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The recent controversy concerning President Obama and Notre Dame is an excellent opportunity to see the interesting – and challenging – interaction between religion and politics. In this instance, the furor began when President Obama, a supporter of abortion rights, was invited to speak at Notre Dame, one of the country’s leading universities which also happens to be one of the world’s leading Catholic universities.

Here at Americans United, there's a number of issues which, no matter how persistently we try to educate people about, seem to exist on their own. The curious insistence by many that the United States was established as a "Christian nation" may speak more of ignorance on the issue than anything.

However, when those that should know better -- generally intelligent, reasonable people -- continue to insist that the United States was founded as some sort of Christian theocracy, it's time once again to go over the basics.

President Obama, overseas in Turkey, spoke on the importance of religious freedom not only in America, but also the world:

The University of Maryland senate has voted to eliminate the school's invocation at their commencement ceremony. Key:

Holum said it was understood that many people on the large and diverse Maryland campus "felt excluded or marginalized" by having any prayer and by the prayers that have been delivered, which they considered essentially Christian in form and motivation.

Washington Post: U-Md. Senate Votes to Eliminate Invocation

President Obama does us proud and reiterates what we already know.

For their commencement.

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Religious Right takes principled, well-designed stand against judicial nominations.

Ouch!

There is perhaps one area of the government where President Bush's legacy will likely reverberate for the foreseeable future. Faith-based funding, and White House direction in the field, especially through the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has been an active area of government over the last eight years.

The Baptist Standard takes a long view of faith-based initiatives and future options available to the incoming President.