Obama talks about Jesus more than Bush

Politco says so.

Some theories:
1. To win over people who still think he's a Muslim,
2. connect with the majority of Americans who believe in God (83%),
3. Resurrect the Christian Left,
4. show up in the news.

Lego Jesus

I don't know if this Swedish church is trying to reach out to the next generation or making some statement (We assembled Jesus, Jesus can be assembled in many different ways) but I dig it.

John McCandlish Phillips: the journalist with a "Bible on his desk"

The Wall Street Journal posted a story last week about John McCandlish Phillips, who left The New York Times after working two decades on a promising career in journalism to pursue a career as a minister.

Peter Duffy explains how different Phillips was:

In the secular temple of the big-city newsroom, Mr. Phillips conspicuously placed a Bible on his desk, calling it "a statement I made of who I was and where I stood."

"Koogle": the kosher search engine

It'll be harder for Orthodox Jews who accidentally stumble upon porn or buy something on the Sabbath. There is a new search engine in town, and Koogle isn't going to be putting up with any biblically-prohibited behavior.

The site was developed in part at the encouragement of rabbis who sought a solution to the needs of ultra-Orthodox Jews to browse the Web particularly for vital services.

Via Reuters.

Crunching numbers, avoiding the Beast

Carl Bialik explores the limits of numbering, from Internet IPs to Social Security, while avoiding the sign of the Beast:

Social Security numbers should also last well into the later part of this century, according to Social Security Administration spokeswoman Cynthia W. Edwards. The agency has assigned about 450 million numbers, including 5.8 million last year, but nearly a billion are possible -- not quite a billion because some numbers, including those that start with 666, aren't allowed.

Tom Judd, the routing-number administrator for the American Bankers Association, isn't as accommodating when banks want to avoid that Number of the Beast from the Book of Revelation. "We had a bank call up, mad," because 666 was in its assigned routing number. Others have complained about numbers that included 1313, double bad luck if you're so inclined. But Mr. Judd stood firm. Customers who don't like seeing that number on their check "will have to go to another bank," he says.

Bible bending Netanyahu

Fareed Zakaria says that everything you know about Iran is wrong. Including the notion that Iran is "a messianic, apocalyptic cult"

One of Netanyahu's advisers said of Iran, "Think Amalek." The Bible says that the Amalekites were dedicated enemies of the Jewish people. In 1 Samuel 15, God says, "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Now, were the president of Iran and his advisers to have cited a religious text that gave divine sanction for the annihilation of an entire race, they would be called, well, messianic.

Obama as Moses

Tony Auth, copyright 2009 Universal Press Syndicate