Pre-debate results are in: Mitt Romney’s candidacy has piqued curiosity about Mormons. Political scientists Donald Green and Daniel Butler chart the Google metrics, and explore whether “The Book of Mormon” musical may deserve some credit.
If Romney’s isn’t the only Mormon voice out there, or the prettiest, neither is “The Book of Mormon”: there’s the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, of course, and its new leader wants to stage performances outside the U.S. to broaden its reach.
Romney is hoping to zing, not sing, in tonight’s opening presidential debate.
Mitt will at least have God on his side. The latest radio spot from Gary Bauer’s Campaign for American Values, running in key battleground states, says so: “Under President Obama, faith is under attack” the attack ad declares.
Even more important for Mitt’s chances in Colorado, a battleground state, is that he has John Elway on his side. Elway knows from comebacks.
More NFL news: Matt Birk, center for the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL’s 2012 Man of the Year, has come out in support of Minnesota’s marriage amendment defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman.
The conservative Pacific Justice Institute has filed a lawsuit in federal court to block a new California law barring the use of “conversion” therapy to make gay minors straight.
The Episcopal Bishop of California welcomes, sort of, the new Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, who will be installed tomorrow. Marc Andrus makes sure to note that his church really likes gays, and if any Catholics agree, they should come to the Episcopal Church. So really, glad you’re here, Sal.
That Voter ID law in Pennsylvania is on hold, so now these nuns can vote.
The pope’s butler says he did the wrong thing for the right reasons. Oh, and he describes his Vatican jail cell as a kind of Gitmo-on-Tiber.
Clash of the Evangelicals: Christianity Today’s editors take Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council to task for “abusing the megaphone.”
It’s debate night, not date night, for the POTUS and FLOTUS even though they were married in Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago 20 years ago today.
Shiites are quietly establishing a foothold in U.S.
In Toledo, Ohio, a mosque is the target of an arson attack.
In Egypt, the AP reports on the Islamist-secular struggle over the country’s constitution.
Most Americans don’t think Scientology is a religion.
Einstein’s “God Letter” is going on the auction block.
Certifying kosher food processors as ethical is a slog.
Finally, First Things’ Matthew Schmitz is a brave man: he continues to lead with his chin, critiquing the new Mumford and Sons album, a sentimental favorite of everyone, it seems, especially Christians.
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David Gibson
Photo credit: The Monkey Cage blog.
