No one sported ashes at last night’s Republican debate. (Maybe Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich needed a drive-thru service.)
But everyone did penance. Mitt and Rick pounded each other, and Newt had to watch. Then they all got to criticize Obama for promoting policies on contraception that they used to support themselves. (Scroll down to Minute 46 for the best bits.)
Except for Ron Paul, a doctor, who doesn’t have to finesse the contraception issue because he’s always had the same view: “I think the immorality creates the problem of wanting to use the pills. So you don’t blame the pills.”
In Washington State, meanwhile, pharmacists who believe life begins at conception won’t have to dispense morning-after pills.
And Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has retreated from his support for a bill that would generally require a vaginal probe ultrasound before a woman could have an abortion.
McDonnell shouldn’t feel too bad about the shift; Mitt Romney made a lot more of them on the abortion issue, as Slate’s Will Saletan shows.
Rick Santorum might want to think about shifting his views on torture if he wants to keep the mantle of the Best Catholic Candidate Ever.
A Catholic bishop in Illinois and a priest he fired for not following the new prayers in the revised Mass continue to trade charges of bad faith.
Franklin Graham has “clarified” his views on President Obama's faith, but he still seems pretty unclear.
Obama has sent a letter to the Afghan president formally apologizing for the burning of Korans at the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan. Furor over the desecration continues to spark protests.
Many African-Americans didn’t need religious faith to believe in the civil rights struggle, and to advance the cause alongside the likes of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the “Kosher Sex” author and media phenom, wants to be the first rabbi elected to the U.S. Congress. But he’s finding that the media can also ask uncomfortable questions when you’re running for office.
Maybe he needs to swear off politics. Maybe we all do. Hey, science is showing that self-denial can be good for you!
David Gibson
AP photo via The Daily Breeze
