BP News, the publication of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the anti-abortion LifeSite gleefully pick up the same quote from Julia Duin’s article yesterday in The Washington Times — William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights asking, “‘Are [the Democrats] out of their minds? Would they hire a gay basher to reach out to homosexuals?'” The rationale for the gay-bashing analogy is, of course, the Democrats’ new senior adviser for religious outreach, Brenda Bartella Peterson, who signed an amicus brief petition supporting Michael Newdow’s case to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge — something that, according to LifeSite, automatically qualifies her as “anti-religious.”

Malaysian censors have approved Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, reports Rajan P. of Malasiankini, but with one binding circumstance: only Christians will be allowed to watch it and tickets will only be sold in churches. The obvious question — how would such a ruling be enforced — points to what Philip Bowring noted in the International Herald Tribuneyesterday: Malaysia’s religious and political divisions correspond almost perfectly to racial divides, with ethnic Malays assumed to be Muslim. And so, as Rajan P. writes, classifying the film by religious affiliation effectively classifies it by race too. “From their appearance,” writes Rajan P., “the only race that will not be admitted in will be the Malays.”

“Unbuckling the Bible belt” in Winnipeg, Canada: The Winnipeg Sun talks to Simon and Ruth Clarence, an evangelical pastor and Christian writer, respectively, about the Bible-based sex education classes they began teaching about six years ago.

“‘We’re here to let people know that they have to get ready for that. We have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. People need to realize that they have to get right with God.’ Having just returned from the security fences and political platforms of the Democratic National Convention in Boston, it seems to me that the pursuit of “infinite justice” and “enduring freedom” would continue in some form — Republican, Democratic, apocalyptic…” CommentatorRoberto Lovato, of The Pacific News Service, finds end-times fear at the New York Stock Exchange.