Associated Press Legislators voted Thursday to make Virginia the first state to require clinics that provide first-trimester abortions to meet the same standards as hospitals. http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/278105 Read more

Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic Mark Gardner and Dave Rich did yeoman’s work not long ago, analyzing the Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi’s 2003 book, Fatawa Min Ajl Falastin, or Fatwas on Palestine, and came to the conclusion that this putatively moderate Islamic cleric argues clearly and consistently that hatred of Israel and Jews is Islamically sanctioned, and that the destruction of Israel is mandated by God http://www.jidaily.com/jqQd3/e Read more

Thomas Kidd Now is the time for the Muslim world to rise up—but not just for democracy. As we have seen in China, “democracy” is a sham without real religious liberty. http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Can-Religious-Liberty-Become-Halal-Thomas-Kidd-02-23-2011.html Read more

Yehuda Mirsky How do today’s Jews and Christians encounter one another? Among other ways, there are discussions among well-informed scholars and thinkers navigating the middle ground between the normative claims of revealed truths and the open-ended texture of secular reasoning. One such meeting took place last week at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Institute, where, for two days, Jewish and Christian philosophers and theologians discussed the topic of “Covenant, Conversion, and Hope in the Human Future.” http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2011/2/21/main-feature/1/jewish-christian-dialogue-today Read more

Friends: This was in response to scholars who wonder what theology can add to the historical-critical appproach to the Bible. Gerry What is distinctive about a theological approach to the Bible? Gerald McDermott 18 Feb 2011  It goes beyond the historical-critical approach. It uses not only historical criticism, but other hermeneutical approaches in addition. It recognizes the limitations of historical criticism. The historical-critical approach, as it has been used often since its rise in the 18th and 19th centuries, is... Read more

Austin Ruse The debate stopper par excellence in any conversation about homosexual marriage is supposed to be the unanswerable question, the one that highlights the absurdity and reflexive bigotry of marriage defenders: “If gay marriage is so harmful to marriage, how will it harm your marriage?” http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/france-destroys-marriage-then-saves-it.html Read more

He polled his audience at the San Antonio Convention Center, starting by asking how many considered themselves politically liberal. A sea of hands appeared, and Dr. Haidt estimated that liberals made up 80 percent of the 1,000 psychologists in the ballroom. When he asked for centrists and libertarians, he spotted fewer than three dozen hands. And then, when he asked for conservatives, he counted a grand total of three. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/science/08tier.html?_r=1&emc=eta1 Read more

David Mills In my years as an Episcopal activist, I duly read all the “progressive” magazines and newsletters and press releases and sat through dozens of “progressive” sermons, lectures, press conferences, and literally weeks of General Convention meetings, covering the debates both of the house of bishops and the house of deputies (which included clerics and laymen both). I was surprised, after a while, to notice not only how often the progressives used the word “prophetic,” but how un-ironically they... Read more

Joseph Bottum Perhaps the situation in Egypt will resolve itself peacefully. Or perhaps we’ll see a long stretch of public unrest before the nation finally stumbles its way into a new form of stable government. But there’s one easy prediction to make: Whatever happens, Egypt’s Coptic Christians are going to be hurt, unless the United States makes a major diplomatic effort to help them. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-02-07-column07_ST_N.htm Read more

This is a letter that came from brother in Egypt (via Salwa Salman from Bethlehem) which speaks for itself. Let’s urgently pray for the situation! Etti (a friend of Brian Kvasnica, who lives in Jeruslaem)  Dear Friends, Egypt is finding its way towards more freedom, but please don’t believe what the international media is saying! There is a plot to topple the president, and Egyptians do not want that. I have been on the streets with many hundreds of thousands,... Read more