By Justin Sink Rick Santorum accused the media of a “double standard” Friday for defending President Obama for the comments of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor. Santorum was reacting to criticism of comments Thursday by Forster Friess, who made ill-advised remarks about birth control. He said he shouldn’t be held accountable for every comment by one of his supporters, and said the media were playing “gotcha politics.” “Look, this is what you guys do,” Santorum said on CBS.... Read more

In our on going effort to bring to you articles that examine New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin through the lens of Rhetoric Race and Religion, we share with our readers the column of David Brooks titled, “The Jeremy Lin Problem.” Needless to say, the column provoked many to offer a response and we share them with you as well. Enjoy The Jeremy Lin Problemby David BrooksNew York Times Jeremy Lin is anomalous in all sorts of ways. He’s a... Read more

by Elizabeth TenetyWashington Post’sOn Faith For the next several days, Rhetoric Race and Religion will post articles that focus on New York Knick sensation Jeremy Lin and the role of religion plays in creating his persona. Enjoy Stephen Chen is head pastor of the English-language ministry at Redeemer Bible Fellowship in Mountain View, Calif. Among the longtime members of his 300-person, largely Chinese American immigrant church is basketball’s latter-day wunderkind, the Knicks’ Jeremy Lin. Chen has known Lin since the... Read more

by Guest Contributor Christian Piatt from the Blog: Father Son and Holy Heretic No, he doesn’t go down on one knee every time he nails a dunk or a perimeter shot. And as far as I know, he’s not building any hospitals in far-off countries. But the 23-year-old point guard for the New York Knicks suddenly finds himself in a spotlight familiar enough to Tebow that the pair should consider a face-to-face lunch to compare notes. Like Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin “rode... Read more

Evangelicals have been in the news a lot lately, from the Denver Broncos’ Tim Tebow and his take-a-knee prayers to the Texas pastor and his wife who spent 24 hours in bed preaching the virtues of sex in Christian marriages. Mitt Romney is struggling to gain evangelical support for his presidential bid, and Rick Santorum — a Catholic — won the blessing of more than 100 evangelical pastors gathered at a Texas ranch. So who are these Christians? What do... Read more

Silicon Valley is renowned for innovation in software, social media and biotechnology — all reasons why countless flock here to work and raise their families. But the Valley of Heart’s Delight also boasts the best of pluralism, multiculturalism and interreligious cooperation, which is fertile ground for a serious discussion about the latest national debate: What is Shariah, and can it peacefully exist within America’s legal system?Critics increasingly question religious freedom rights for American Muslims. Many call Islam and America “wholly... Read more

by Rollo RomigThe New Yorker “Religion is the basis and Foundation of Government.” That’s something James Madison wrote, in 1785. Except he didn’t really write it—or, rather, he did write those words, but with a bunch of other words before and after “religion,” and the point he was getting at had to do with individual rights, not God in government. It’s the kind of out-of-context quotation that gets passed around the blogosphere by people who want to assert that the Founding Fathers... Read more

BY SARAH POSNERSALON Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will convene a hearing tomorrow, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” The lead witness is the Most Rev. William E. Lori, Roman Catholic bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. Judging from Lori and the rest of the witness... Read more

Edward E. Curtis IV, professor of religious studies in the School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has co-founded the Journal of Africana Religions, the world’s only refereed journal devoted to research on the religions of African-descended people in global perspective.“This journal signifies a rich coming-of-age in the study of African and African Diasporic studies,” said scholar, author and activist Cornel West.Pennsylvania State University Press will publish the Journal of Africana Religions quarterly in both print and electronic form... Read more

After Jeremy Lin set an NBA record for the New York Knicks with an incredible stretch of 109 points scored in his first four starts, and the New York Times included a link to StudentSoul in one of its Lin stories, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s page views went through the roof. “Linsanity” it has been dubbed. Because he was a varsity athlete, Lin’s involvement in the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Christian Fellowship (HRAACF) and the broader Asian community at Harvard was somewhat... Read more