LITTLE ROCK — Singapore's leader
sees religious threat
SINGAPORE - Singapore's prime minister said in his National Day speech that "aggressive preaching" by religious groups and evangelization threaten the small city-state's stability.
Lee Hsien Loong, a Buddhist by birth, said his education at the island's Roman Catholic High School was an example of how different religions can coexist peacefully.
In the most recent census in 2000, 43 percent of Singaporeans said they were Buddhist, 15 percent Muslim, 15 percent Christian, 8.5 percent Taoist and 4 percent Hindu.
Lee cited the case of a Christian couple jailed earlier this year for distributing religious pamphlets deemed offensive to members of other faiths, and he condemned those who he said try to convert ailing hospital patients "who don't want to be converted."
He said the government must remain secular because Singapore's authority and laws "don't come from a sacred book." - The Associated Press Ted Haggard's wife to write on scandal
CAROL STREAM, Ill. - Gayle Haggard, wife of pastor Ted Haggard, plans to write a memoir titled Why I Stayed, according to Tyndale House Publishers.
"This is my story of choosing to love my husband through some of the most difficult challenges any marriage could face," Gayle Haggard said in a statement.
Ted Haggard resigned as pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after a male prostitute from Denver claimed in November 2006 that he had a cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard. Haggard confessed to "sexual immorality."
Haggard has since said that he has worked with counselors and no longer has sexual desires for men.
Gayle Haggard's book is scheduled for release in January.
- The Associated PressIdaho school panel opposes Bible plan
BOISE, Idaho - A state education panel has blocked a school's plan to teach from the Bible.
The Idaho Public Charter School Commission said in a statement last week that the Idaho Constitution "expressly" limits use of religious texts.
The Nampa Classical Academy, in southwestern Idaho, had said it planned to use the Bible to teach about the literary and historic influence of the Scriptures - not to teach religion.
The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund, a religious liberty group, represented the academy and had argued that the writers of Idaho's Constitution "sought assurances that the right of public schools to use the Bible as a teaching tool would be protected." Nampa Classical Academy has a statutory right to choose its own curriculum, the defense fund argued.
Kyle Borger, chairman of the academy's board, said the school will follow the commission's directive.
- The Associated Press Mormons replace lightning-hit angel
SOUTH JORDAN, Utah - Workers have replaced the iconic gold statue of a trumpet-blowing angel that was scorched by lightning atop a new Mormon temple in South Jordan in June.
The statue of the angel Moroni sits on the 60,000 square-foot Oquirrh Mountain Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was hit and damaged during a June 13 rain storm.
3D Art Inc. owner Bruce Wallgren says the replacement has two grounded lightning rods - one on the head and one sprouting from the trumpet.
- The Associated Press
Religion, Pages 14 on 08/22/2009