Another one from Reason – Gene Healy with a sharp piece on how ending the judicial filibuster could backfire on Republicans. Ending the judicial filibuster, Mr. Healy argues, could provide a precedent for ending the legislative filibuster as well. And that would be problematic for anyone who favors limited government: But the second possible endgame…

Reason’s Jesse Walker on Democrats desperately seeking values voters: In the real world, instead of a GOP desperately trying to be hip, we see Democrats desperately trying to be square. Half a year after the election, they’re still looking for the magic bullet that will win those “values voters” who purportedly cost them the presidency.…

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. The usual explanation offered is that you ask other Christians here on earth to pray for you, so why not the saints in heaven? After all, if we are all part of the communion of saints as the creed tells us, it would seem that…

Confessing Evangelical on Lutherans and Mary (here and here). Siris on establishing the canon. Versus Populum on Bonhoeffer, pacifism, and “necessary evils.”

Why do I keep getting sucked into internet debates arguing the merits of just war theory against pacifists when, in fact, I’m against 99% of all wars actually waged? Is this what they mean by “the narcissism of small differences”?

Bunnie Diehl on “Justice Sunday” and the Christian Right: So apparently something called “Justice Sunday” took place yesterday. At my church we called it the Third Sunday after Easter. But in Generic American Protestant churches, it was the high holy feast of Justice Sunday! Where Republican politics and Evangelical doctrine are intertwined. I don’t care…

From an evangelical pastor in Michigan. The website also features tips on praying the Hours from Phyllis Tickle, compiler of the Divine Hours series.

That’s the name of a new initiative being proposed by Democrats for Life. The idea is to reduce the number of abortions in America by 95% in ten years. Policy proposals include: Federal Funding for Toll-Free Number/National Public Awareness Program Conduct a National Study & Update Abortion Data Federal Funding for Pregnancy Prevention Education Federal…

This is a very good essay by Croation theologian Miroslav Volf (I also recommend his Exclusion and Embrace). Volf argues that what’s needed to counter religiously sanctioned violence is not less religion, but more religion. Specifically, the more rooted Christians are in their own “thick” tradition (rather than, say, some pale imitation civil religion) the…

Much less one this cool. (via Dappled Things)