Michael Paulson offers some conclusions from "Far from Zion: Meeting Mormonism on the Religion Beat," a talk he recently gave at Utah Valley University.

The Council on Foreign Relations, a leading New York-based think tank, has launched a new Religion Initiative.

Reuters blog Front Row Washington reports on President Barack Obama's Georgetown speech about the economy, where references to scripture flowed freely.

At God & Country, Dan Gilgoff posts Robert George's responses to Doug Kmiec's questions about embryonic stem cell research and the question, "When does life begin?"

In the New York Times, Bono calls for attention to values, not value.

In the Washington Post, Jacqueline L. Salmon writes about the conflict of rights between those who condemn homosexuality for religious reasons and the gay people they serve (or refuse to serve) in their communities.