Church Meets State

BIRTH CONTROL AND SEX ED
Evangelicals argued that the morning-after pill, Plan B, should not be approved for over-the-counter use. After a long delay, Acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach approved the nonprescription status, though only for women 18 and older. The right has been wildly successful in expanding the use of sex-ed programs that promote abstinence until marriage. Over the past decade, the government has spent more than $1.5 billion in state and federal money on abstinence, even though studies have not yet proved the programs' effectiveness. At least one third of the prevention money spent on Bush's African AIDS initiative must also go toward abstinence programs.

PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF RELIGION
Courts have been ambivalent on this one, partly due to the shifting majorities on the Supreme Court. Last year the high court ruled that the Ten Commandments can be displayed in public if they are part of a historical display, but not as a stand-alone religious symbol. In 2003, the then Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended after he defied a court order to move a Ten Command-ments monument from the state Supreme Court building. Rulings on displaying crèches and menorahs have also been muddled. And although the religious right has lately railed against "taking the Christ out of Christmas," many schools and municipali-ties--worried about being sued--now steer clear of any religiouscelebrations or symbols.

Correction: In the graphic "A Range of Voices Under the Revival Tent," accompanying our Nov. 13 cover package, "The Politics of Jesus," we misidentified Chuck Colson. While Colson runs a program that ministers to prison inmates, he is not an ordained minister. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.

with Karen Breslau and Michael Hirsh; graphic by Jessica Ramirez and Marc Bain

© 2006