Disclaimer: I enjoy watching Chris Matthews for entertainment purposes, but I also watch pro wrestling.

On The New Yorker website, Hendrik Hertzberg writes about Chris Matthews.  Along the way, he includes this bit of religion-based analysis of why Matthews "went kind of haywire during the Clinton years":

Over at Orcinus, Sara Robinson has an interesting post in which she disagrees with the notion that the "Obama phenomenon" is a cult.

Winnefred Fallers Sullivan is Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Religion Program at SUNY-Buffalo.  She recently posted an an adaptation of her keynote address from a conference on "After Pluralism".

In it, she suggests that contrary to the goals of both the political left and right, the American jurisprudential view on the First Amendment establishment clause is shifting because of a changing "religious anthropology" no longer rooted in a peculiarly Protestant view of religion (which she ties in part to anti-Catholicism).

Recently, in the case Rabinowitz v Anderson U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks (whose previous high-profile cases include refusing a Bush campaign request to bar a manual recount in Palm Beach and surrounding counties during the 2000 presidential election) ruled against a plaintiff suing because he felt uncomfortable voting in a Catholic church.

The Christian Science Monitor has been a must-read newspaper for me in the past few years, especially for its coverage of the Middle East.  It also covers religion and politics, such as this recent article looking at the prospects of the religious left as an influence in 2008.

The paragraphs that make me thing the most are the following:

Disclaimer: this is intended to be descriptive of American public opinion and not in any way a reflection of my personal views on abortion.  This is intended to be a discussion on trying to accurately discern the middle position on abortion and describe public opinion rather than a debate on the merits of that position, whatever it may be.

A recent Gallup poll notes that a majority of Americans approve of the recent Supreme Court decision permitting regulation of late-term abortions, data which I find unsurprising.

Sometimes, I think that advocates of religious tolerance become too emotionally involved in the faiths whose existence they support.  Either they have a postive regard for a particular religion or are a member of a seemingly oppressed religious group.  I prefer to take a step back occasionally and view things dispassionately.

Some people say that young people are more progressive than older people.  After all, look at the data.  63% of Generation Y (born in 1977 or later) completely disagrees with the notion that women should return to their traditional role in society.  94% think that it's okay for blacks and whites to date each other. 56% support gay marriage.

I see people to look at these data points and proclaim that younger generations are more progressive, but I think those people are overly obsessed with abortion and homosexuality and fail to look at the big picture.

There's an interesting Gallup poll on why people attend church.  It went beyond the usual asking of who attends church by adding an open-ended question on the reasons for going or not going.

This story has been circulating on some Catholic blogs after it was noted by the Catholic News Service, but this USA Today story is the first mainstream media story I've seen on Pope Benedict's new book Jesus of Nazareth.  The talking point has been the pope's claim that Europe has plundered Africa, both materially and spiritually.

An excerpt from the book, concerning the parable of the Good Samaritan, has been posted in several places, part of which I reproduce below.

One thing making the rounds on some Catholic blogs is a recent confrontation between Sean Hannity and Father Thomas Euteneuer.  A transcript (with commentary) is also available.  Coverage can be found at blogs such as The Cafeteria Is Closed and Open Book by Amy Wellborn, who thinks this ought to elicit a response from the Catholic League (not that she expects one), which I have noted in the past is not particularly interested in any real anti-Catholicism.

Law professor Howard Friedman's church-state blog Religion Clause notes a recent finding of anti-Catholic discimination that was also reported in the Washington Post.