As we slide into the weekend, here’s how it’s looking out there:

As we reported yesterday, the Michigan-based defense contractor says it will no longer inscribe Bible verses on its rifle scopes. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

Opening arguments are scheduled today in the murder trial of Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist accused of gunning down abortionist George Tiller in the foyer of his Kansas church last year.

The NYT has more extensive coverage of yesterday’s diverted USAirways flight after a flight attendant noticed a passenger retrieving something from his carry-on and wrapping him self in black straps; turns out it was an Orthodox Jewish teenager doing morning prayer. The Gray Lady also has a closer look at the Chinese Christians who have found themselves at the center of a court battle over the Prop 8 measure that banned same-sex marriage; lawyers pushing to overturn Prop 8 are expected to wrap their arguments today.

A judge in Connecticut has rebuffed preservationists’ attempts to force an Episcopal church to keep its quaint (but crumbling) rectory intact, and a spiritual counselor in Virginia is going to court to force a distinction between counselors and fortune tellers. In Springfield, Mass., Catholic leaders are suing the city over attempts to create a landmark historic district around a shuttered church (watch the RNS website for more on this story later today).

A 10 Commandments monument is back on the courthouse lawn in Leitchfield, Ky., after a federal appeals court said it passed constitutional muster. “We all love Jesus Christ and anything that comes with it,” exclaimed Steve Mahurin, a minister who works for the road department.

WaPo reviews “Creation,” the Charles Darwin film that opens today nationwide, and finds it lacking. “Drowning in its own melodrama,” to be more precise. (RNS previewed the film on Wednesday.)

Voodoo is coming out of the closet in Haiti, NPR is reporting, as people try to make sense of the devastation. The AP reports that donations for Haiti are outpacing donations for the South Asia tsunami, but still lag behind Hurricane Katrina. After a Senate vote Thursday, you can write off those donations on your 2009 taxes.

And this, because Elvis never really leaves the building: a Toronto church is using the King of Rock ‘n Roll as an avenue to the King of Kings (above photo by Jim Wilkes/Toronto Star).