[RUDOV:] ...the main problem I have is if a woman has a female agenda. If she doesn’t have a female agenda, if she just wants to be an executive for all the people, then all I care about is if she’s qualified. And I have no qualms about having a female president.

But if we take Hillary Clinton, she specifically does have a female agenda.

Do you think their next conversation will be about the downside to having every president in the history of the United States be a man?

Interfaith Dialogue and Tension

The Christian Science Monitor reports on planned talks between Christian and Muslim representatives:

Gatherings of top religious leaders and even some heads of state will take place this year in the United States, at the Vatican, and in Britain, aimed at defusing tensions between the West and the Muslim world.

The first-of-their-kind dialogues – which will kick off in July – will begin with theological discussions but seek practical results. Yet they're stirring some debate within the faith groups as to the proper way to engage "the other" and whether common ground can be found.

Religion News Service (via Ethics Daily) has an illuminating piece on the tense relationship between some Jewish leaders and Christian Zionists in America:

"On the one hand, there's a desire to have as strong a support for Israel as possible," said Rabbi Joel Meyers, who heads the Rabbinical Assembly, an umbrella group of Conservative rabbis. "On the other hand, there's concern that no one wants to back any religious extremist. And some of the comments coming from some of the leaders of the evangelical movement are certainly extreme when they talk about other faiths.

"That makes a lot of people, including myself, very uneasy."

New Books and Movies About Religion

Four (!) stories jumped out at me this week relating to religious media.

"Drumroll grows louder before Wilders’ Koran film" Tom Heneghan of Reuters reports that Geert Wilders' not-yet-released film titled "Fitna" is being discussed around the world. He gives a chronological list of links to related stories.

"The Love Guru to be screened for US Hindu leaders" from the Hindustan Times:

After The Love Guru, billed as the biggest Hollywood comedy this summer, raised the hackles of Indians for allegedly belittling Hinduism, Paramount Pictures has agreed to screen the film for Hindu leaders once it is completed.

The film is by Mike Myers of Austin Powers fame, and has a cameo by New Age guru Deepak Chopra. It revolves around an American raised in an Indian ashram who returns home as a saffron-robed, hirsute, self-help guru named Pitka with a knack for solving celebrities' romantic problems.

Hat tip to Gary Stern's Blogging Religiously.

In "One flew over..." db at Religion News Service describes the controversy surrounding the authorship of There is a God: How the World's Most Famous Atheist Changed His Mind.

And Rev. Anne Howard at Faith in Public Life reviews What Does a Progressive Christian Believe?--A Guide for the Searching, the Open and the Curious by Delwin Brown

Clinton's Schedule as First Lady Now Available to the Public

From CNN:

The National Archives on Wednesday released more than 11,000 pages of Sen. Hillary Clinton's schedule when she was first lady.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign pushed for the documents' release, arguing that their review is necessary to make a full evaluation of Clinton's experience as first lady.

The documents cover nearly 2,900 days. An additional 27 days will be posted in the near future, the archives said.

The article notes that the conservative Judicial Watch has also taken a keen interest in the documents.

Update 10:33am:
I can't believe I forgot to include this note related to last week's conversation about prostitution and the Dallas Morning News:
Tyra could be reading us right now!