National Notes
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Sex education focusing on abstinence. Abstinence has increasingly become a focus of sex education in the nation's schools, according to two new studies. More than a third of U.S. school districts teach abstinence alone, while a majority urge students to delay intercourse until marriage but to use birth control and practice safe sex if they don't. "Abstinence, teaching children to wait to have sex, is a core element of most sexuality education programs today," said Tina Hoff of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducted the research along with the Guttmacher Institute.
___ Demand for emergency food help rising. Demand for emergency food assistance in the nation's cities increased an average of 18 percent last year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors reports. The Washington-based group's annual status report, based on a survey of 26 cities, indicates the need for such food had the largest increase since 1992. The report also found an estimated 21 percent of requests for food are not met. The survey also indicates that requests for emergency shelter rose 12 percent since the previous year, the largest increase since 1994.
___ New woes hit Christian Coalition. The Christian Coalition, once the Religious Right's standard-bearer, has been sued by its direct-mail fund-raiser for non-payment of bills and has lost its Washington lobbying chief. A suit filed in Alexandria, Va., by the direct-mail firm Stephen Winchell & Associates charged the coalition with non-payment of about $400,000--even though the company said it helped the coalition raise $7 million. Meanwhile, Randy Tate, the coalition's chief Washington lobbyist and its one-time executive director, has resigned. Coalition founder Pat Robertson told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper his organization was "quite a mess."
___ NIH issues guidelines on stem-cell research. The National Institutes of Health has issued draft guidelines for the controversial study of stem cells derived from human embryos, research scientists believe has the potential to advance treatment of numerous diseases. The current language in the guidelines says the early human embryos from which the stem cells are derived must be from frozen embryos that remain as the result of infertility treatment. The guidelines note that NIH funding will not be available for certain kinds of stem-cell research, including studies involving human cloning, creation of a human embryo or combination with an animal embryo.
___ Pope ponders clearing 15th-century reformer. With strong support from Pope John Paul II, the Vatican is taking a new look at the Inquisition's condemnation of the 15th-century priest, theologian and church reformer Jan Hus as a heretic. Forty scholars from Czech, Polish, German and Romanian universities met at the Vatican Dec. 17 for an ecumenical four-day symposium on the views for which Hus died at the stake in 1415. A renowned preacher and writer at the University of Prague, Hus was inspired by the views of British reformer John Wycliffe. He ran afoul of the Inquisition because of his criticism of the church hierarchy. His death at the stake set off a series of religious wars, which lasted for decades and left Catholics in the minority in Bohemia. The Hussites helped to pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.
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