Although we -- the collective 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide -- assume Sean Stone is a fine, upstanding man and sincerely wish him spiritual contentment, we earnestly ask Allah why Islam only attracts controversial celebs (in this case, the son of a controversial celeb) who further tarnish our already toxic brand name?

We plead to the heavens for an answer as to why he converted in Iran, of all places, which is currently the most feared and loathed country in America and about as popular as herpes.

We have patiently endured, oh, Allah.

We miraculously survived Mike Tyson, who converted to Islam while incarcerated, and then angrily threatened Lennox Lewis in an infamous interview: “I want your heart. I will eat his children. Praise be to Allah.”

Awesome.

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Lin is a point guard who rocketed to near-instant celebrity when he came off the bench and had a series of monster games, dragging the Knicks to a .500 record while their two biggest superstars were sitting out games. His celebrity then became a "mania" in part because he's Asian-American and a Harvard graduate, two rarities in the NBA. It also obviously doesn't hurt that he plays for the dominant team in the nation's biggest media market (also it's the fallow period between football and baseball). That's basically the whole deal, and if you'd like to learn more read Andrew Leonard's account of the early social media explosion and Alexander Chee's take on Lin and Asian-American identity. Whatever you do, don't read David Brooks' take on the Lin phenomenon, because David Brooks doesn't understand basketball or social media or race or religion or American society in general.

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Last Thursday, Joan Walsh reported on Santorum as he clamored to punish non-Catholics by limiting their access to contraceptives if their workplace was in the hands of the Catholic Church.    She rightly pointed out that he “absolutely mangles” what the founders said about religion.  Raising the specter of the atheistic French Revolution and its notorious use of the guillotine, the former Pennsylvania senator planted a seed in the minds of his hearers: A left-driven tyranny was where the anti-Christian Obama administration would be heading next.

The fear-monger tosses out familial metaphors with devilish glee.  At once subverting patriarchy within the home and turning the federal government into Big Brother, the sitting president stands in moral opposition to all that is good.  And only the moral policeman Rick can stop him.

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In her eloquent new book, "Seeking the Straight and Narrow: Weight Loss and Sexual Reorientation in Evangelical America," Lynne Gerber examines the ways these two separate issues interact in that most morally stringent segment of American culture. A University of California, Berkeley, scholar in residence whose work emphasizes intersections of sexuality, bodies and health in contemporary Christianity, Gerber spent more than three years documenting evangelical weight loss and ex-gay culture, primarily in two evangelical ministries, First Place, a weight loss group, and Exodus, an ex-gay ministry with aims to train gays into straightness. Along the way, Gerber unpacks the historical influence of evangelicalism on American society, while providing a thoughtful look at real people struggling to change.

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My girlfriends and I didn’t go to praise Jesus. We went for fun. (I didn’t know about the boyfriend yet.) My two friends, both 20-something journalists like me, were visiting me in Houston, and we considered Lakewood Church -- the largest house of worship in the country and home to controversial superstar pastor Joel Osteen -- a tourist attraction.

We parked in a crowded underground garage and followed a trail of people into a stadium built for the city’s basketball team. I’d rarely set foot in a church since growing up catholic in upstate New York, and yet I knew this religious gathering would be nothing like the one I’d attended at home. Everybody in Houston knew about Lakewood. You either went there every weekend -- or rolled your eyes at people who did.

An usher guided us to seats up in the stadium’s second tier, practically the nosebleed section. Loud, upbeat music throbbed through the stadium. A woman not far from us clapped to the beat, tears streaming down her face. I stared at her like a child who’d seen the Amish for the first time. Was she really that moved by this song? I wondered whether her sister was sick with cancer or her husband had lost his job. Or maybe she simply felt alone.

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There was no nudity, and certainly no nookie, during the webcast stunt, but it nonetheless got the pair on CNN and earned invaluable advertising for "Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy With Your Spouse." It's the second Christian "sex advice" book to be lavished with attention this month for allegedly being edgy and oh so sexy. "Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together," written by pastor Mark Driscoll of Seattle's Mars Hill Church and wife Grace Driscoll, similarly sings the praises of sex as a form of communion with God.

But having actually read these books, I can tell you they are not the wild sex manuals the media frenzy suggests -- in fact, they are treatises against homosexuality, pornography and premarital sex. None of this is exactly surprising, but amid the sexy buzz surrounding these books, it's important to underscore just how sexually stunted they are.

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Students have been suspended for "Tebowing" -- dropping to one knee to pray, even if you're the only one doing it -- in a school hallway in New York. Rick Perry claimed that he would be the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses. "Saturday Night Live" lampooned Tebow’s fan-boy love for Jesus. In response, Pat Robertson has claimed that the skit demonstrates “anti-Christian bigotry.” His supporters even called for a boycott of HBO after a Bill Maher tweet made fun of Tebow and his relationship to Jesus after his Denver Broncos lost to the Buffalo Bills.

After an overtime upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend, Tebow's Broncos play the top-seeded New England Patriots on Saturday. For at least one more media cycle, there will appear to be no way to separate Tim Tebow – the person, the quarterback, the Christian – from his religion.

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A Rice University study of 275 scientists at 21 "elite" research universities in the United States found that while 61 percent declared themselves atheists or agnostics, 17 percent have attended church services. Whether genuine devotees, just hedging their bets or doing it for the children (as some say), there's little doubt that America is a religious nation.

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Jason Horowitz has the story, for the Washington Post, and I bet he was thrilled to get this bit of color into the paper:

In 2008, evangelical support washed over former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, but this year [Iowa Right to Life executive director Jenifer] Bowen expressed bewilderment at the theological and electoral calculations that were leading conservative-values voters to bestow their blessing on one candidate after another.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Bowen said, as she set down a basket filled with fetus dolls.

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Within hours of the news of Hitchens's passing at the age of 62, the Internet was hotter than an inner circle of hell with the God squad thundering its own version of vindication.  Along with plenty of hope that he "made his peace with God," there was blowhard-for-Jesus Rick Warren tweeting that "My friend Christopher Hitchens has died. I loved & prayed for him constantly & grieve his loss. He knows the Truth now," while creepy creationist Ray Comfort declared that the now dead "Christopher Hitchens is no longer an atheist." LifeWay's Ed Stetzer, meanwhile, blogged that "When Christopher Hitchens died, he entered into eternity as every man does: as a beggar at the gates of the kingdom," and Southern Baptist Seminary president Albert Mohler tweeted that "The death tonight of Christopher Hitchens is an excruciating reminder of the consequences of unbelief. We can only pray others will believe." I'm not a brilliant debater like Hitchens, but let me field this one. Death is not a consequence of disbelief. It's a consequence of living, you moron.

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On Fox News, Tebow's 7-1 record this year is just the latest reason to attack a liberal straw man. "Tim Tebow's success as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos has done little to silence his critics, who believe that his faith in Jesus Christ has no business on the football field," writes Todd Starnes. "It doesn't matter how many touchdown passes he throws or how many games he wins because Tebow will always be a lightning rod for anti-Christian bigots."

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Earlier this year, a Gallup poll illustrated just how apocryphal this story really is. It found that Muslim Americans are one of the most -- if not the single most -- loyal religious group to the United States. Now, comes the flip side from the Pew Research Center's stunning findings about other religious groups in America (emphasis mine):

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Thankfully, as befits such a momentous and serious piece of legislation, the House has been debating the measure basically all day.

The Republican sponsor of a resolution reaffirming that "In God We Trust" is the national motto of the U.S. said his legislation is needed because President Obama and other public officials often forget that this is the country's motto.

"Unfortunately, there are a number of public officials who forget what the national motto is, whether intentionally or unintentionally," Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) said in late Tuesday afternoon debate in the House. "There are those who become confused as to whether or not it can still be placed on our buildings, whether it can be placed in our school classrooms.

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"I don't know what the sequel would be," says David Javerbaum, referring to his new book, "The Last Testament: A Memoir by God," and his voice trails off. There's a moment of opportunity to provide the punchline before Javerbaum jumps back in with the exact right one -- "Oh God: You Devil," the George Burns sequel -- and any late-night comedy writing dreams are extinguished.

"This is all I do," Javerbaum says. "My brain is a reflex. I'm less skilled at other things, like having human relationships. Using the dryer."

Javerbaum has a mere 11 Emmys and 2 Grammys to go along with his credits at "The Daily Show," and as the co-author of "America (The Book)" and "Earth (The Book)." He's a veteran of the Onion and David Letterman's "Late Show," has scripted openings for both the Tonys and the Grammys, and with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, adapted John Waters' "Cry-Baby" for Broadway.

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The lawn was covered with glistening motorcycles and wide-handled choppers. The lot was crowded with bikers exchanging loud greetings and bear hugs as they waited for the Sunday service, which they call a “worship rally” to begin. Their leather jackets – some deeply creased from years spent “serving Satan” – bore patches reading, “Riding for Jesus” and “Jesus Saves Bikers too.” At 10 a.m. the bikers joined hands, bowed heads and formed a large prayer circle that some might have mistaken for something else.

Mike Beasley, the large ponytailed, bandana-wearing preacher of the Angier Freedom Biker Church, spoke out to his flock. He thanked God for the pleasant weather and asked everyone to pray for the four church missionaries who would be departing for India in a few hours. He encouraged everyone to join the motorcade escort to Raleigh International Airport, which would end up more than 40 bikes strong, hijack an entire lane of Interstate 40, and intimidate many passing cars.

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Let me make one point clear at the beginning. Dennett, Dawkins and I agree that most religions have some beliefs that contradict science, and we also agree that religion has done harm in the world. The question is: What should be our attitude toward religion and toward individual people who have religious beliefs?

With regard to the meeting of science and religion, both Dennett and Dawkins take the stance of a strict dualism, an either/or position, a black and white portrait that I cannot accept. In fact, I would argue that such an absolutist position has some of the same problems as fundamentalism of any kind.

Dennett says that I am concerned that Dawkins is “too darned clear, too brutally frank when he articulates his case” against religion. It is not Dawkins' clarity that concerns me. It is his condescension toward believers and his labeling of this large group of people as non-thinkers. In contrast to what Dennett suggests, I certainly do not take lightly the problems posed by today’s religions. We should continue to oppose religious practices that cause harm to other human beings, and we should continue to oppose irrational thinking on issues that require rational thought. But does this mean that we should dismiss believers as non-thinkers? There are thousands of intelligent, thoughtful and rational thinkers who also believe in God.

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Strictly speaking, this story is not "untold"; of the 100 or so survivors of Jonestown, a few have written their stories, and a compilation of oral and written firsthand accounts has been published. However, Scheeres used a large cache of recently released FBI files to write what she describes as the first "comprehensive history of the doomed community" to incorporate that material. She also conducted her own interviews with survivors. Above all, her account is notably levelheaded in a field where sensationalism, conspiracy theories and bizarre reasoning run free.

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This sort of fuzziness has its uses. The Vaseline on the camera lens that blurs out the wrinkles on the face of the aging movie star is not just a sop to her vanity; it is both considerate and self-serving. Let’s not dwell on what her face has become; let’s allow her to re-create the beauty that stunned us in the past. Everybody wins. Lightman defends much the same policy with regard to religion: Let’s keep our objections in soft focus and avoid drawing attention to even quite ugly flaws.

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