Throughout his administration he has acted like a supporter of same-sex marriage, but he has spoken like a man who didn’t have the nerve to own up to his true opinion. It must feel good to be saying what he really thinks. I know I feel better. We can have a fair contest now, in which everyone’s cards are on the table.

Among the top 10 names for baby boys, four are biblical. For girls, variations on biblical names were also popular, with Isabella (the Spanish version of Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother) Ava (a variation on Eve) and Abigail (an Old Testament character) making the top 10.

They are aware that Hispanic votes in general and in the swing states in particular could change the course of this election. In 1996, Bill Clinton won 66 percent of the Hispanic evangelical vote and 73 percent of the Hispanic vote overall. In 2004, the single factor that gave George W. Bush unprecedented levels of Hispanic support came from Hispanic Protestants, who voted 56 percent in favor of his candidacy compared to 44 percent in his 2000 run. In 2008, Barack Obama took the win with 67 percent of the Hispanic vote and a majority of the Hispanic evangelical vote. Hispanic evangelical voters fit the mood of the majority electorate when it comes to presidential politics. If this remains, Romney and Republicans face a tough scenario for winning this year.

The lightning rod pastor has been largely out of the public eye in recent years, but on Tuesday will be addressing a conference in DC about how to reach young Christians who have drifted from the institutional church.

“We’re not a team, we’re a time bomb,” says thoughtful Dr. Bruce Banner, whose rage sometimes unfortunately turns him into a green, killing monster called the Hulk. Marvel’s ‘The Avengers,’ based on the comic books, is breaking box office records across the country. It is great escapism.

His wry and careful handling of flammable subjects is always admirable. But a recent blog post, which brought together three culture-wars figureheads — the Texas mega pastor Joel Osteen; New York Times columnist Ross Douthat; and Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee — in a virtual sparring match was so ingenious that it merits a column of its own.

I strongly support the National Day of Reason, although I wish it weren’t needed. There would be no National Day of Reason if there were not a government-endorsed National Day of Prayer.

Torture apologists are at it again, attempting to justify the unjustifiable. One year ago, former Bush administration officials like Vice President Dick Cheney, said torture (by the euphemism “enhanced interrogation”) produced “some of the results” that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

The Roman Catholic Church is a hierarchical institution if there ever was one. Nobody does anything without consulting a superior. Eventually, that would lead to His Holiness. And this time he has gone too far.

On the upside, the idea that one can commit sins--moral or theological misdeeds--yet still be within the law, is a good thing, especially in a world in which more and more people feel that the line between personal faith and public policy should be erased. In fact, the defense’s claim that Edwards committed sins and not crimes reminds us that in a culture which respects freedom of religion, that distinction must always be maintained.

He gave hope and encouragement to millions of Americans struggling to do right by their children in unconventional or nontraditional families by implicitly asserting “as a practicing Christian” that using the Bible as a literal handbook for raising healthy, happy kids is retrograde, insensible and wrong.

Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein’s new book, “It’s Even Worse Than it Looks,” states:

First, the notion that the Vatican is only investigating the women within its ranks is incorrect. In fact, nuns are rather late in a string of investigations and internal changes the Vatican has been making in America over the past few years. In 2005 and 2006, the Vatican completed an apostolic visitation, or an investigation and evaluation, of American seminaries.

“They can do good and they can do bad – but they’re just Muslims. They are not Islam.”

And with that, the man summed up his talk about the different Islamist movements in Egypt. His talk had been intense – perhaps better described as virulent. Such sentiments distinguishing Islamism from Islam is hardly unique – liberal and non-religious forces within predominantly religious conservative societies in the Muslim world have been making that argument for a while now.

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]]> http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=aab5951372f1642b9250bbce3f575573 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/hot-sexy-yoga/2012/02/15/gIQAeM3yFR_blog.html?wprss=rss_on-faith http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/hot-sexy-yoga/2012/02/15/gIQAeM3yFR_blog.html?wprss=rss_on-faith http://www.washingtonpost.com/Fragment/SysConfig/WebPortal/twpweb/rss/mobile/blog-entry.jpp?id=1000.3.2775366530 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/hot-sexy-yoga/2012/02/15/gIQAeM3yFR_blog.html?wprss=rss_on-faith http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/hot-sexy-yoga/2012/02/15/gIQAeM3yFR_blog.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/hot-sexy-yoga/2012/02/15/gIQAeM3yFR_search.html 1000.3.2775366530 07081c18-57ff-11e1-8441-808e761a6883 yoga Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:16:00 EST Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:15:14 EST 20120228151514 The Washington Post /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/guest-voices/201202/sexy-yoga.xml /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/guest-voices/201202/sexy-yoga.xml BlogStory on-faith.dwp:content_well/grid-onfaith-featured.dwc:col1/story-onfaith-hinduism.dwc:story BlogStory The Washington Post “‘Never again’ is a challenge to defend the fundamental right of free people and free nations to exist in peace and security -- and that includes the State of Israel. [...] So when efforts are made to equate Zionism to racism, we reject them. When international fora single out Israel with unfair resolutions, we vote against them. When attempts are made to delegitimize the state of Israel, we oppose them. When faced with a regime that threatens global security and denies the Holocaust and threatens to destroy Israel, the United States will do everything in our power to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”

The appointment of Michael Wear, an assistant in the small White House office that works with faith-based social service groups, ends consternation by some religious progressives that the campaign slot had not been filled. Since 2008 some religious progressives, including a handful that worked for the Obama campaign, have felt faith concerns and language and image haven’t been high enough priorities for the president’s inner circle.

“We want people to come out of the closet and show people we can be good without God,” Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition, told the Post’s Michelle Boorstein. Richard Dawkins, Adam Savage (co-host of “Mythbusters”) Penn Jillette and Rep. Pete Stark are among those expected to speak or appear via video presentation.

So far, so good, right?

But many soldiers of minority faiths at the base felt that the overriding goal of the “Spiritual Fitness” festival was to convert them to evangelical Christianity. The event’s Web site urged participants to “Find friends and relatives who need Christ, pray for them, and invite them to the Rock the Fort event where they will hear the message of salvation. This also provides an on-going relational approach for evangelism in your church beyond Rock the Fort.”