“I know that I’m endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he’ll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity.”Masab Yousef, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, on his conversion. (Source: Haaretz)
* * *
“Just as the Christmas tree evolved into a secular symbol of celebration, the cross has evolved into a symbol capable of communicating a secular message of death and burial.”U.S. District Judge David Sam, in a November 2007 ruling allowing the Utah Highway Patrol Association to erect cross memorials for fallen troopers. American Atheists Inc. is appealing the ruling. (Source: American Atheists Inc.)
* * *
“We really have to face the fact that mistakes are made in museums, just as they are made anywhere else.”Edna Russmann, a curator at the Brooklyn Museum, which announced that 10 of its 30 Coptic sculptures (particularly those with Christian iconography) are fakes. (Source: Reuters)
* * *
“There are no beer bashes at Liberty, and no coed dorms, but it doesn’t have to be a monastery.”Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of Liberty University, on the school’s plans for a year-round artificial ski slope, the first of its kind in the U.S. “Talk about a slippery slope,” quipped Religion News Service. (Source: Religion News Service)
* * *
“Requiring Mr. Sherrod to send his child support to the central unit can have, at most, only an incidental burden on his religious practice. The statute is facially neutral as to religion and is uniformly applicable.”Judge Patricia J. Cottrell, of the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Nashville, rejecting Michael Sherrod’s excuse for not paying child support. Sherrod said he would have paid the support, but the U.S. law on child support enforcement is 42 US Code Section 666. (Source: Tennessee Court of Appeals)
Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
Earlier Quotation Marks columns are available from September 2008, August 2008, July 2008, June 2008, May 2008, April 2008, March 2008, February 2008, January 2008, December 2007, November 2007, October 2007, September 2007, and earlier issues of Christianity Today.