Ford, GM to make safer large vans
Faced with government criticism and civil lawsuits, American auto companies have promised to add stability control to their large vans, which are very popular among church groups.

General Motors says it will offer electronic stability control on its 12-passenger vans starting with its 2005 models. It is already keeping its vow to make the stability control a standard feature on 15-passenger vans in 2004 and subsequent models.

Ford is jumping in, too, promising to add stability control standard in 15-passenger vans starting with its 2006 models (it's not clear from news reports whether this will be a standard feature or an option).

"Ford dominates the large van segment," notes The Detroit News, with 53 percent of the market for 15-passenger vans belonging to its Club Wagon models.

But market competition may not be the only reason the auto companies are adding anti-rollover technology. Late last month, Ford settled a hefty lawsuit over a 2002 van rollover crash that killed three American missionaries in Mexico. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but a similar case in 1999 that went to the jury ended up with a $20 million judgment.

Since then, large vans have only come under increasing scrutiny. Most devastating were two consumer warnings issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board that the vans be retrofitted with stability control or additional wheels.

In introducing the new features, the automakers are emphasizing their belief that the vans are safe as they are. "We remain confident that this is a very safe vehicle," Ford said in a written statement. Similarly, GM's vehicle line executive for commercial trucks and vans told The Detroit News that the new stability controls are a way to "take what we believe is already a safe vehicle and make it even safer."

The more than 700 people killed in large van rollover crashes over past 20 years may have had something to say about that—if they weren't dead. But surely this is good news for churches wanting to keep their youth groups safe in their travels.

Still, Public Citizen, an advocacy group that has been leading the charge on 15-passenger van safety, says the automakers aren't going far enough. The stability control system "is no substitute for a full redesign of these deathtraps," Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook says in a press release. "This system won't fix the fundamental hazards that are designed into these vans and are evident in crashes. The vehicles have extremely weak roofs that crush in a rollover, jeopardizing the heads and spines of passengers and opening large portals for ejection. They also have weak doors and poor safety belt systems that fail to keep passengers in place during a crash."

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Southern Baptist workers killed in Iraq:

Terrorism:

Crime:

  • Utah mom accused of murder pleads innocent | The mother accused of homicide for not getting a Caesarean section that could have saved her unborn twin's life also faces a child-endangerment charge for the twin that survived (Associated Press)

  • Ruling made in Gaines's death | Catholic priest accused of serving alcohol to University of Pittsburgh wide receiver can be tried for involuntary manslaughter (The Washington Post)

  • Nun faces jail for drunk tractor driving | Polish Benedictine nun is facing jail for driving a tractor into a car while drunk outside her convent in southwestern Poland, police said on Friday (Reuters)

  • Church stands by convicted member | The prosecution of an ex-policeman convicted of coercing sex from women has brought attention to an unlikely place: a large, liberal and feminist church congregation that offered to oversee his punishment so he could avoid going to prison (The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.)

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Euthanasia trial in New Zealand:

Life ethics:

Abortion and free speech:

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  • Antiabortion poster too much for University of Alberta | The University of Alberta won't allow a student anti-abortion organization to use a high-traffic area on campus to display graphic billboards likening abortion to Nazi and Rwandan genocide (The Edmonton Journal)

Religion and politics:

  • In God we trust | Evangelism and American politics (Vijay Prashad, Frontline, India)

  • Proclamation bedevils town | Two years ago, the mayor of Inglis banned Satan from the town, stirring up a flood of media and legal interest (Associated Press)

  • Escalating fight rivets, divides nation | Both sides claim the advantage as watershed issue engulfs politics and personalities (San Francisco Chronicle)

  • Archbishop: Council appointment could help | The leader of America's Greek Orthodox Christians said he hoped his historic appointment to the Turkey-based council governing the church would ease an escalating power struggle (Associated Press)

  • Second coming | Ralph Reed, now born again as a political strategist, has moved on from doing God's work to doing George W. Bush's (The Atlantic Monthly)

  • Judicial statesmanship and the culture war | Some judges' approach to decisionmaking not only situates the judiciary at the front of cultural or social change, but undercuts its role as the principal protector of the dignity and stability of the law in the United States (David Marion, The Washington Times)

Books:

  • Pullman may give Jesus a novel role | Philip Pullman, the children's author and prominent atheist, disclosed last night that he might introduce the figure of Jesus into his next book (The Daily Telegraph, London)

  • Related: Bless the archbishop for his bookish tendencies | Dr Williams is a rarity - a leader who reads (Editorial, The Observer, London)

  • 'Da Vinci' called heavy lifter | Dan Brown, the author of last year's best-selling "The Da Vinci Code," is nothing but a plagiarist, charges the author of two novels that are strikingly similar to Brown's (New York Post)

  • Cultural icons and alternative religions | Recent books on religion and spirituality (The Washington Post)

  • On a twisted spiritual path | I don't want to get all mushy about it, but I'm honored to be reviewing Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase (Carolyn See, The Washington Post)

  • Faith, hope, and Dr. Seuss too | A retired quadriplegic minister compiles his sermons into 'The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss' (Religion News Service)

  • Professor Keith Hopkins dies at 69 | Hopkins was probably best known to a wider readership for his 1999 controversial and experimental study of early Christianity, A World Full of Gods (The Daily Telegraph, London)

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Bible:

Abuse:

  • The cardinal's stone wall | Mahony sets the pace in protecting priests—not victims—in the church sex abuse scandal. His latest tool is a 'privilege' that might not apply (Editorial, Los Angeles Times)

  • In Albany, sexual accusations raise a bishop's high profile | So far, the tale involves two suicides, a priest's recanted accusation against the bishop, and an assertion by a former male prostitute that Hubbard paid him for sex decades ago in an Albany park (The Boston Globe)

  • Ex-priest gets 8 years for abuse | The former cleric had pleaded guilty to molesting two brothers in Santa Paula more than 10 years ago and faces them in court (Los Angeles Times)

  • No let-up in sex-abuse scandal | The clergy sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church refuses to go away. (World)

  • A novel tack by cardinal | To keep accused priests' files secret, Mahony is asserting a type of confidentiality privilege that one scholar says 'just doesn't exist. (Los Angeles Times)

Federal Marriage Amendment:

  • Evangelicals gird for gay debate | Springs event brings faithful together as battle for marriage amendment looms (The Denver Post)

  • Contemporary consensus amendment | The U.S. Constitution needs amending to prevent state court judges from usurping legislative power to ordain same-sex "marriages" through exotic interpretations of state constitutions or statutes (Bruce Fein, The Washington Times)

Gay marriages in Oregon:

  • Gay 'weddings' go on in Oregon | Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers yesterday said state law prohibits same-sex "marriage," but he did not forbid the practice, leaving if for the state supreme court, which does not have any related cases pending (The Washington Times)

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  • Benton County okays gay marriage | Defying the state's nonbinding opinion, Benton County says it will join Multnomah County and issue licenses next week (The Oregonian)

  • Second Oregon county to marry gays | A second Oregon county has decided to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, a decision legal experts say will likely press the state's highest court to settle the issue soon (Associated Press)

  • A 'stunning obliviousness' to constitutional law | Acting with a hysterical dispatch so utterly foreign to local government, Multnomah County unilaterally pronounced a state law—not, mind you, merely a county ordinance—"unconstitutional" and, worse still, decided to not just ignore it but to authorize governmental conduct squarely contrary to the law (Barry Adamson, The Oregonian)

  • Civility 101 for gay marriage | Trashing the governor and shrugging off all who disagree may be fun, but won't help the county's credibility (Editorial, The Oregonian)

  • County builds a lawsuit factory | Commissioners keep ignoring state marriage laws and making their best guess about the Oregon Constitution (Editorial, The Oregonian)

  • A civil path for marriage | Treading unfamiliar territory of gay marriage in Oregon requires a careful look at government's fair, proper role (Editorial, The Oregonian)

Gay marriage (news):

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Gay marriage (opinion):

  • Family matters | Marriage is based on procreation, a fact no claim of gay 'equality' can avoid (Douglas R. Kmiec, Los Angeles Times)

  • 'Marriage' confusion | Few issues have produced as much confused thinking as the "gay marriage" issue (Thomas Sowell, The Washington Times)

Gay marriage and religion:

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