[NOTE: This post originally appeared on The Washington Post’s “On Faith” website.]

Governmental, religious, and cultural leaders on all sides have already spoken, written, or tweeted about the proposed Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site in Manhattan. So when my friend Eboo Patel asked me to add my voice to the noise, I wasn’t sure what new perspective I could offer.

An expert in constitutional law might see the Cordoba House controversy as a First Amendment issue and demand that the Muslim-Americans organizing the project be allowed to proceed without impediment. A politico might see the matter as an opportunity to score easy points with constituents (right or left) by supporting or denouncing the “Ground Zero mosque.” And a member of the media might see the issue…

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season prior to Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Vice President Joe Biden sparked curiosity when he appeared in public and on television with a smudge of ash on his forehead. One news anchor in the UK had no idea what it was. “What’s happened to his head?” asked Kay Burley on Sky News. “It looks like he’s walked into a door!” The co-host speculated that he had fallen on the ice while attending the Winter Olympics. (As if we needed more evidence that Britain is an utterly post-Christian secular culture.)

Biden is a practicing Catholic, and the ash was part of the Ash Wednesday mass he had attended earlier in the day. While usually associated with Roman Catholic expressions of…

Confession time. I’ve never watched An Inconvenient Truth. I’ve never read Earth in the Balance. In fact I’ve never studied the global warming issue in any depth beyond the occasional news article in Time magazine. I’m not sure this is anything to be ashamed about…I’m probably like many Americans in this regard.

But since Barack Obama has taken office and everything is now green (”green economy,” “green jobs,” “green energy,” “green cars,” and “green business”) I’ve started to actually pay attention to the issue of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

I know what the “deniers” on the right think. Rush Limbaugh is fond of saying that humans didn’t create life on earth and therefore we cannot destroy it. He says global warming is a myth concocted by lefty scientists to scare…

Promise Keepers new focus on women and messianic Jews:“Promise Keepers is not a men’s ministry. It is a ministry for men.” -Raleigh Washington president of Promise Keepers. Read more.

The Manhattan Declaration’s focus on abortion, gay marriage, and religious liberty:

“We argue that there is a hierarchy of issues. A lot of the younger evangelicals say they’re all alike. We’re hoping to educate them that these are the three most important issues.” -Chuck Colson. Read more.

Pastor on relocating to Chicago to plant a church:

“I just had one of those moments like ‘Holy crap … what are we doing?’” -Mark Bergin. Read more.

Rick Warren on paying $1500 for counseling early in his marriage:

“MasterCard saved my marriage!” -Rick Warren.

Zondervan’s decision to stop publication of a book deemed racist by Asian-Americans:

“The growing churches…

“A clash of civilizations.” That’s how many in the media and in politics describe the relationship between Muslims and Christians. This popular narrative, however, does not capture the full story. Yes, there is a faction of Islam that is hostile and even aggressively violent toward the West. And there are some Christians who ignorantly scrawl Bible versus on the gun barrels of their tanks. But there are also people like Pervaiz Masih.

Pervaiz was part of the poor, Christian minority in Pakistan. He was illiterate. He worked as a janitor at the women’s campus of Islamabad’s International Islamic University. When a suicide bomber disguised as a women tried to enter the crowded cafeteria, Pervaiz confronted him at the doorway to prevent him from entering. In the struggle the bomb…

An interesting debate has been started on the Jackson Sun website. The newspaper’s editorial page editor, Tom Bohs, wrote a column asking why so many conservative Christians are opposed to health care reform. He writes:

There are plenty of people who are perfectly happy with the system we have. Their argument is: Why tamper with a system that 80 percent of the people find adequate? It’s a good question. The answer is: You wouldn’t tamper with it unless you care about what happens to the other 20 percent of the people. So we are back to our basic moral dilemma. Should American citizens be entitled to adequate health care coverage with the cost borne by all?

It is interesting to me that the one group we have heard almost nothing…

The Olympics are about athletics, competition, and the power of sport to draw the nations of the world together. It’s also about politics. Would Los Angeles have gotten the Summer Games in 1984 if Moscow hadn’t hosted them in 1980? Would Beijing have hosted the games in 2008 if China wasn’t the fastest growing economy on the planet? Do you think Atlanta’s bid in 1996 was helped at all by the fact that it’s Coca-Cola’s world headquarters-one of the Olympics largest corporate sponsors?In its less celebrated moments, the International Olympic Committee has been accused of allowing political and economic influence determine its choice of host cities. Although it has sought to clean up its act, if you think the IOC is now completely incorruptible I’ve got an Illinois…

Ross Douthat has an insightful op-ed in The New York Times comparing Ted Kennedy with his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. The two died just 13 days apart, and they shared many other traits. Both were devout Roman Catholics and political liberals. But they differed on one significant point-abortion.

The op-ed shows how Eunice’s faith led her to value all human life. This fueled her care for the mentally retarded and the founding of the Special Olympics. It also led her to fight with the Democratic Party as it moved full-speed toward abortion rights.

In contrast, Douthat traces Ted Kennedy’s movement away from a pro-life position toward the staunch defender of choice he became:

In 1971, in a letter to a voter that abortion opponents would have many opportunities to quote, [Ted Kennedy] declared that…

Next month I will be participating on a panel with a Jewish rabbi, a secular humanist, a Muslim, and a Buddhist. The event is part of the Interfaith Youth Core’s “Leadership for a Religiously Diverse World” conference. For most of my life I have been very comfortable in interfaith settings. In college I even majored in comparative religion and greatly appreciated my interactions with people holding other worldviews and theologies. In general I am very supportive of Christians learning about other faiths with the goal of fostering respect and understanding.But last week a judge in Quebec has pushed the value of interfaith education to a new degree, and I’m curious to hear what you think.

Here’s the scoop. Last year schools in Quebec introduced a new curriculum covering “a…