Happy to allow a debate on birth control in 2012, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will give Republicans a vote on an amendment to the surface transportation bill authored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), known as the “Freedom of Conscience” amendment.

Catholic bishops had a mixed reaction to President Obama’s new plan for birth control access, which preserves universal, cost-free access and uses a Hawaii-type compromise to leave the religiously affiliated institutions out of the exchange of services between an insurance company and the employee.

The story from Evan McMorris-Santoro here, about conservatives turning up their nose and saying “Meh” to the upcoming Marianne Gingrich revelations, even the open marriage stuff, is completely anecdotal. But it fits with a general story about redemption that conservative Christians often tell themselves to allow for a candidate who fails them morally but still offers them low taxes and a strong national defense.

Too many people think King’s statements regarding justice are only about race and the African-American community – thus excluding the LGBTQ community. But King said that, “Eventually the civil rights movement will have contributed infinitely more to the nation than the eradication of racial justice.” Members of King’s family also embrace his words, extending them to the LGBTQ community.

The Smithsonian magazine highlights — and supports — evolution in the cover story of their January issue. Online, they go even further, with additional information and links.

Cue the TheoCon heads exploding in five, four, three . . .

Mostly underneath the radar of the national media, religious leaders and communities are participating in the Occupy movement. But these people are there, and the movement is energizing them to become more involved as a matter of putting their faith into action by challenging injustices and standing up for the poor and oppressed.

At Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church in Pike County, Kentucky, an inter-racial couple, Stella Harville, who is white and who was baptized there and a member of the church as a child, brought her fiancé, Ticha Chikuni, a native of Zimbabwe, to sing at a service. Then they were banned.

I guess my first question is “When did Jesus speak Latin?” But it really goes far beyond that. It goes to the heart of the various interpretations and various bibles that are extant in the world today. It is the very problem I have with folks who look to any bible as the literal word of God (and Jesus). I am asked to believe that people writing hundreds and thousands of years after the fact or are using translations of translations (ancient Hebrew to Aramaic to Greek to Latin) can accurately convey the meanings of words said or written over two thousand years ago.

The late poet and Lutheran seminary professor Gerhard Frost once wrote “My check stubs are enough” to give you his autobiography. The former Chancellor of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Giles Fraser, wrote similar words in June 2010: the best way to assess what someone believes is to look through their bank statement. Forget fancy words and sermons, money is the way we mean it – or we don’t. Money is the sacrament of moral seriousness.”

Given the reactions of the MOTUs and Powers That Be to the Occupy Movement, I’d say they don’t enjoy having their morals examined.

So how did they all do? “I don’t see anyone galvanizing people like they did for Mike Huckabee,” said Steve Scheffler, president of the event’s sponsor and a leading social conservative activist in Iowa. “And I’d be lying if I told you that can change in one event.”