Today, thousands across the country marked the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade,  the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in America.

The anniversary, coming as it did on the week of the presidential inauguration of a pro-choice president, has produced a groundswell of protests, vigils and other activities designed to promote the sanctity of human life.

Here’s just a few examples of the types of activities that are now under way or beign planned:

– Pro-life advocates in about 118 cities across 41 states, plus four Canadian provinces and Austrailia, are preparing for simultaneous 40 Days for Life campaigns from Feb. 25 through April 5. The campaign will consist of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion, 40 days of constant, peaceful vigil outside abortion centers and Planned Parenthood offices and 40 days of pro-life community outreach. Incidentally, those dates coincide with the Christian season of Lent, a fact noted in a recent news release.

“Lent is a season of prayer, fasting, repentance and renewal,” Shawn Carney, spring campaign director said. “It’s a perfect match.”

– As part of the Birmingham Letter Project in Washington, D.C., a prayer vigil at Planned Parenthood was held on Wednesday, along with a March to the White House and the Supreme Court. Today a March for Life was held and Friday, the Rev. Alveda King, niece of slain civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., will lead a prayer and memorial service in which 1,400 flowers will be laid in front of the White House to honor the 1,400 black children that die every day from abortion. On Saturday, as part of the project (named after MLK’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and coordinated by the Christian Defense Coalition) activists plan to leave pro-life messages and artwork on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.

– Members of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign planned to give their personal abortion testimonies at the Washington, D.C. March for Life and at San Francisco’s Walk for Life West Coast on Saturday. Janet Morana, the group’s co-founder, said men and women who have suffered years of torment because of abortion will stand in front of the Supreme Court and on the streets of San Francisco to “proclaim that the time for healing has begun. To be pro-life is to be pro-woman.”

– Prolife Witness and Pro-Life Unity have joined forces to introduce Organized for Life, a new initiative aimed at taking the abortion and pro-life issues battle beyond the streets and clinics and into the homes of American families. The initiative will include outreach to discuss the abortion issue person to person, door to door, block by block and city by city.

(AP PHOTO: With one woman holding a large picture of the Virgin Mary, a group of about 200 pro-life supporters march on the grounds at the state Capitol in Hartford, Conn., today on the 36th anniversary of the controversial Roe v. Wade U.S Supreme Court decision on abortion.)

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor 

As you chew on that candy cane this holiday season, chew on this:

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal of a case involving a fifth-grader who tried to sell candy canes with a religious message at his Michigan school, according to the Religion News Service.

The court announced earlier this month that it has declined to hear the case of Joel Curry, whose petition was filed by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund. 

The RNS said Curry was 11 in 2003 when he made candy cane-style Christmas ornaments with notes that school officials considered “religious literature.” The notes attached to the ornaments, titled “The Meaning of the Candy Cane,” referred to Jesus six times and God twice.

Curry copied the message from an ornament at a Christian bookstore, according to the RNS, and he made the ornaments as part of a class project in which students developed and sold products.

He wasn’t disciplined although school officials asked him to remove the message. When he did, he received an “A” on the assignment. 

Curry, who is now 15, told the RNS that he is disappointed with the high court’s ruling, but he doesn’t think about the incident much any more because it happened a long time ago.

In September 2006, a federal judge ruled that the principal violated Curry’s First Amendment rights. A three-judge panel for the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed that decision.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor

I love candy canes — the look of them on Christmas trees and the feeling I get when I can hand some out to little kids during the holiday season.

The sweet treat has apparently caused a ruckus in Michigan and the flap has now gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Religion News Service reported that the court was asked on Monday to consider whether a fifth-grade student’s religious expression on a classroom project can be considered “offensive” and subject to censorship by school officials.

According to the news service’s story, in December 2003 Joel Curry (who was 11 at the time) made candy cane-style Christmas ornaments with a note that officials at his school considered religious literature. The note was titled “The Meaning of the Candy Cane” and referred to Jesus six times and God twice.

The news service reported that Joel copied the message from an ornament at a Christian bookstore. He is now a sophomore at Heritage High School in Saginaw, Mich.

“It’s unfortunate it has to be pushed this far,” his father, Paul Curry to RNS. “When children step out in the world, they have to deal with different faiths and religions. It’s a good way for teachers to educate students as long as no one is proselytizing or pushing it down someone’s throat.”

Joel made the ornaments as part of a class project in which students develop and “sell” products, but school officials told him to remove the message, even though he received an A on the assignment.

Attorneys filed a lawsuit against the Saginaw School District and the school’s principal in 2004, arguing that school officials violated the boy’s right to equal protection because students previously had been allowed to sell religious-themed items.

In 2005, a federal judge ruled in favor of the boy, but a three-judge panel for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later overturned that decision.

According to RNS, the new suit seeks reimbursement of legal fees and clarification of the district’s policy on religious speech.

“Penalizing Christian students for expressing their beliefs in the classroom is unacceptable under the Constitution,” said Jeff Shafer, the senior legal counsel with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which petitioned the high court to hear the case.

“The First Amendment exists to protect private speakers, not to enable religious discrimination by government officials. The court of appeals’ unprecedented classification of student religious speech as an `offense’ worthy of censorship should be reversed.”

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OK, so my posting title may have been exaggerated. It’s actually the religious-themed note that has caused the furor. Still, it’s interesting to thing that a little boy’s candy cane class project has caused such a stir.