“I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful. I didn’t ‘fall out in church’ as they say, but there was a very strong awakening in me of the importance of these issues in my life. I didn’t want to walk alone on this journey. Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.”
—Barack Obama
source: ChristianityToday.com interview, January 23

“It’s like being with an Irish priest. You start to confess your sins: ‘Father Al, I am not just a noise polluter—I am a noise-polluting, diesel-soaking, Gulfstream-flying rock star.’”
—U2’s Bono, sharing a stage with former U.S. vice president Al Gore at the annual gathering of world movers and shakers in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, acknowledging that a career in rock music isn’t always conducive to a green lifestyle (and can be guilt inducing when the author of An Inconvenient Truth is walking around your house)
source: AFP, January 24

“These kids become sex objects, thrust into the spotlight. And while I know they’re all trying to stand out, especially during the audition period, using your Christian beliefs and the fact that you’ve never kissed a girl is not going to bode well for you while trying out to be America’s next big sex object. It’s a national popularity contest based on talent and sex appeal. There’s nothing sexy about a 19-year-old guy who’s never kissed a girl and wears a heart necklace his father is holding the key to.”
—Sarah Preston, writer and editor for Playboy.com, commenting on American Idol contestant Bruce Dickson, 19, who told judges that he’s never kissed a girl and is waiting until his wedding day to do that
source: CNSnews.com, January 21

“I respect women and don’t think of them as a sexual object, and I’m the freak?”
—Bruce Dickson, in response to the controversy over his stand on abstinence
source: CNSnews.com, January 21

“Those who argue at school board meetings that Darwin should be taught in public schools seldom have taken the time to read him. If they knew the full title of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, they might have gained some inkling of the racism propagated by this controversial theorist. Had they actually read Origin, they likely would be shocked to learn that among Darwin’s scientifically based proposals was the elimination of ‘the negro and Australian peoples,’ which he considered savage races whose continued survival was hindering the progress of civilization.”
—from Tony Campolo’s commentary in The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 20