1. "These high gas prices, Lord, bring them down, oh Father"
Okay, I'll admit it: I've asked God to give me gas. It was late by the time I'd decided to head home, the gas station in the small town I was visiting had closed, I was 35 miles from the next station, and the light had already been on for a bit. I didn't want to break down on the interstate, so I prayed.

Yesterday, nine members of a California group called Pray Live gathered by a Hollywood Chevron station to pray that God would make gas cheaper. "This will be a testament to all of the people who don't believe in the power of prayer," organizer Wenda Royster explained. Los Angeles Daily News reporter Brad Greenberg was there, and he followed up with some theological questions.

2. "The Christian Right is moving Left" Amy Sullivan argues in The New Republic that (to quote the headline, which she probably didn't write) "the Christian Right is moving Left." Her case study: Pennsylvania's Casey-Santorum race, where "global warming is the deciding issue for some evangelicals" since both candidates oppose abortion. But wait: is the unusual aspect in that race that evangelicals are interested in social issues like the environment? Or is it that the Democrats are actually supporting a pro-life candidate? The reality is that the Pennsylvania race is less a test case for evangelical social concern and more an issue of whether opposing abortion will become widely acceptable in the Democratic Party. The question isn't whether evangelicals believe they can in good conscience vote for a Democrat. It's whether Democrats believe they can, in good conscience, vote for anti-abortion laws. If Democrats want to attract moderate evangelicals, the answer isn't to champion ...