. His mother, Kim Jung Sook, and his son, the current leader Kim Jong Il (aka Dear Leader), form the other members of the holy family worshipped by North Koreans -- the majority of whom have never heard of Jesus. Following the introduction of the Juche policy, all religions were banned in a country where until 1950, according to some estimates, there were 2,850 churches, 700 pastors and 300,000 Christians.

The North Korean Foreign Minister's office contains a mural showing the modest log cabin where the current ruler in the communist dynasty, Kim Jong Il, is said to have been born. Another mural on the landing outside has the same scene in winter, depicting the cabin surrounded by a high mountain and fir trees in the simple colours of painting by numbers. According to the legend, a star appeared over the mountain at the moment of Kim Jong Il's birth. All that is missing is the three kings and their camels.

In fact, Kim Jong Il was born in a prison camp near the far eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk.

But no matter. For the North Korean people, indoctrinated and blind to the outside world in their hermetically-sealed universe, have been brought up to believe that their impoverished state is a Communist paradise. Any imperfections are blamed on the "hostile" Americans, with whom the country is still technically at war.

Sometime in the last decade or so, Norma McCorvey realized that she had been an unfortunate pawn in the battle over abortion rights and switched sides in the debate, recently describing herself "one hundred percent pro-life." Convinced that the decision that bore her pseudonym was a travesty of law, she filed a motion last year to re-open the original decision, declaring at the time: "I deeply regret the damage my original case caused women. I want the Supreme Court to examine the evidence and have a spirit of justice for women and children." McCorvey and her lawyers submitted in support of her motion the sworn testimony of more than one thousand women who had had abortions and claimed to have suffered long-term emotional damages and damaged interpersonal relationships as a result of their "choice." McCorvey's new suit, filed 30 years after the original decision, never had much of a chance, since it sought to reestablish criminal laws that had long since been removed from Texas's books. It is not surprising then that the court of appeals held that the case should be dismissed.

What was surprising, though, was Judge Edith Jones' powerful five-page separate opinion. While Judge Jones agreed that the court had no power to reopen the original Roe decision, her opinion assures that McCorvey's arguments did not fall entirely on deaf ears.

For the Catholic believer, the Catholic Church is the propagator of the tools for intimacy with God, and thus for salvation via the sacraments and Church teachings. And when it comes to those teachings, and those who violate them, the reasons a bishop should deny Senator Kerry Holy Eucharist are numerous -- and, as with the Sunday obligation, have everything to do with advancing intimate communion with God.

The Church teaches that some actions are so wrong, and that their heinous nature is so evident, that any Catholic committing such acts has willfully chosen to remove himself from communion with Christ and has done great harm to his soul. Abortion, the murder of the most innocent, is one of those actions. Kerry, in directly forwarding abortion legislation, has aided and abetted this kind of murder. The Church deduces that such a person is clearly out of communion, a thing that is so serious that the Church requires the sinner (in this case, Kerry) to take arduous steps to reinstate himself in a relationship with God, via the Church and her sacraments, the m.o. of salvation. These steps exist, in part, to make such grave choices, well, grave. Also, because abetting abortion is so grievous a separation, Holy Communion is off limits until the sinner takes these required steps.

When people argue for Kerry's bishop to deny him Communion, it's not ill will at work. They want him to bring Kerry back into communion with the Church: to help him rejoin the flock, for his own good -- but also to stop him from confusing the rest of us into thinking that promotion of abortion and communion with God are reconcilable differences.

George W. Bush is among the most openly religious presidents in U.S. history. A daily Bible reader, he often talks about how Jesus changed his heart. He has spoken, publicly and privately, of hearing God's call to run for the presidency and of praying for God's help since he came into office.

But despite the centrality of Bush's faith to his presidency, he has revealed only the barest outline of his beliefs, leaving others to sift through the clues and make assumptions about where he stands.

Bush has said many times that he is a Christian, believes in the power of prayer and considers himself a "lowly sinner." But White House aides said they do not know whether the president believes that: the Bible is without error; the theory of evolution is true; homosexuality is a sinful choice; only Christians will go to heaven; support for Israel is a biblical imperative; or the war in Iraq is part of God's plan.

On any given morning, 99.9% of Iraq's 25 million people may wake up eager to rebuild their country and secure the blessings of liberty for themselves, their families and their neighbors.

But if, on that same morning, the remaining 0.01% of Iraqis, 25,000 people, wake up intent on spreading death and destruction -- through sabotage, hostage-taking, video-taped decapitations, suicide-bombings and drive-by shootings -- guess what will dominate that day's news?

This is less a gripe about the media than it is a testament to the efficacy of the strategy being implemented by our enemies. They are utilizing terrorism not just as warfare but also as public relations and advertising....

The terrorists have learned that the major media are generally too "neutral" to disapprove of them. Even when they slaughter women and children, most journalists will refer to them, respectfully, as "insurgents," "militants," sometimes even "activists." After an attack, no matter how vicious, commentators will note that "the security situation continues to deteriorate," a development for which Americans must bear responsibility.

The U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq without the approval of the U.N. Security Council was "illegal," Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the BBC on Wednesday.

"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time -- without U.N. approval and much broader support from the international community," he said in an interview with the BBC World Service.

The U.N. Charter allows nations to take military action with Security Council approval as an explicit enforcement action, such as during the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War.

But in 2003, in the build-up to the Iraq war, the United States dropped an attempt to get a Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it became apparent it would not pass.

Washington is shaping up as one of the first battlegrounds in this war because of our constitution. It hasn't always been interpreted this way by the courts, but in the late 1800s, the state's founding fathers went considerably farther than America's founders did a century previous. Our heritage of safeguarded equality under the law is something to be proud of and something to keep in mind when we elect our state Supreme Court justices.

Gay marriage should be such a simple question under the law. Any consenting adults should have the right to get married. Period. The law is separate from any religious connotations the ceremony might carry. For our legal system, the only questions should be whether the individuals are competent and of age, and whether they're not already married. Legal marriage long ago left the realm of the divine and became, instead, contract law. Religious doctrine should have nothing to do with it. Alas, we still live in an era where some religious followers would like to impose their beliefs on all of us. That's very much what the opposition to gay marriage adds up to.

If there's "a catastrophic event -- multiple parishes affected -- we would likely postpone the election in certain areas that are most directly affected," said Scott Madere, spokesman for Secretary of State W. Fox McKeithen....

The Louisiana amendment would effectively block Louisiana judges from legalizing marriage for homosexuals, as Massachusetts judges did in that state last November. It also would outlaw other kinds of marriage-like unions for same-sex couples.

For the president, paying close attention to his religious base doesn't just make sense -- it is imperative. Opinion polling shows that Americans' votes most closely track their religious attendance. Voters who say they go to church every week vote Republican, by overwhelming margins. Those who go to church less frequently vote Democratic, by nearly similar proportions. Beginning with exit polls conducted during the 2000 election, the synchronicity has held across nearly all denominations and even faiths, appearing among Jews and Muslims, as well as Christians....

For Kerry, the Democratic Party's longstanding support for abortion rights, which he has endorsed, is condemned by Catholic doctrine. His candidacy has become a test case for a Catholic Church task force developing guidelines for how U.S. bishops should approach Catholic lawmakers who promote policies opposed by the church.

While rejecting U.S. and EU criticism of its anti-terrorism reforms, Russia plans to adopt Israel's counter-insurgency methods in Moscow's war against Chechen rebels.

Russian officials said the government in Moscow has agreed to increase security cooperation with Israel and focus on counter-insurgency. The officials said the cooperation would include Israeli training and instruction on a range of issues, including aviation security and civil defense....

[Foreign minister Sergei] Lavrov met Israeli leaders last week and signed an accord meant to pave the way for a joint effort against Islamic insurgency groups.

The Chechen separatist movement has been hijacked by Islamic extremists. (If you have chaos long enough, the international terrorists will come, and replicate.) No longer are the Chechens fighting for independence. They are fighting for the destruction of Russia.

This makes the Chechen movement far more dangerous than a rebellion. It makes it the front line of the war on terror....

And indeed, the situation Russia faces is not unlike that which confronted Benjamin Netanyahu when he became prime minister of Israel. From its inception, Israel has been confronted by nations and terrorist organizations dedicated to wiping it off the map. Netanyahu's response was straightforward: He cracked down. Hard.

For this he was widely criticized. But under Netanyahu's stewardship, suicide bombings nearly stopped, and Israel managed treaties with neighboring Egypt and Jordan. This tenuous peace came about not because Arab societies suddenly recognized the inalienable value of basic human rights, but because Netanyahu had made clear that Israel would not be dislodged.

If the conservatives are right and we've become a society of whining victims -- fighting for a spot on "Oprah" and blaming others for our troubles -- then let's stop rebuking homosexuals for the sad state of conjugal bliss and pass some laws that really make a difference.

How about a constitutional amendment to deny marriage to any couple that did not take a mandatory, government-sponsored prenuptial class? Or denying divorce to any couple that did not submit to a minimum of six months of twice-weekly marriage counseling sessions? Sterilization for any heterosexual man who abandons his children? A tax deduction for joining Promise Keepers?

I understand the moral outrage of those who invoke the biblical injunctions against homosexuality, but if we're not going to observe its equally no-nonsense penalties for adultery (i.e., stoning to death), maybe the fairest thing to do would be to leave the homosexuals to themselves while we put our own houses in order. I can't imagine they'd botch the job any more than some of us have.

Bush has deceived me, and millions of Catholics and conservative Christians and Evangelicals, by his abortion policy at home and his Iraq policy abroad. But, let us put aside Iraq for another day. Let us look at Bush’s record on abortion.

Bush campaigned on a strong pro-life program. However, his policy has been completely the opposite.

> During President Bush's term in office 5.2 million babies have been aborted.

> During President Bush's term in office 4,100 children have been killed in their mothers' wombs EVERY DAY.

Yes, President Bush has cut off some abortion funding there and there -- meaning, in United Nations programs abroad. But, he has done nothing -- the rare partial birth abortion ban, notwithstanding -- to stop abortions at home....

I fully expected President Bush, a few moments after he was sworn to the Presidency, to stop abortion in America by Executive Order. Just as he had ordered the immediate stop of hundreds of other Clinton-era programs at that very moment.

Not only does such personal experience seem persuasive to many, but there is evidence of something very much like this in the Bible itself. Often overlooked in the debate about homosexuality is, arguably, the central issue in the early church and in much of the New Testament. That is, the inclusion of the Gentiles. The early follows of Jesus were, like Jesus himself, Jews. As these early followers fanned out into the Gentile world, the church faced a challenge. Could non-Jews, Gentiles, be part of the emerging church? Could you be a Christian without the mark of the covenant, namely, circumcision?

Scripture argued clearly and decisively, from Genesis on, the importance of the rites and rituals of Judaism, including circumcision. Yet in the New Testament, particular the Book of Acts, the story of the early church, experience supersedes the Bible, in the Bible itself! At the famed Jerusalem Council of the early church, Paul and others report, "these Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit." God, reports an astonished Peter, is doing a new thing....

I have a friend who organizes matters and questions before him in three piles. There is "Accept," and there is "Reject." But there is a third possible category. He calls it "Awaiting Further Light." It seems to me that people of faith, who by definition know that God is God and they are not God and that they therefore lack the full, complete and absolute Truth, might more regularly employ the "Awaiting Further Light" category. We might, then, come to the contemporary debates on this issue, as well as others, with a greater capacity to listen, to listen to views not our own. If there is one quality that might characterize faith and religious people in our day, my own vote is for a greater measure of humility.

Unlike the shouting matches that too often characterize such encounters, "The Question of God" invites skeptics and believers to a table where intelligence is the appetizer, honest discussion the main course and dessert a choice of whether to believe or not. Those fed up with mental junk food will discover a gourmet meal for the mind that will challenge old prejudices and possibly stimulate some people to think about ultimate realities in new ways.

Freud and Lewis, begins the narration, "represent conflicting parts of ourselves. Whatever part we choose will determine our purpose and our whole philosophy of life."

The questions that have always been raised about God are asked and debated: Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? What does it take to be a moral person? Is there a God?

Of course, Judge Hicks must possess sufficient intelligence to understand the imbecility of his argument. That's why he had to follow his declaration with the awkward explanation that, "Though these issues are often the same, they are also quite different." When a judge or politician declares, "We cannot legislate morality," we can count on the issue at hand to be related to sex and personal behavior--not to murder, embezzlement, or bank fraud.

Capping off this legal atrocity is a corrupted understanding of conscience. According to Judge Hicks, "Conscience is what we feel together as one community." If that is all there is to it, there would have been no abolition of slavery, no civil rights movement, and no higher law than what the current moral opinion of a people will sustain. By that standard, who can question the "conscience" that allowed ordinary German citizens to participate in the death industry of the Holocaust?

When you focus on The Judges, it's easy and even somewhat appropriate to get sidetracked with the discussion about the Big Four -- the four oldest members of the U.S. Supreme Court. They are John Paul Stevens (84), William Rehnquist (79), Sandra Day O'Connor (74), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (71).

Only God knows what will happen to the Big Four over the next four years (or to any of the other five justices, for that matter) in terms of retirement, infirmity, or death. But we've gone 10 years now since the last vacancy on the court was filled, the longest gap between appointments since 1823. Almost certainly, the president elected on Nov. 3 will shape the court for a significant period to come.

But it's easy, as I say, to get sidetracked with the high visibility of possible Supreme Court appointments. In the process, it's also easy to forget the overwhelming importance of the dozens of lower-court appointments a president also has to make. On this front, there's no uncertainty and no waiting period. In any four-year presidential term, at least 100 federal judges need to be replaced -- and the character of their findings on dozens of issues profoundly shapes the ethical and moral structure of our nation.

But some issues are more important than others -- and no Christian need apologize for focusing on just three key questions to determine whether a particular judge might be good or bad for the society of the future. Abortion, marriage, and education transcend all other issues.