Commentary

Unshaven and wearing a black hoodie and cap, Omar Elba looked out from the lectern, surrounded by a gold cross and organ pipes. "Moses, you are my nizzle fo' shizzle," said the Egyptian-born Muslim comedian, doing his best to channel Snoop Dogg.

It's a joke he's done before, but never in a church.

After a long and heated campaign process that showcased a variety of Republican hopefuls with  strongly held religious views, the presidential race is now down to two candidates and their running mates. The relationship of these figures to the religious dynamics of American culture is fascinating at this moment in history.

Jason Baehr, an associate professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, will deliver a lecture at Whitworth University next week on the virtues of the mind and why they matter.

He's an expert in the field of virtue theory and author of "The Inquiring Mind: On Intellectual Virtues and Virtue Epistemology."

Happy Halloween everyone!

Are you going to, or have you already, dressed up for Halloween?

If a politician touts his religion as a reason to vote for him/her I will run as quickly as possible in the opposite direction.

In the Christian tradition it is called the Christ Consciousness. In the Buddhist tradition it is called the Buddha Nature. Whatever the name, there is a pureness that resides within each of us waiting to be discovered.

What do you do when your spouse of 10 years — the person you’ve spent a decade sharing spiritual, intimate and intellectual moments with — is lying unconsciously on her deathbed without warning?

If you’re Catholic, you make sure her body is anointed with oil. You kiss her goodbye, even if you have to force the doctors to remove the intubation tube, and you slide the wedding ring gently off her finger and whisper a promise to take care of it forever.