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Congress | Politics | Romney and Mormonism | Australia | U.K. | Life ethics | Sex and marriage | Abuse | Crime | Money and business | Theology and ethics | Church life | Catholicism | Education | Books and history | These kids today | Other stories of interest

Congress:

• On Capitol Hill, mixing faith and politics | How much of a role will religion play in the new Congress? In a special live broadcast from Capitol Hill, congressmen talk about how their religion factors into their thinking and voting (Talk of the Nation, NPR)
  
  
• New majority's choice: should GOP policies be reversed? | As they take control of Congress, Democrats are divided on how much energy to spend trying to undo tax cuts, deregulation and abortion restrictions (The New York Times)
  
  
• Jefferson's Koran used in ceremony | Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican, said, "It was much ado about nothing. All 435 members just took the oath, en masse, without anyone putting their hand on any book. (The Washington Times)
  
  
• Also: Ellison uses Thomas Jefferson's Quran | And now he wants to talk about something else (Associated Press)
  
  
• Lawmakers take swearing-in oath twice | Religious texts were used for the re-enactments, but not for the group swearing-ins (Associated Press)
  
  
• Sen. Boxer pulls award to Muslim leader | "We made a bad mistake not researching" the Council on American-Islamic Relations, she said (Associated Press)
  
  
• 'What happened to … religious tolerance?' | Rep. Mazie Hirono was raised in the Buddhist tradition but doesn't actively practice the religion (The Honolulu Advertiser)
  
  

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Politics:

• Ford and faith | Though "quiet and off the record," religious beliefs shaped the former president (Edward E. Plowman, World)
  
  
• The Sunday alcohol sales debate: Laws stand on secular grounds | Despite the strongly religious origin of these laws, beginning before the eighteenth century, nonreligious arguments for Sunday closing began to be heard more distinctly and the statutes began to lose some of their totally religious flavor (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  
  
• Even on Sunday, alcohol sales should flow freely | Why are we allowing a bunch of Baptist preachers to control our choices and restrict our commerce? In a secular, pluralistic democracy, does the will of a few theocrats determine whether we can buy beer and wine on Sundays? (Cynthia Tucker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
  
  
• Romney and Mormonism:
  
  
• Faith no obstacle | Is Romney's Mormon faith a bridge too far for evangelicals? (Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
  
  
• Is it Mormon in America? | As Mitt Romney prepares to run, secular liberals develop their own religious test for public office (W. James Antle III, The American Spectator)
  
  
• A modern prophet goes global | The Mormon faith is spreading. But is it a world religion? (The Economist)
  
  
• Is Mitt Romney a tool of the Mormon church? (Damon Linker & Richard Lyman Bushman, The New Republic)
  
  

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Australia:

• The church, the state and the minister | This week's spat over the involvement of pro-life agencies in government-funded pregnancy counselling has again brought the uncomfortable interface between politics and religion — church and state — into the spotlight (The Age, Melbourne, Australia)
  
  
• Also: Abbott sermon defies belief | Here we go again. Just when it seemed our leaders had accepted there's little political mileage to be found in the issue of abortion, Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott seeks to muddy the waters once more (Sarrah Le Marquand, The Daily Telegraph, Australia)
  
  

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January (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51