"I think we ought to do everything we can to tolerate and accommodate whatever kind of relationships people want to enter into," the Republican vice-presidential nominee said in last night's debate. As the New York Post's Rod Dreher notes, "Coming from a Republican vice-presidential nominee, that's a bombshell. … Add that to both Bush and Cheney's weak responses on the RU-486 question, and social conservatives this morning have to be feeling shell-shocked by the men leading the party they thought was their home."

"The time had come to disassociate ourselves from a denomination that had drifted from its Anglican roots," says Tim Smith, rector of Christ Church in Mobile. The Mobile Register reports, "The vote—251 for leaving and 29 for staying—came after 10 hours of debate Saturday and Sunday." The church will join the Anglican Mission in America. See also news from the Associated Press, Crosswalk's ReligionToday, and The Advocate.

Since Christianity Today noted Ty Inc's lawsuit against HolyBears in an editorial last year, it's time for a belated update. The two settled their differences in August. HolyBears had to redesign its bears and issue a letter of apology, but can sell older bears until they run out (creating what is sure to be a frenzy for the infringing "collector's items"). The apology is worth the read: "We begin this letter of apology with an admission. Beanie Babies bears were very much in the forefront of our minds when we got into this business. … At the time, we were not aware of Ty's copyrights, and we now realize that we started with some designs that looked ...