While publications like the Daily Beast and Mother Jones and networks like NPR are exposing the scandal of – gasp – Evangelical adoptions, perhaps they should cover a different religious scandal. Thanks to Jim Geraghty's must-read Morning Jolt e-mail (subscribe if you haven't — it's consistently my favorite read of the day), I ran across this chart from The Economist detailing Muslim attitudes towards Sharia law and apostasy:

Read it and weep. In Egypt, for example, more than 70 percent of the public supports Sharia law, and almost 90 percent of those individuals also support executing those who leave Islam. I feel comfortable saying this is a problem, a much, much greater problem than any alleged American "Islamophobia," and if we turn away from these statistics and believe the fault for continued jihadist bloodshed lies primarily within us — or is primarily the fault of Israel — then we are truly willfully blind.

To be clear, I do not share this chart as evidence of the nature of "true Islam." Unlike our recent presidents, I don't claim to understand the religion so deeply as to pontificate on its true nature. In fact, this chart shows considerable diversity of views (if only Egypt were like Kazakhstan), and I know many Muslims who not only are marvelous people but have provided indispensable help in the war against jihadist terror. Instead, I defy anyone to read this and argue that there aren't deep cultural problems — tied directly to religious belief — in vast and important swathes of the Muslim world. more >>

The Pentagon has hired a Jewish activist who has been outspoken in his opposition to conservative Christianity to serve as a consultant and develop new policies on religious tolerance.

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has spoken out against a number of conservative Christian groups, calling them "Fundamentalist Christian Monsters."

MRFF, which says its primary goal is to advocate for the separation of church and state, has said that most of its members are Christian. Weinstein, however, has decried what he calls "virulent religious oppression" coming from conservative groups, comparing them to "bigots" from the Deep South during the civil rights era. more >>

President Obama's new "religious tolerance" consultant to the Pentagon, Mikey Weinstein, wants Christian military service members who openly talk about their faith in uniform to be charged with treason, which is a crime punishable by death according to military law.

By employing his consulting services, and as Commander-in-Chief, President Obama is effectively endorsing Weinstein's recently voiced and written views such as: "Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized [sic] and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation's armed forces."

Weinstein's inflamed word picture helps the rest of us understand what the world looks like to those who live with their eyes wide shut and sort of sounds like that old cereal commercial… except this time Mikey doesn't like it – Christianity, that is, so no one else should. And Mikey's giving the rest of us an object lesson in intolerance by showing us what liberal secularists are about: "It's our way, or we shut you down." In this case, Obama's anti-Christian hit man, Weinstein, proposes that honorable men and women in the military who speak about their faith should be charged with a crime worthy of capital punishment. Smells like bull to me. more >>

Religious liberty groups have grave concerns after they learned the Pentagon is vetting its guide on religious tolerance with a group that compared Christian evangelism to "rape" and advocated that military personnel who proselytize should be court martialed.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is calling on the Air Force to enforce a regulation that they believe calls for the court martial of any service member caught proselytizing.

President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a "tidal wave of fundamentalists." more >>

As cultural debates continue to roll regarding the sanctity of human life, validity of same-sex marriage, the acceptance of infanticide, genetic modification and--coming to a theater near you--whatever is next, it is crystal clear that many self-identified Christians are ill equipped for public debate. This is not to say they should be forbidden from the arena; this is America. You do not need a reason for your opinion, good, bad or ugly. We are constitutionally protected to hold almost any position for almost any reason or no reason at all.

Having an opinion, however, is not the same as convincing others of its truth or value. Christians are really adept at the first. On the second? The phrase "clanging symbol" does spring to mind at times.

Innumerable online conversations degenerate into shriek-fests with political or moral opponents calling each other names, casting aspersions on motives, questioning an opponent's heritage, doubting their IQ or missing the point. Slightly fewer start there. Sadly, Christians are not always leaders in the way forward. more >>

Focus on the Family President Jim Daly has impressed at least one liberal journalist with his confessions, generosity and hospitality. In researching his new book on evangelicals, religion and culture writer Tom Krattenmaker traveled to Colorado Springs, Colo., and spent some time at the FOTF headquarters. The result of the visit was a book challenging his fellow progressives to stop stereotyping evangelicals and realize that they can work together for the common good.

In The Evangelicals You Don't Know: Introducing the Next Generation of Evangelicals (2013), Krattenmaker reports on an angst felt among many evangelicals regarding how they have engaged with their culture.

"As Christians, we're not doing something right," he quotes a young evangelical in the opening chapter. more >>