Yesterday Was "Take A Lawyer To Church Day."

Did you miss it?

If so, The New & Improved New York Times has the story...

Pastor Says Ouster a Misunderstanding

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:59 a.m. ET

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- A pastor who led a charge to kick out nine church members who refused to support President Bush said Sunday it was all a misunderstanding, as some of the congregants who said they were ousted showed up for church anyway.

Members of the tiny East Waynesville Baptist Church said the Rev. Chan Chandler told them during last year's presidential campaign that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry needed to leave the church.

This past week, his comments turned to politics again at a church gathering that ended with nine members voted out. After the vote, other members reportedly left the church in protest.

Chandler said before Sunday's service that he wouldn't preach about the controversy, but he called it ''a great misunderstanding.''

Several members who said they had been kicked out went to services Sunday, as did lawyers for the pastor and the ousted members. --snip--

Some members of his congregation, however, voiced their support for Chandler on Sunday.

''He's a wonderful, good old country boy,'' Pam Serafin said as she walked into the church. ''There are always two sides to every story.'' Much More...

Hm. Two sides to every story.

Pam Seraphin would probably applaud school essays on topics like "The Other Side Of Slavery" and "Bigotry Is Cool: The Bible Tells Me So."

Take A Lawyer To Church Day might just catch on. It certainly made a difference in Waynesville yesterday.

As for this New & Improved New York Times, check this out.

Here's an excerpt...

Times Panel Proposes Steps to Build Credibility

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: May 9, 2005

In order to build readers' confidence, an internal committee at The New York Times has recommended taking a variety of steps, including having senior editors write more regularly about the workings of the paper, tracking errors in a systematic way and responding more assertively to the paper's critics.

The committee also recommended that the paper "increase our coverage of religion in America" and "cover the country in a fuller way," with more reporting from rural areas and of a broader array of cultural and lifestyle issues. The 16-page report is to be made available today on the Times company's Web site, www.nytco.com.

OK. I'm not holding my breath while you get your credibility problem under control, NYT.

Especially when you publish your holier-than-thou attack on bloggers on the same freakin' day!

Heavy, lawyered-up sigh.