EthicsDaily.com

Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) is a man looking for a cocoon. He just wants to buy a house in his childhood neighborhood, get lots of alcohol and frozen pizza from the supermarket down the street, and hunker down to live out the remaining days of his life. Alone. by Mike Parnell

Roy Medley is one Baptist leader who thinks that when some Baptists make disparaging remarks about the Muslim faith then other Baptists have to step forward to build trust with the Islamic community. by Robert Parham

People who listen to religious radio shows like "Focus on the Family" are less knowledgeable about current events than the average American, according to a recent survey on media consumption by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. by Bob Allen

(RNS) The director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, Jay Hein, has resigned to care for his ill father. by Adelle M. Banks

(RNS) A majority of Americans believe that divine intervention can trump doctors' advice in end-of-life cases, according to a new report published in Archives of Surgery. by Tim Murphy

LONDON (RNS) A 16-year-old Muslim schoolboy has been tried and convicted as Britain's youngest terrorist for his involvement in what was described as a worldwide holy war to "wipe out non-believers." by Al Webb

Former presidential candidate and possible vice presidential nominee Mike Huckabee visited Israel as a guest of a right-wing Zionist group that is buying up property to move Jews into Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter in hopes of replacing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque with a reconstruction of Solomon's Temple and ushering in the Messianic Age. by Bob Allen

Let me confess that I believed from the beginning that the so-called "Faith Forum" held on Aug. 16 at the Saddleback Church in California and hosted by its pastor, Rick Warren, was a bad idea. by Mark McEntire

On Saturday I met with the Coordinating Council of the Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for the last time. Here are the challenges I presented. by Ircel Harrison

(RNS) California's Supreme Court ruled Monday that doctors cannot discriminate against gays and lesbians even if they believe their religious freedom will be violated during a course of treatment. by Adelle M. Banks

(RNS) Membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the country's largest Lutheran denomination, has fallen for the 16th consecutive year, the ELCA announced Thursday. by Tim Murphy

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican on Tuesday announced that the mother and father of a popular French saint will soon be venerated as "blessed," placing them just one step below sainthood. by Francis X. Rocca

Muslims plan to construct over 180 mosques in Germany. The birthplace of the Protestant Reformation, Neo-Orthodoxy, Dietrich Bonheoffer's Confessing Church and Pope Benedict XVI, it is also the location of almost 1,000 Baptist churches and the Baptist World Alliance's 2008 youth conference. by Robert Parham

Saturday's Saddleback Civil Forum helped Republican presidential candidate John McCain shore up support among the Religious Right, according to several conservative commentators. by Bob Allen

During the recent conflict between Georgia and Russia, we learned an interesting lesson on the importance of perspective. My husband, one of our daughters and I were hosts to a Russian houseguest. by Sara Powell

(RNS) Four American missionaries who intended to carry more than 300 Bibles into China say Chinese authorities have confiscated the holy books at an airport. by Adelle M. Banks

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI called for the establishment of "humanitarian corridors" between South Ossetia and the rest of Georgia, to facilitate aid to victims of the conflict between Georgia and Russia. by Francis X. Rocca

WASHINGTON (RNS) Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians converged on the National Mall here Saturday to highlight moral issues before the fall presidential election with a day of fasting, prayer and music. by Tim Murphy

Mega-church pastor Rick Warren has flipped from being a cheerleader for President Bush in the fall of 2004 to claiming neutrality in the 2008 presidential election. His twist is accompanied by a widespread claim that he now has a broader moral agenda. But discerning Christians ought to ask what purpose drove his shift and did he really pivot toward a more comprehensive set of moral issues? by Robert Parham

As a long-time student of civil religion (I co-authored a book in 1988 entitled "Civil Religion and the Presidency" that the publisher quickly took out of print because the evangelical audience to which it was directed was [and still is] unwilling to face up to the matter), I stayed up last Saturday night to watch the show in California. I found it profoundly disappointing, even though Rick Warren tried to be "an honest broker," a term German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck used about himself at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. by Richard Pierard