GOD

WASHINGTON -- The acting architect of the U.S. Capitol cleared the way yesterday for the certificates that accompany flags flown over the building to include the word "God," reversing policy on an issue that was becoming the latest touchstone in the nation's culture wars. "When one of our services or policies doesn't effectively serve members of Congress or the American public, it needs to be changed immediately," architect Stephen T. Ayers said in a statement. "I appreciate the Congress bringing this important issue to my attention."

Thank God You're Here is a show aimed at everyone who misses Whose Line is It, Anyway?, an earlier series that featured improvised comedy and taped long and hard enough until the featured performers came up with material that was actually funny. Here, dispensable host David Alan Grier and unnecessary judge David Foley oversee the proceedings as a series of comic actors are thrown into ridiculous costumes and are plunged, ostensibly unprepared, into comic vignettes with other actors in which the first line of the sketch is, invariably, "Thank God you're here."

The Pew Research Center recently issued what it called the first nationwide, random-sample survey of Muslim Americans and found them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world. Muslim Americans said that since the 9/11 attack, they found it has become difficult to be a Muslim in the United States and the government has singled out Muslims for increased surveillance. And almost half of them said they considered themselves Muslim first and Americans second.

We wanted to talk to him. But that is impossible. So we looked up what he said a long time ago, just to remind ourselves of his eloquence. More than that, really, we wanted to be reminded exactly what he said.And, it turns out, reading his words was a little like talking to him. He seemed to be addressing issues we still face, with the force of words that never sidestepped. The relevance of his beliefs, then, are not confined to a slender slice of time. The beauty of his words, the power of their impact and the clarity of his vision are not really like fashion; they don't seem smart at one time and look ridiculous at another.

WHILE it apparently needs no help from me, I wanted to get in my own words of praise for the surprise hit "Dogma," and to salute the film's writer and director, Kevin Smith, as one of the most interesting moralists of our time.His theological tract, which has been fraudulently (albeit successfully) marketed as a comedy, has been accused of being talky, profanity-filled and juvenile -- all of which is true and probably a good thing.If you're going to make a movie in which the climactic moment has an abortion clinic nurse asking God why we are all here, there is going to be a lot to talk about.

At A Taste of Heaven, owner Rod Robinson and his staff do more than cook and serve. His business is more than a restaurant, and his duties reach beyond that of an entrepreneur. In fact, customers call him "The Rev."He opened the soul-food restaurant at 25th Street and Greenmount Avenue on Friday the 13th last November. Though others might have been wary of opening on that day, God challenged him, Robinson says, and he and his staff opened with a prayer that "God would have his way in the city."

Krzysztof Kieslowski died too young, at 54, in 1996. By then, the Polish director already had made an international name for himself with films such as "The Double Life of Veronique" (1991) and the "Red," "White" and "Blue" trilogy of 1993 and 1994.But "Dekalog," a 10-part film series Kieslowski directed for Polish television, was what first brought the director to the attention of audiences and critics. And it has rarely been screened in theaters since it was broadcast in 1988. Kieslowski completists have been forced to watch the most significant work of his career on videotapes of limited scope and quality.

Joe Williams, 80, whose smooth baritone and collaborations with Count Basie won him acclaim as one of the great voices of jazz, collapsed and died on a Las Vegas city street Monday. He apparently died of natural causes, the Clark County coroner said. Mr. Williams became a sensation in 1955 when he recorded "Everyday I Have the Blues" with Count Basie, and the two were together for seven years. He repeatedly was chosen the top male jazz singer in readers' polls for Downbeat and other magazines.

I knew we were in trouble with "Noah's Ark" before the NBC miniseries from Robert Halmi even got properly started when a message appeared on the screen saying, "For dramatic effect, we have taken poetic license with some of the events of the mighty epic of Noah and the Flood."Oh no, now Halmi thinks he can improve the Old Testament by punching it up with TV shtick. It wasn't bad enough when he turned Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" into "Columbo" last fall, now he's going to turn the Bible into his peculiar brand of glossy, big-name, mega-budget, prime-time mush.

Local TV viewers may have experienced some serious deja vu Tuesday night while watching the CBS film "God's New Plan."The movie starred Katey Sagal ("Married With Children") as Alex, a new mother who finds out she suffers from a terminal disease. Realizing she won't be around for her daughter, Alex pens a series of letters for young Emmy to read as she grows into womanhood. And, worried about her husband, Brian (Tom Irwin), she urges him to marry Emmy's nurse, Claire (Annabeth Gish) -- the better to ensure both his and Emmy's happiness.

On October 20, 2009, LUCY, 101 years old; beloved wife of the late Belton David Ligon; devoted mother of Marie Coulter. Also survived by six grandchildren, Clifford O., Pamela V., David S., Edward E., Lynette and Pamela A. Coulter; eight great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren, and a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the CHATMAN-HARRIS FUNERAL HOME, 5240 Reisterstown Road, Friday, 1-8 p.m. The family will be present after 5 until 8 p.m. Funeral services will be held at the Church of God, 4310 Edmondson Avenue, Saturday, Wake 10 a.m. Funeral 10:30 a.m. Interment Arbutus Memorial Park.

In a society in which at least 9 of 10 people say they believe in a supreme being, it is natural for people to pray for what they want and identify good outcomes as God's affirmative response. This is especially true in matters of life or death. And so, when a plane crashes or a boat sinks, it is common for the survivors to attribute their good fortune to God's response their prayers. Similarly, when a person is facing life-threatening illness, it is routine to solicit the prayers of others for recovery.

TAMPA, Fla. - There was Kurt Warner, addressing the godless - notebook-toting cynics who worship at the altar of the free media buffet. Our saviors are sharp-eyed copy editors, and our gods were the Babe and Unitas and Jordan. Who has time for Jesus talk? Unfortunately, our subject behind the microphone has nothing more important to talk about. No, it wasn't surprising that it took Warner just a couple of minutes before his talk turned from football to faith. But - and I suspect this was a news conference first - there were no groans from the assembled flock of hacks.

The vast majority of Americans believe in God and communicate with him through prayer. Yet even at times of great crisis - the kinds of occasions that send people to the hospital, for example - people don't expect God to solve their problems for them. How do I know this? Because I've read people's prayers, hundreds of them. In times of economic distress and in times of plenty, close to 90 percent of Americans pray - more than half of us once a day or more. We pray for big things: to stay healthy, to keep our jobs and to strengthen our relationships.

When Dan Furmansky, 34, steps down from his position as executive director at Equality Maryland next month, gay couples still won't be able to get married in Maryland, much to his disappointment. But there were also victories during his five-year tenure at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, he said, and as he moves on, he remains hopeful about the gay rights movement. What brought you to this advocacy work? In my first job after college, I ran community programs for an animal shelter.

I watched Orioles outfielder Luke Scott smack a homer and point to the heavens the other night, which tells me God is still having a pretty good year on the playing fields. Pointing to the heavens is big in sports these days. Baseball players point to the heavens to thank God when they get a big hit. Basketball players point when they hit a big shot. Football players point when they score a touchdown - sometimes they'll even drop to one knee, shooting God a quick bonus thank-you. I don't watch hockey or tennis, so I'm not so sure how those athletes feel about God and whether game-time thank-yous are necessary.

I got to teach Episcopal Sunday school last week, a rare privilege, and it was in a New York church so the kids had plenty to say. Teenagers, and if you expect them to sit in rapt silence as you tick off points of theology, you're in the wrong place. They made plenty of noise, and not much of it about religion. Some of them seemed to be on a faith journey that was heading away from the Nicene Creed toward something cooler and jokier, some form of animism perhaps, the worship of cougars and badgers.

A fiery theologian once had harsh words for some fellow Christians. "When you ... pass judgment on [others], yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment?" wrote the apostle Paul. "God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (Romans 2:3, 24). In some ways, Paul had nothing on Scott Munger, a Minnesota-born evangelist-author. In his new book, Rethinking God: Undoing the Damage (Living Ink Books), Munger, an American missionary, takes on fellow evangelicals - mostly a noisy few on the religious right - whose behavior and bad theology he says are repelling followers and widening the yawning gap between the religious and the secular.

Earlier this year, at a Writers Bloc event in Beverly Hills, Calif., Norman Mailer acknowledged that he believed in God. This belief, he explained, was qualified; his vision of the deity was as one who is fallible, far from omnipotent, less a Supreme Being than a supreme artist of a kind. Noting that his own creations had often gotten the best of him, Mailer said he didn't see why the same might not be true of God. This was a classic Mailer performance - contrarian, contradictory, brilliant and somehow unsatisfying.

WASHINGTON -- The acting architect of the U.S. Capitol cleared the way yesterday for the certificates that accompany flags flown over the building to include the word "God," reversing policy on an issue that was becoming the latest touchstone in the nation's culture wars. "When one of our services or policies doesn't effectively serve members of Congress or the American public, it needs to be changed immediately," architect Stephen T. Ayers said in a statement. "I appreciate the Congress bringing this important issue to my attention."