Earmarking religion
New York Times (registration site)
Religious organizations have long competed for federal contracts to provide social services, and they have tried to influence Congress on matters of moral and social policy ? indeed, most major denominations have a presence in Washington to monitor such legislation. An analysis of federal records shows that some religious organizations are also hiring professional lobbyists to pursue the narrowly tailored individual appropriations known as earmarks. Observers are lining up on both sides of this analysis debating whether it?s a good or bad thing. Earmarks for religious organizations make up only a small portion of ones doled out each year by Congress.

Organ donation
Religion and Ethics Weekly
Each year in the United States there are 29,000 organ transplants. All of the major faith traditions support the practice of organ donation and view it as an act of compassion, but the relationship between donor families and the recipients of their loved one's organs is complex and emotional, involving both gratitude and guilt.

Kids bad for the environment?
London Sunday Times
A report released last week in Australia said having large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanor in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags. The paper by the Optimum Population Trust said that if couples had two children instead of three they could cut their family's carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York . What the report does not acknowledge is that children, as opposed to plastic bags or jet travel, may grow up to help solve the environmental problems being deplored.