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...very peculiar role of religion in the country’s political life justify the endorsement this legislation has received from President Chirac and the majority of his cabinet, the legislative body and the people. The law is designed to uphold the uniquely French principle of the secular republican state. It will succeed in doing so by affirming that the public school system, as the apparatus responsible for forging the next generation of citizens of that secular state, should not openly recognize religious differences between its students. Preserving secular principles requires that religious affiliations be expressed only outside the context...
...Scriptures. Professors at A.P.U. must sign a pledge affirming that they "believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative word of God" to work at the college, a requirement gladly accepted by the faculty, many of whom say they were tired of teaching "half-truths" at secular colleges and feel relieved to "come out of the closet" as Christians. The oath policy has cost the school in dealings with the outside world, including the loss of a $3.4 million government contract to run an early-education program last fall. But it also opens A.P.U. to the world...
...1990s, however, A.P.U. president Richard Felix envisioned the school as a flagship Christian university and launched its first formal fund-raising campaign. Under Felix, now retired, A.P.U. introduced an honors program and a science research institute, created academic scholarships to lure better students from both religious and secular high schools, quadrupled its graduate programs and nearly doubled undergraduate enrollment. Even as the school grew in size, the mean SAT score of freshmen began a steady climb, rising 72 points in the past five years, to 1,102--82 points above the national average and a sign that more serious scholars...
...sense of being in a kind of Christian haven, away from the world's traumas, that can make the campus seem especially welcoming for protective parents and religious students from large public high schools. A.P.U. professors seem to enjoy a closer bond with their students than those at many secular schools because of the 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio and the faith they have in common. At A.P.U., students talk about visiting their professors' homes and meeting their families. Biologist Milhon describes himself as "like a marriage counselor" for some of his students...
...nice thing about Howard Dean is that he does what journalists tell him to do. The New Republic wrote that he was too secular, and he immediately found religion. In the past week reporters and pundits have started raising eyebrows about the near total absence of his wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, in the primaries. She has probably been the most absent spouse in the history of presidential campaigns. And he would probably like to change that...