Missourians vote tomorrow to save prayer in the public square. A proposed amendment to the state’s constitution would protect a person’s right to pray in public, and would allow students to opt out of any assignment or learning experience that violates their religious teachings.  A recent poll suggests the amendment will pass by a huge margin, and I say more power to ‘em. It’s about time that Missouri’s 80% Christian majority stand up to the overwhelming 20% who have been forcing them into the closet for years. St.

By Lissin Lev Chaya Ever since I was little, no matter where I was, I knew when the sun was going down. When I moved to the Pacific Ocean 15 years ago, my awareness became a daily sunset ritual. My partner and I were even nicknamed “Team Sunset” by our neighbors. From the moment the bottom edge of the fireball hit the horizon we would sit in silence, simply watching, until it fully disappeared. No two sunsets were alike, and I never grew tired of them. I was often filled with gratitude at getting to witness the passage of another day.

Just how scared of Satan do you have to be to flee in the face of a non-Christian prayer?

A dear friend of mine recently succumbed to emphysema. Before he became ill, he’d been a scholar and a poet and a social activist. He’d had a passion for beauty in all its myriad forms. His life had been rich with rare experiences and fascinating people, and the whole of the world had been his home. But in his last few years, shortness of breath and a nasal oxygen tube had tethered him to an ever-shrinking sphere of existence — first to his apartment, then to his chair, and finally to his bed. The simplest of activities exhausted him.