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Quote of the Day. "Nonviolence is our most powerful weapon. If they cannot accuse us of terrorism, they cannot stop us. The world will support us." Mohammed Khatib, secretary of the Bilin, West Bank, village council, referred to as “a modern-day Gandhi in a culture that enshrines the language of the gun.” (Los Angeles Times)

FAITH IN THE NEWS

Christian Prison Proposed in Small Ok. Town “A tiny town in Oklahoma is throwing its support behind a push to build a privately run, faith-based prison that would employ only Christians and attempt to rehabilitate inmates using biblical concepts.”

Court rules crucifixes violate freedoms “The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms, prompting an angry reaction from the Vatican and government officials.”

NEWS AT HOME

Election Results. McDonnell handily sweeps Virginia GOP back to power “Virginians elected Republican Robert F. McDonnell the commonwealth’s 71st governor Tuesday, sweeping the GOP to power and emphatically halting a decade of Democratic advances in the critical swing state.” G.O.P. Wins Two Key Governors’ Races; Bloomberg Prevails in a Close Contest “Republicans swept contests for governor in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday as voters went to the polls filled with economic uncertainty, dealing President Obama a setback and building momentum for a Republican comeback attempt in next year’s midterm Congressional elections.” Conservative Loses Upstate House Race in Blow to Right “Democrats won a special election in New York State’s northernmost Congressional district Tuesday, a setback for national conservatives who heavily promoted a third candidate in what became an intense debate over the direction of the Republican Party.” Maine voters overturn state’s new same-sex marriage law “Maine voters delivered a potentially crushing blow to gay-rights advocates after a year when their cause seemed to be gaining momentum with legislative and legal victories in four states.”

Election Analysis. Gubernatorial contests serve as warning to Democrats “Off-year elections can be notoriously unreliable as predictors of the future, but as a window on how the political landscape may have changed in the year since President Obama won the White House, Tuesday’s Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey delivered clear warnings for the Democrats.” A Year After Dousing, Republicans’ Hope Rekindled  "The Republican victories in the races for New Jersey and Virginia governors put the party in a stronger position to turn back the political wave President Obama unleashed last year, setting the stage for Republicans to raise money, recruit candidates and ride the excitement of an energized base as the party heads into next year’s midterm elections.” GOP victories send message to Democrats “By seizing gubernatorial seats in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans on Tuesday dispelled any notion of President Obama’s electoral invincibility, giving the GOP a lift and offering warning signs to Democrats ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.”

Health Care. Abortion language complicates Democratic health efforts “House Democratic leaders, while insisting that the finish line is in sight on their overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system, have hit a last-minute snag over the abortion issue.” Health Care Debate Focuses on Legal Immigrants “The debate over health care for illegal immigrants continues to percolate in Congress despite the Obama administration’s efforts to put it to rest, with lawmakers in both houses also wrangling over how much coverage to provide for immigrants who have settled in the country legally.” Some experts worry that cost controls in health-care reform are too cautious “Democrats in Congress are embracing the spirit of President Obama’s call to slow the runaway rise of health-care costs but are shying away from some of the most aggressive techniques for achieving that.” Senate moderates wield influence to seek changes to health-care reform “Moderate lawmakers are exerting their outsize influence in the divided Senate to secure changes to health-care reform legislation, potentially adding more delays to a bill that has already missed several announced deadlines.”

Climate Change. German Chancellor Merkel urges U.S. to act on climate change “German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Congress and the Obama administration Tuesday to take bold steps to address global warming, even as Senate Democrats and Republicans feuded over whether to press ahead with a climate bill.” Tear down mental walls on climate, German chancellor says “German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an impassioned plea Tuesday to a joint session of Congress to work together on efforts to curb global warming and to help forge a binding climate-change deal at an international meeting next month.” Republicans walk out of Senate hearing on climate-change bill “The Republican members of the Environment and Public Works Committee are demanding a full Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the climate bill.” There will be no climate deal, says UN chief “According to Ban Ki Moon such an agreement will not be signed next month and the most likely outcome is voluntary targets, which countries could announce but then ignore.”

Unemployment. Policies sought to add jobs without piling on the deficit “With the nation’s unemployment rate at its highest point in 26 years and projected to rise, the Obama administration is intensifying its search for policies that can stoke job creation without adding significantly to the nation’s crippling budget deficit.”

Premature Births. Premature Births Are Fueling Higher Rates of Infant Mortality in U.S., Report Says “High rates of premature birth are the main reason the United States has higher infant mortality than do many other rich countries, government researchers reported Tuesday in their first detailed analysis of a longstanding problem.”

Homeless Veterans. Shinseki cites plight, plan to help homeless veterans “The Department of Veterans Affairs laid out Tuesday an ambitious five-year goal of curbing the number of homeless veterans, pledging $3.2 billion to an issue that is more rapidly affecting those who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than by any from past conflicts.”

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi meets senior US diplomat in Burma “Barack Obama’s policy of engagement with Burma made modest progress today after the detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, made a rare exit from the home that has been her prison for much of the past 14 years to meet senior US officials.”

Afghanistan. PM says Taliban shot UK soldiers “The Taliban have said they carried out the fatal shooting of five British soldiers in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the Commons.” Abdullah: Karzai victory ‘illegal’  “Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan presidential candidate who quit the runoff vote, has described as ‘illegal’ his rival Hamid Karzai’s re-election as the country’s president.” U.S. officials fear Karzai can’t keep anti-corruption pledge “President Hamid Karzai vowed Tuesday that he’d clean up his government in his second five-year term, but U.S. officials are worried that the Afghan leader will have to award key posts to ethnic warlords and regional power barons who’re linked to drug trafficking in exchange for their help in his re-election.”

Iran. Unrest as Iran marks embassy siege “Security forces have clashed with opposition protesters as thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets of the capital, Tehran, to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy.” Iran’s anti-government protestors clash with security forces “Iran’s capital erupted in chaos and violence as anti-government protestors and security forces clashed on the 30th anniversary of the seizing of the U.S. Embassy by radical students.” Iran’s supreme leader warns against negotiating with U.S. “Iran’s supreme leader, spurning what he described as several personal overtures from President Obama, warned Tuesday that negotiating with the United States would be ‘naive and perverted’ and that Iranian politicians should not be ‘deceived’ into starting such talks.”

Mideast. U.S. hope dims for high-level Israeli-Palestinian talks over state “The Obama administration has concluded that an early resumption of high-level negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over a Palestinian state is unlikely in the near future — an acknowledgment that it has fallen short, for now, on one of its major initial foreign policy goals.” Hamas tested rocket with a longer range, Israel says “Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip have test-fired a rocket with a 37-mile range, Israel’s military intelligence chief said Tuesday, giving them the capacity to reach deeper into Israel and strike Tel Aviv’s southern suburbs and possibly its international airport.” Israel seizes ship ‘carrying weapons for Hezbollah’ “Israeli naval special forces today seized a civilian cargo ship near Cyprus which they said was carrying weapons, including rockets, destined for the Hezbollah militant group.”

Darfur. Saved from the death squads: Darfuris given asylum in UK “Hundreds of Darfuris fleeing persecution in Sudan will be given protection in Britain after a government U-turn on its handling of  asylum claims brought by refugees from the troubled African state.”

OPINION

A Job Too Big for One Man (Orlando Patterson, New York Times) “The uniqueness of Mr. Obama provides both obstacles and opportunities. My students have found that many young inner city blacks, while they admire him, find him too remote from their lives to be a role model. His policies, if properly carried out, might very well improve their chances in life, but in the end he is more likely to influence the racial attitudes of middle-class blacks and younger white Americans. This is all we can reasonably expect. It will take far more than a single presidency to fully end America’s long struggle with race.” 

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.