Marvin Olasky, advisor to the political stars
William Hague, leader of Britain's Conservative Party, has taken a leaf from George W. Bush's playbook and is beginning to endorse faith-based social programs. Hague, who doesn't attend church regularly and has previously refrained from discussing his religious beliefs, is now saying he is a "committed Christian" who finds spiritual fulfillment while walking the Yorkshire Moors instead of sitting in a pew each Sunday. In an effort to woo religious voters at the evangelical festival Spring Harvest, Hague also said he believes religion should play a larger role in education. Hague said he has been taking advice on faith-based social welfare from Marvin Olasky, editor of World magazine, but he told The Guardian: "I am not talking about replicating exactly things that have happened in America but I think the general lesson that sometimes things can be done better by religions, by voluntary organizations, by charities than they have ever been done by the state or local authorities ... I think that is a very powerful lesson."

Exorcism is in the air On Wednesday Weblog linked to an article in The Los Angeles Times about the increasing number of exorcism ministries and request for exorcisms in the past few years. Now psychologists at the University of Washington in Seattle say they've been expecting this trend. Elizabeth Loftus, an expert in memory research said that after the release of The Exorcist in 1973, "We saw thousands of people out there thinking they were possessed and asking for exorcism." Loftus saw no reason why that phenomenon wouldn't be repeated again with the current re-release of the movie, and the popularity of a similar Showtime feature Possessed. University researchers ...