Jeff Jacoby claims that marriage cannot be redefined.

A new Gallup poll discovers something rather obvious, but there’s still a lesson for the GOP.

Two weeks ago, I asked whether Mitt Romney’s religion was still an issue that could hobble his Presidential campaign. Today, Gallup releases a poll that seems to say that the answer is possibly yes: PRINCETON, NJ — Though the vast majority of Americans say they would vote for their party’s nominee for president in 2012 [...]

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, says fundamentalist Christians are a far bigger problem than Muslims. And, no, he’s not anti-religion.

Minnesota Congresswoman, and Presidential candidate, Michele Bachmann thinks that public schools should teach so-called “Intelligent Design” alongside evolution in science classrooms: Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann explained her skepticism of evolution on Friday and said students should be taught the theory of intelligent design. Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota, also proposed a major overhaul of [...]

The Netherlands is considering a new animal cruelty law that would effectively ban kosher and halal slaughter practices.

Not surprisingly, Herman Cain’s position on hiring Muslims for government positions and subjecting them to loyalty oaths became the subject of a question last night and, not unexpectedly, Cain doubled down yet again: KING: While we’re on the topic of faith and religion, the next question goes to Mr. Cain. You recently said you would [...]

Why isn’t the GOP calling out religious bigotry from one of its candidates?

Rick Perry makes a valid point about bringing the economy back to Biblical principles.

Several months ago, GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain made headlines when he said that he wouldn’t hire Muslims in his Administration because of this danger of “Sharia Law.” Yesterday on Glenn Beck’s show, Cain doubled down on that comment, saying that he’d hire Muslims, but only if they took a loyalty oath: BECK: You said [...]

Some people still think Mitt Romney’s religion is a relevant issue.

Left-wing religious groups are firing salvos against the Republican Party on the basis of Ayn Rand’s “anti-Christian” influence.

Herman Cain had an interesting reaction to the speeches by Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann to the Faith And Freedom Conference: After our interview, Cain asked me about the other candidate speeches I’ve seen covering FFC this year. There was no indication that Cain had seen them. I mentioned that Bachmann had highlighted her remarks [...]

Tim Pawlenty said in a speech on Friday that America needs to “turn toward God.”

Harold Camping is nowhere to be seen, but his followers are already starting to talk about the failure of his prediction to come true: Followers of an evangelical broadcaster who declared that Saturday would be Judgement Day are trying to make sense of the failed prediction. Some believers expressed bewilderment or said it was a [...]

From the home page of Family Radio: My question:  will it say “-01″ tomorrow?

The Rapture has no biblical foundation and was made up by a 15-year-old girl in 1830.

Call it the legacy of Osama bin Laden: Two Muslim religious leaders who were removed from a commercial airliner in Memphis say they were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard. Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were supposed to travel on an 8:30 a.m. Delta flight, run by a subsidiary, [...]

Dodd Harris has already noted the more bizarre aspects of the power struggle between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameni, but yesterday that power struggle seemed to turn more serious as it entered the mosques: The unprecedented power struggle between the two most powerful leaders in Iran deepened Friday, spilling out [...]

The BBC has a fairly thorough account of what was done with the body: Osama Bin Laden: What happened to his body? Bottom line: US officials have given two reasons why a sea burial was chosen. First, that they did not want his grave to become a shrine. Second, that there was no time to [...]

The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer would apparently like to bring back the Crusades: “The only thing that will give us a shot at building a democracy in an Islamic land is a mass conversion of its people to biblical Christianity. So that means if we want to see freedom come to those darkened, benighted [...]

Sila Sahin set out to make a statement about the Muslim treatment of women by posing nude in Playboy, and got a little more than she bargained for: A Muslim actress has caused a storm by posing naked for Playboy. Sila Sahin has been branded a “whore” and a “western slut” after appearing topless on [...]

The church that President Obama and his family attended on Easter Sunday morning has received threats after being the subject of  a rant by conservative talker Sean Hannity: Shiloh Baptist Church in the District said it has received threatening phone calls and e-mails after an Easter visit from President Obama and a conservative television commentator’s [...]

Franklin Graham, who has made quite a name for himself in recent years with inflammatory statements about Islam, has apparently joined those who don’t think the President is a Christian: Graham, who has prayed with Obama, said the president has told him that he’s a Christian, but allowed that “there are many people that do [...]

On Palm Sunday, French Christians stormed a museum and slashed Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ

As I noted yesterday, the pending release of Atlas Shrugged as a motion picture will likely spark a great deal of discussion of Ayn Rand. An example if Donald Luskin’s column in the WSJ:  Remembering the Real Ayn Rand. The whole piece is worth a read, but I was especially struck by the following: Rand [...]

The Republican war against geology, anthropology, cosmology, biology, and archeology continues apace: Tennessee’s House Bill 368 passed the House of Representatives on a 70-23 vote on April 7, 2011. “The debate ranged over the scientific method, ‘intellectual bullies,’ hair spray and ‘Inherit the Wind,’” reported the Chattanooga Times Free Press (April 7, 2011). The bill, [...]

The duty to defend “hateful, extremely disrespectful, and enormously intolerant” expression.

Senator Lindsey Graham spoke to National Review’s Robert Costa today about the questions that have been raised about his comments yesterday about the burning of the Koran by Florida “Pastor” Terry Jones: NRO: Some of my National Review colleagues are being pretty rough on you today. What is your response to some of the outrage [...]

I was sitting on an airplane yesterday reading an actual dead tree edition of the NYT (yes, I know, how quaint) and I read the piece on Terry Jones of Koran-burning fame:  Koran-Burning Pastor Unrepentant in Face of Furor. From the story: “It was intended to stir the pot; if you don’t shake the boat, [...]

Now, he wants Congress to condemn the actions of one idiot in Florida: The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, appears to have added fuel to the violent protests in Afghanistan after calling on the US Congress to condemn a Christian preacher’s burning of the Qur’an. Karzai’s demand came despite a statement from Barack Obama denouncing the [...]

On Face The Nation today, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said that the reaction to the Koran burning in Florida suggests that Congress should look into limiting some forms of speech (relevant question begins at 2:10 mark): “I wish we could find a way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but [...]

The only people responsible for the murders in Afghanistan are the people who committed them, but the demagogues like Terry Jones deserve condemnation as well.

If we allow the possible reaction of the most dogmatic, evil people who might hear the message to govern our expression, we don’t have freedom at all.

As I noted last week, Florida Pastor Terry Jones presided over a Koran burning earlier this month after promising not to do so back in September. The response across the Muslim world has been predictable, starting with a denunciation by the President of Pakistan and continuing today with deadly rioting in Afghanistan: KABUL, Afghanistan — [...]

Count on Newt Gingrich to be right on top the latest threat to America, the creation of an atheistic society dominated by radical Muslims: SAN ANTONIO — Newt Gingrich stood before thousands of evangelical churchgoers Sunday night to deliver a dire warning that nation’s Christian roots are under attack. “I have two grandchildren — Maggie [...]

Herman Cain has virtually no chance of winning the GOP Presidential nomination, but he’s done a pretty good job of picking up on the GOP’s anti-Muslim theme: KEYES: You came under a bit of controversy this week for some of the comments made about Muslims in general. Would you be comfortable appointing a Muslim, either [...]

An interesting data point in the latest poll about American attitudes about same-sex marriage: A new report from the Public Religion Research Institute suggests a majority of Catholics are supportive of gay and lesbian rights. The report, which was released today, found that 43 percent of Catholics favored allowing gay and lesbian people to marry; [...]

When we last met Florida Pastor Terry Jones he had placed himself at the center of a week-long media frenzy after first threatening to burn a Koran on September 11th, 2010, and then withdrawing that threat under what can only be described as very odd circumstances. This past weekend, with far less media attention, Jones [...]

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Children of God.” – Matthew 5:9

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is the latest Republican to reject the idea that America is a secular nation.

A dispute between friends leads to an interesting criminal defense: Authorities in suburban Philadelphia say a 70-year-old man was stoned to death with a rock stuffed in a sock by a younger friend who alleged the victim made unwanted sexual advances. According to the criminal complaint, 28-year-old John Thomas of Lansdowne has told police he [...]

Yet another example of the plethora of creationist legislation that Republican control of state legislatures has brought about: Unlike many other states, Texas does not ban workplace discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status. But don’t be alarmed; the Lone Star State is working on that whole civil liberties thing. Last week, [...]

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not [...]

This is a pretty sad indication that the anti-Muslim bigotry on the right has resonated with a distressingly large number of people: H/T: Talking Points Memo  

The Dalai Lama will give up his political role in the Tibetan government-in-exile and shift that power to an elected representative.

An Alabama legislator wants to ban the use of Islamic law in the state’s courts — just in case Muslims take over.

Our roving correspondent Richard Gardner forwarded me this clip from “Portlandia,” a series of which I’d never heard, on IFC, of which I’d also never heard, starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. The “Is it local?” bit is fairly amusing:

This story from southwestern Virginia shows a side of the American Civil Liberties Union that critics on the right are not willing to acknowledge: FLOYD COUNTY, VA –The ACLU of Virginia has come to the defense of a group of Christian athletes in Floyd County. In an e-mail sent Friday afternoon, the civil liberties group [...]

Apparently having nothing better to talk about in the world today, Mother Jones‘ David Corn devotes 878 words today to a weird conspiracy theory promulgated by some Israeli you’ve never heard of: [H]ere’s the mother of all right-wing conspiracy theories: Obama is scheming to bring tens of millions of Muslims—perhaps up to 100 million—from the [...]