Fetal Heartbeat Abortion Ban Blocked by Kentucky Judge

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“The judge’s order blocks the bill for 14 days or until the day he could hold a hearing deciding its constitutionality. Judge Hale also blocked another bill which banned abortions in events where the mother was seen to discriminate against the fetus for its disability, gender, or race. Judge Hale found the bills to be unconstitutional.” - WRN

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Researchers double-checking polls on religion’s demise

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“The increased reliance on web-based research for public opinion surveys is raising questions about the relevance of long-accepted political and social trends documented in decades of telephone polling. … prominently and consistently reported declines in belief and church attendance may be less dramatic than reported over the past two or three decades.” - BNGlobal

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Survey: More than a third of US Catholics question loyalty in wake of scandals

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“According to a poll released Wednesday (March 13) by Gallup, more than a third of U.S. Catholics …said they have questioned whether they should remain in the church. That’s up from 22 percent in 2002, when The Boston Globe published its report detailing widespread child sex abuse by priests in the city.” - RNS

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Ben Franklin and the Speckled Ax

In this excerpt from his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin explains one of his experiences with the Presbyterian church in Philadelphia sometime in the mid-1730s, and the beginnings of his own scheme to attain moral perfection.1

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