Tuesday’s RNS report includes a story about the lessons hurricanes offer to people of faith. Adelle M. Banks and Jason Kane write: The one-two punch of hurricanes Katrina and Rita is serving as both a test of faith and a teachable moment for the nation, religious leaders say. As resources are stretched to aid those affected by the double disaster, long-standing charity efforts are combining with new examples of interfaith cooperation. “I think most people tend to pray harder through something like this,” said Loui Dobin, director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Greene Family Camp near Waco, Texas, which has become a shelter for hurricane evacuees.
Bill Sulon reports on the trial taking place in the Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania, regarding the teaching of intelligent design to its ninth-grade students: The lone witness in a federal lawsuit being scrutinized across the country testified that a statement on intelligent design being read in the Dover Area School District is “terribly dangerous.” Kenneth R. Miller, a biology textbook author and professor of biology at Brown University in Rhode Island, said the Dover policy is based on flawed information and “misleads students” into equating intelligent design with evolution.
