There were a bunch of items in the news today that caught my eye, so rather than make a decision, I’m presenting the variety pack:

1. Herman Cain, presidential candidate on the Republican side, believes that towns and communities should have the right to prevent the construction of mosques in their neighborhood. Very interesting. Would a Buddhist church be okay? How about an ashram? Or a center for white supremacists?

2. I’m a big believer in keeping your religion/faith to yourself, but Greg Stier wrote a piece in the Christian Post regarding “Bible believers are obsessed with converting people from their belief systems to Christianity. If they’re not they should be. Here are 3 reasons why:” And he lists them:

• Jesus told us to. Stier uses Luke 24:47-49 as his reference, but I think there are clearer examples. Heck, Jesus is always out telling people to spread the word.
• It’s good news. “Proseltyizing gives us a pedicure in a way we could never imagine because our feet are carrying good news to everyone we meet.”
• It saves people from hell.

Personally, if I were starting a religion, I would include lots of orders to proseltyze in my manual and mandatory 2-year missions and any other such built-ins I could think of that would help grow and perpetuate my religion.

3. 74% of Americans believe in heaven and 60% believe in hell. Who goes where? Kim Lawton has a nice summary piece.