Democrats find religion on campaign trail
Reversing recent political history, it’s the leading Republican candidates who for various reasons have so far been reluctant to speak too much about matters of faith.
chicagotribune.com

Arcbishop of Mumbai: “The Word of God, fulcrum of our mission”
When it is said that the West is losing sight of Christ, in Mumbai our Bible classes are well attended. The Gospel is full of values and for our Indian people, the big crisis now in India is a question of values; we seem to be losing values. Focus could be the Word of God, which is the Letter of God, His truths, His mind, that should be able to re-infuse values into our Indian society. This is what people are looking for.
asianews.it

Mormons and Muslims
The battle between my Muslim upbringing and my male hormones was resolved by Lisa’s Mormon values. One evening, when Lisa and I were sitting close to each other in my basement, she sighed and said she had to do something. She took out a piece of paper and a pencil and drew a stick figure. “That’s me,” she said. And then she carefully traced a circle over the body, leaving her neck and face, her hands and arms up to the shoulder and her legs from the knee down, outside the lines. “Inside is out of bounds” she told me.
washingtonpost.com

Focus on shared values, rabbi tells interfaith dinner
“The secret of the chaplain corps was not talking about theology first, not talking about the hardest issues first. Instead, we rolled up our sleeves and talked about shared concerns [first] – [soldiers] in pain, those in fear, those suffering from doubt or loneliness,” Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff told the the 21st annual Neighbourhood Interfaith Dinner, held recently at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church.
“Only after we had built relationships [with each other] did we talk about faith issues. Otherwise, we agreed to disagree on theology and agreed to agree on the needs of humanity.”
cjnews.com

How Faith and Community Dominate Foreign Policy
Two weeks ago, the French president-elect admitted he is a “practicing Christian” and was strongly criticized for breaching the post-revolution consensus on the laicization of the state. Last month Boris Yeltsin became the first Russian head of state to be buried with Russian Orthodox rights in 133 years. The election of a new president in Turkey caused a political crisis because the governing party’s candidate–presently the foreign minister–is viewed by the opposition and military elites as being too Islamist.
embassymag.ca

Romney’s Mormon Question
What does the Constitution mean when it says there should be no religion test for office?
time.com

The Awful Truth About Letting Go
On a day when students should have been wrapping up final projects and papers, studying for exams, and thinking about finding some boxes to begin packing up their cluttered dorm rooms, they were instead fleeing campus, searching for lost friends, and tearfully calling home.
beliefnet.com

The War of Art
Ask nine out of ten people what the purpose of art is, and they will say, “to express yourself.”
americanthinker.com

“Criminalizing even the vilest hateful thoughts—as opposed to willful criminal acts—is inconsistent with a free society.” – Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)
“History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.” – Douglas MacArthur
“The hate crimes legislation is about human rights and about the right of everyone in America to live free from persecution and free from violence. The vote in Congress… made it clear that hate is not an American value and will protect countless Americans.” – DNC Chairman, Howard Dean

The light bulb, the symbol of bright ideas, doesn’t look like such a great idea anymore, as lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad are talking about banning the century-old technology because of its contribution to global warming.
Established players in the lighting industry and a host of startups are now grooming LEDs to take on the reigning champion of residential lighting, the familiar pear-shaped incandescent light bulb.
Point Source