I thought this review of “Amazing Grace” was particularly well done. The movie is, in my view, wonderful and inspiring, a fine example that good, uplifting movies are still being made.

It includes one of the most memorable lines ever in a movie, by Albert Finney playing John Newton: “I know I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.” Those interested in reading about William Wilberforce, and the role his Christian conversion played in his opposition to slavery may want to read this Wikipedia entry.

I enjoyed reading this article in the NY Times today: there is some grumbling at some schools that BYU sports teams have an advantage because so many of the players are older because they went on missions.

There’s an easy solution, of course: more schools need to recruit more Mormon young men and women! And then everybody with lots of Mormon players would have an advantage.

Interesting side note: according to the article, 82 percent of BYU men and 13 percent of BYU women go on missions. As a complete outsider with nothing to do with BYU, I would have expected both numbers to be higher.

It seems about time somebody pointed this out:

Herein lies the moral danger behind global warming hysteria. Each day, 20,000 people in the world die of waterborne diseases. Half a billion people go hungry. A child is orphaned by AIDS every seven seconds. This does not have to happen. We allow it while fretting about “saving the planet.” What is wrong with us that we downplay this human misery before our eyes and focus on events that will probably not happen even a hundred years hence? We know that the greatest cause of environmental degradation is poverty; on this, we can and must act.

In addition to trying to stake out space as the sure social conservative, Mitt Romney is apparently trying to move far to the right on the issue of immigration. Check out this story in today’s Miami Herald. And this op-ed, also in today’s Miami Herald. (Romney is traveling to Miami this weekend and is getting a lot of attention because of that).

For many reasons, I am distressed that Romney is becoming the anti-immigrant candidate. But I also think we need to be clear why.

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Recently several of the presidential candidates invoked the name of Jesus in support of their political positions.

The topic of Jesus and politics makes for great fodder for pundits and talk show hosts.

A local Phoenix talk show host recently asked his listeners this question: If Jesus was alive today, which party do you think he would be a member of and whom would he support in the 2008 presidential election?

My first thought was- none of the above.

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