Too good not to steal from Pastor Dan:

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Via Kos, this one’s just strange.
For these and other reasons Cindy is calling for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting […]

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We touched on this in the vid last week:
Palin said that Obama palled around with “terrorists,” plural. And Obama does not have a different view of America than “most of us.” Most of us love this country but know that its imperfections are worth tackling. Palin believes the country is already perfect and all criticism […]

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AP story today:
WASILLA, Alaska - The camera closes in on Sarah Palin speaking to young missionaries, vowing from the pulpit to do her part to implement God’s will from the governor’s office.
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What she didn’t tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was […]

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So you’re in California, and you’re applying to the University of California. The 10-campus system is pretty hard to get into, and so you’ve taken college prep classes. But then you find out the university isn’t going to accept those classes; and you’re furious.
And, being furious, you sue.
But now, you’ve lost. Because a California judge […]

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In which Pastor Dan notes:
I like Barack Obama. I like his faith.** Up until recently, we shared that faith pretty much exactly. Time and again, I have defended his right to talk about his faith. Hell, for all I care, candidates can talk about their love of pooties if it helps voters get to know […]

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Via Pastor Dan, check it out - it really was only a matter of time:
Religious Right Gears Up To Push Political Choices From the Pulpit
As the presidential candidates prepare to compete for religious voters this November, some preachers on the Christian right are vowing to test longstanding tax rules that inhibit politicking from the pulpit.
The […]

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So there’s a new Pew U.S. Religious Landscape survey out, with some veddy veddy interesting findings. One of them, I’ll let Steven Waldman say, so I don’t get accused of making it up myself:
Evangelicals Similar to Muslims - In many questions, the group most similar to evangelicals was Muslims. For instance, 79% of evangelicals say […]

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I’m game.
First, an apology: I actually ran into Joe Hainthaler at the company picnic over the weekend, but just sort of mumbled a few things en route from one place to another. Basically, I was delivering food for two hungry kids; and Joe, as I saw you shepherding one around yourself, I figure you’d understand […]

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Hm. Via Sullian, Bob Casey Jr. on the role of the church in the affairs of state:
I do think there’s a difference between what a religious leader says and does and what a public official or legislator does. But there’s no question that a lot of our legal underpinnings find a good bit of their […]

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I like this one. So an outspoken athiest named Rob Sherman is in front of the Illinois state House of Representatives the other day, arguing about a $1 million state grant to a school that some Illinois legislators said should have instead gone to a Baptist church that had been destroyed by fire. Government grants to […]

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Hm. Via Paul Glastris, I see Steven Waldman, a founding editor of Belief.net is blogging over at TPMCafe in relation to his new book “Founding Faith,” which tackles the sore subject of what the Founding Fathers thought about the confluence of religion and goverment.
Waldman sums it up fairly well in his latest:
There’s a common script […]

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E-mail of the day, in response to this past week’s print edition:
Mr. Brubaker I believe is simply taking a stand for what is written and designed in God’s word. Mr. Brubaker isn’t worried about his critics. He is concerned what God will say on that final day and showing obedience. What do you want Jesus […]

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Bang head against brick wall. Repeat, ad nauseum.

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File this under: Things I didn’t know (a big file, but nonetheless…)
Via Elam Zook’s “The Amish and Us” - you mean to tell me that fundamentalists proselytize the Amish?
Zook notes that this cuts both ways, but I’m sort of stunned that anyone would have the gall to go up to an Amish person and tell […]

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Been following the discussion about the “Good News traveling fast” story in yesterday’s Intell, a story which I found borderline disturbing. Not beacause I think religion should be off-limits on school grounds at all times, but more because - as I read the story - it seems to me that these Christian after-school clubs are […]

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Remember that creation science degree proposed down in Texas? Turns out the Texas Commissioner of Higher Education has requested that the outfit proposing the on-line degree term it a “degree in creation studies,” not science:
The institute, in Dallas, said that most of the students in the program would be planning to teach in Christian schools. […]

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Charlie Crystle weighs in on the topic of last week’s print edition, the fact that the local Democratic Party has seen fit, along with the Republicans, to sponsor a prayer breakfast tomorrow morning.
As Charlie notes, this is causing a big rift among local Dems - as well it should:
The arguments for sponsoring religious <events> have […]

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Only in Texas…

Coming Soon to Texas: A Master’s Degree in Creation Science
Because Baylor University is not doing enough to plumb the seas for Noah’s Ark, an advisory committee of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has recommended that the Institute for Creation Research be given the authority to grant Master’s degrees in science education.
So is […]

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So last night I sat and listened to Mike Huckabee on Larry King. As might be obvious, I want to dislike Huckabee - on the basis, mostly, of who I think he appeals to; people who want religion to have, shall we say, a more definitive and dominant place in American life.

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