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Quote of the Day. "Icons are like the horizon between heaven and earth. When you pray in front of an icon it is like you are praying in front of a window into heaven. Even those who are not Christians can stand and appreciate and believe there is something holy there, and sometimes this causes them to study about it."  Dennis Bell, an artist, explaining a Pan Orthodox Icon Exhibit being shown in Washington D.C. this weekend. (Washington Times)

FAITH IN THE NEWS

Diverse faiths on common ground “Fighting Poverty With Faith, a coalition of dozens of faith leaders and organizations, wrapped up a week of events in Washington, where the group pushed an anti-poverty and green-jobs agenda.”

Survey: Evangelicals Greener, but Still Skeptical “More evangelical Christians are boarding the green bandwagon, but they do so with a dose of skepticism about popular beliefs concerning global warming, a new survey found.”

Tough times not universal “In many congregations, emptier pockets have translated into lighter collection plates. Many houses of worship, their members hard hit by the recession, are finding themselves in bad shape. But some feel downright blessed, as they pull in higher offerings and launch building projects.”

NEWS AT HOME

Executive Pay. Government widens control over paychecks “The Federal Reserve joined the Treasury Department on Thursday in imposing new limits on executive pay, extending the government’s control over compensation at taxpayer-owned companies to institutions that are merely government regulated.” Fed Hits Banks With Sweeping Pay Limits “In a one-two punch at the pay culture of banks and Wall Street firms blamed for the financial crisis, the U.S. government announced plans to aggressively regulate compensation at thousands of lenders and impose steep pay cuts at seven companies that received billions in federal aid.”

Health Care. Reid leaning toward public option “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leaning toward putting a public insurance option in the Senate health reform bill – a signal that Reid increasingly believes he can get the votes needed for a plan that would allow states to opt out of the program." Support for public option grows in House and Senate “House Democrats are coalescing around an $871 billion health-care package that would create a government-run insurance plan to help millions of Americans afford coverage, raise taxes on the nation’s richest families and impose an array of new regulations on private insurers.” Senate Leader Takes Risk Pushing Public Insurance Plan “In pushing to include a government-run health insurance plan in the health care bill, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is taking a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could support the plan if it included a way for states to opt out.”  

Consumer Protection. House panel passes new consumer-protection bill “A key congressional panel voted Thursday to create a federal agency aimed at protecting Americans from the predatory lending practices and other abuses that hastened the financial crisis.” Vote Backs a Financial Oversight Body “The House Financial Services Committee voted on Thursday to create an agency to protect consumers from predatory lending, deceptive credit card terms and other abuses.”

Hate Crimes. Senate passes hate crimes bill that would extend protection to gays, lesbians “The Senate cleared a historic hate crimes bill Thursday for President Obama’s signature, approving new federal penalties for attacks on gay men and lesbians.” Senate Approves Broadened Hate-Crime Measure “The Senate voted Thursday to extend new federal protections to people who are victims of violent crime because of their sex or sexual orientation, bringing the measure close to reality after years of fierce debate.”

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

Climate Change. China and U.S. Try to Speed Global Climate Strategy “Senior American and Chinese officials urged their governments on Thursday to accelerate joint efforts to reduce pollution, even as their diplomats appeared at odds over crucial elements of a global strategy to fight climate change to be considered in Copenhagen in December.” Ottawa dashes hope for climate treaty in Copenhagen “Hope is vanishing that a historic deal to address climate change can be concluded in Copenhagen, and Environment Minister Jim Prentice says the best chance is for a political agreement that would pave the way for a treaty to be signed later.” Government launches map to highlight global warming threat “Released by the [British] Government today, it illustrates a rise in global average temperature of four degrees Centigrade by 2060, and as such represents a dramatic acceleration of previous forecasts made as recently as 2007 by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).”

Pakistan. U.S. aiding Pakistani military offensive “The U.S. military is providing intelligence and surveillance video from unmanned aircraft to the Pakistani army to assist in its week-old offensive in South Waziristan, marking the deepest American involvement yet in a Pakistani military campaign,” Refugees don’t think Pakistan’s anti-Taliban efforts are serious “The Pakistani army’s latest offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, probably the country’s most significant anti-terror operation since 2001, so far has failed to convince residents of the frontier area that the state is finally determined to wipe out the Islamic extremists.” US passes giant Pakistan aid bill “The US Senate has passed a big defence spending bill which aims to ensure that military aid to Pakistan is used solely to fight America’s war on terror’.”

Afghanistan. With no US decision on Afghanistan, what will NATO discuss? “NATO allies in Afghanistan are in strategic limbo as they await a decision from the Obama administration on its strategy and the troops needed to implement it.” A New Vote Poses Similar Troubles for Afghans “The serious fraud that clouded the credibility of Afghanistan’s presidential election last summer is unlikely to be repeated on the same scale in the runoff set for Nov. 7, but it cannot be altogether eliminated."

Taliban. Insurgents Share a Name, but Pursue Different Goals “As it devises a new Afghanistan policy, the Obama administration confronts a complex geopolitical puzzle: two embattled governments, in Afghanistan and Pakistan; numerous militias aligned with overlapping Islamist factions; and hidden in the factions’ midst, the foe that brought the United States to the region eight years ago, Al Qaeda.”

Iran. Deadline for Iran to approve deal draws near “The US and Israel launched a major joint military exercise yesterday as a deadline neared for Iran to approve a deal to delay its development of nuclear weapons and prevent Israel from attacking its nuclear facilities.”  World awaits Iran nuclear answer  “Iran is due to respond to a UN proposal on exporting most of its enriched uranium to Russia for further refining.” A Lone Cleric Is Loudly Defying Iran’s Leaders  “A short midlevel cleric, with a neat white beard and a clergyman’s calm bearing, Mehdi Karroubi has watched from his home in Tehran in recent months as his aides have been arrested, his offices raided, his newspaper shut down. He himself has been threatened with arrest and, indirectly, the death penalty.”

Mideast. White House urges Mid-East push “The US has urged Israel and the Palestinians to press forward to re-launch deadlocked peace talks.” Mideast Gain Is Modest, Clinton Tells President “Mrs. Clinton went to the White House with what several administration officials acknowledge was a meager report: a little progress has been made, they said, but in some respects the atmosphere for talks is actually worse now than it was a month ago.”

U.S.-Japan. Japan Probes 1960s Nuclear Agreements With U.S. “U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned Japan this week against letting a fact-finding mission into decades-old secret nuclear-weapons agreements affect relations between the two countries, according to an official familiar with the matter.”

OPINION

The Quiet Revolution (David Brooks, New York Times) “Over the past few days I’ve spoken to people ranging from Bill Gates to Jeb Bush and various education reformers. They are all impressed by how gritty and effective the Obama administration has been in holding the line and inciting real education reform.”

Mr. Obama, be tough on climate change (Bill McKibben, Boston Globe) “Leaders need to take risks to help educate their populaces about both the dangers of climate change and the possibilities for a rapid transformation of energy economies.”

Sojourners’ Daily Digest is a compilation of the top news related to our commitments of life and peace, economic and racial justice, and care of creation, with a special focus on news of the engagement of faith in public life.