Dart to the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard, for thumbing its nose at the news. Knocking down still further the ad-edit wall has been a series of ads for gamma knife surgery at Sacred Heart Medical Center. The ad on Sunday, October 29, for example, which appeared on page A3, is dominated by a large photo of a partially closed fist, bandaged index finger poking up by nearly five inches beyond the upper margins of the ad into the news columns above. Thus forced to read around that grossly gratuitous graphic, some readers suspected the paper of giving them the finger.

Laurel to The New York Times, for investigating a trend of biblical proportions. As the Times continues to faithfully chronicle the ever-expanding presence of religion in the traditionally secular arenas of our civic life—and the profound challenges that presence presents to sacred First Amendment principles—the paper now brings to the nation’s attention the more mundane manifestations of the phenomenon. Citing chapter and verse, the four-part series “In God’s Name,” by Diana B. Henriques, documents the enormous economic advantages that, with the blessing of the White House, Congress, and the courts, influential religious groups have come to reap in recent years through breaks on taxes, housing, and employment—dispensations that often are unfair and sometimes absurd. Should religious freedom from government interference, for instance, absolve a church-run day-care center from complying with the regulations imposed by the state on its nonreligious counterparts? Should a diocese that dismisses a novice after a diagnosis of breast cancer, or a congregation that fires a rabbi who happened to develop Parkinson’s disease, be protected from legal recourse against such discrimination? Should a church that wants to build a sprawling, state-of-the-art fitness center, complete with tanning bed and video arcade, be exempt from land-use laws? Sensitive...

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