South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitted today that he saw his mistress more times, including what was supposed to be a farewell meeting in New York accompanied by a spiritual adviser, according to an Associated Press report.

The governor told that AP that with his wife's permission, went to New York with a "trusted spiritual adviser" serving as chaperone to end the affair. The three went to church and dinner together and parted ways the same night. The AP article does not indicate who the adviser was.

The AP also interviewed the man Sanford referred to during his press conference as a "spiritual giant," who declined to say whether he had met Sanford's mistress. Sanford and his wife attended Warren "Cubby" Culbertson's spiritual "boot camp."

He thinks Sanford was simply caught off guard by "the power of darkness." Culbertson also thinks that the only thing holding his friends' marriage together right now is "their vow to God."

"Because it's not feelings - it's not emotions," Culbertson said, the smile fading from his tanned face. "For most Christians, at some point in your marriage, if you're married long enough, you do it because that's what we're called to do - out of obedience instead of out of passion. And I think that's where Mark and Jenny are right now."

As politicians and pundits discussed debate whether Sanford should resign, he apologized to members of his cabinet, referring to the story of David and Bathsheba in the Bible.

"What I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily - fell in very, very significant ways, but then picked up the pieces and built from there," he said.

Sanford offered an apology on his website using words like grace, renewal, and the sin of pride.

So in the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign - as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise - that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly.

The full letter is after the jump:

Time magazine reports that President Obama has told his aides that his primary place of worship will be Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.

The White House has not made an official statement yet.

Update: White House Deputy Press Secretary Jen Psaki said by e-mail: "The President and First Family continue to look for a church home. They have enjoyed worshipping at Camp David and several other congregations over the months, and will choose a church at the time that is best for their family."

Amy Sullivan and Elizabeth Dias reported that a number of factors drove the decision - financial, political, personal, and being able to worship without being on display. At St. John's, worshippers snapped photos of Obama with their camera phones.

Carey Cash, who attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and served as a chaplain in the Iraq War, preaches at the chapel.

If the White House had custom-ordered a pastor to be the polar opposite of Jeremiah Wright, they could not have come as close as Cash. (As it is, the White House had no hand in selecting Cash. The Navy rotates chaplains through Camp David every three years; Cash began his tour this past January.) The 38-year-old Memphis native is a graduate of the Citadel and the great-nephew of Johnny Cash. He served a tour as chaplain with a Marine battalion in Iraq and baptized nearly 60 Marines during that time. Cash earned his theology degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth - and, yes, that means Obama's new pastor is a Southern Baptist.

Time reports that Obama will still looking for someone he can pray with and turn to for spiritual guidance. An earlier New York Times article reported that Obama's spiritual advisers have included Otis Moss, T. D. Jakes, Kirbyjon Caldwell, Jim Wallis, and Joel Hunter.

Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, admitted that he had an affair with a woman in Argentina after mysteriously disappearing from the public for several days.

"God's law indeed is there to protect you from yourself, and there are consequences if you breach that," he said in a press conference today. "I've been unfaithful to my wife. I've developed a relationship with what started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina."

He also alluded to getting counseling through "C Street," which Dan Gilgoff connects to The Fellowship, the Christian group behind the National Prayer Breakfast.

Reporter: Did your wife and your family know about the affair before the trip to Argentina?

Sanford: Yes. We've been working through this thing for about the last five months. I've been to a lot of different - as part of what we called "C Street" when I was in Washington. It was, believe it or not, a Christian Bible study - some folks that asked members of Congress hard questions that I think were very, very important. And I've been working with them. I see Cubby Culbertson in the back of the room. I would consider him a spiritual giant. . . .

Family Research Council had Sanford on their weekly radio show on June 12 to ask Sanford why he objected to taking stimulus money.
"The Bible is very, very clear about the principle of debt and who owns who in the equation of debt," Sanford told Tony Perkins.
Perkins replied, "The Bible says the borrower is the servants to the lender and I think the concerns here is the strings that may attached to these federal monies." Sanford was also invited to attend to the 2009 Voters Values Summit but his photo has been taken down.

A Newsweek profile in May says he thought the religious right has been too influential in recent years, but the profile doesn't offer more details.

Southern Baptists on Wednesday overwhelmingly expressed their "pride" in President Obama's election as the nation's first African-American president while also criticizing his policies that they oppose.

The resolution, adopted at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., said Baptists "share our nation's pride in our continuing progress toward racial reconciliation signaled by the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America."

The statement also commended Obama for his "evident love for his family" and retention of security policies that "continue to keep our nation safe from further terrorist attacks."

At the same time, Baptists voiced strong opposition to his expansion of federal funding "for destructive human embryo research," increased "funding for pro-abortion groups" and a reduction of abstinence-education funding. The resolution also opposed Obama's declaration of June as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month."

The National Association of Evangelicals has chosen a replacement for Richard Cizik, who resigned last year after saying he was shifting his views on same-sex civil unions. The new director of government affairs is Galen Carey, a longtime employee of World Relief, the NAE's humanitarian arm. The full story is on CT's site.

The National Archives recently made new audio tapes public that suggest that President Nixon believe abortion was justified in some cases, according to The New York Times.

After the Supreme Court made abortion legal through Roe v. Wade in 1973, Nixon made no public statement.

Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster "permissiveness," and said that "it breaks the family." But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies.

"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white," he told an aide, before adding: "Or a rape."

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder has sifted through the National Journal profiles of 366 top officials in the Obama administration. Here's an interesting tidbit:

The percentage of white Christians among top officials whose religious affiliation is known dropped from 71 percent during Bush's second term to 46 percent in the Obama administration.

Indian government officials have denied visas to commissioners of a U.S. religious freedom watchdog panel for the second time since 2001.

Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) were forced to cancel their plans to assess religious freedom in India. Panelists were scheduled to leave on June 12, and have been trying to obtain Indian visas for the past seven years.

Nina Shea, a commissioner, said it is troublesome that the Indian authorities are so defensive about exposing potential religious violence in the world's largest democracy.

"I believe at the root of this, they want to cover it up," she said. "They have something to hide."

Hindu organizations in India are reportedly suspicious of the panel's intentions, according to an Indian news article that was forwarded to USCIRF from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. The panel's visit to India is "an attack on our religious sovereignty," a spokesperson of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, a right-wing Hindu organization, told the Navbharat Times.

Commissioners had planned to travel to Gujarat, Karnataka and Orissa -- all areas of immediate concern for religiously motivated violence directed against minorities.

Shea said commissioners will look to experts and documentation to complete their report, though the trip would have been a chance for the Indian government to participate with preventive strategies at the local and national levels.

The Indian Embassy did not return phone calls.

President Obama told an audience at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast that the country must be guided by the principle "love thy neighbor as thy self" as it seeks immigration reform.

"We must also clarify the status of millions who are here illegally, many who have put down roots," the President said. ""For those who wish to become citizens, we should require them to pay a penalty and pay taxes, learn English, go to the back of the line, behind those who played by the rules. ...We must give life to that fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper, that I am my sister's keeper."

The president started his speech with his usual reminder that America is a nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and non-believers and spoke about the importance of prayer.

"But prayer is more than a last resort," he said. "Prayer helps us search for meaning in our own lives, and it helps us find the vision and the strength to see the world that we want to build."

Here's a portion of the speech as provided by the White House:

In a majority vote last week, the Empire State Stem Cell Board (ESSCB) decided to pay women up to $10,000 who donate their eggs for embryonic stem cell research, making New York the first state to do so.

Composed of a funding committee and ethics committee, the ESSCB agreed June 11 to compensate women using taxpayer-backed grants "for the expense, time, burden and discomfort associated with the donation process - within specified limits - as is currently permitted when women donate oocytes for reproductive purposes in New York State," according to its statement. California and Massachusetts, leading states in embryonic stem cell research, have laws prohibiting the practice.

A day after the vote, Father Thomas Berg, a member of the ESSCB ethics committee, decried the decision in a National Review Online op-ed, noting the many health risks involved in egg donation, including most commonly ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can lead to loss of fertility and death.

Sen. John Ensign admitted yesterday that he had an affair with a staff member of his campaign.

The New York Times reports that during college at Colorado State University, he became a born-again Christian and he and his wife, Darlene, were active in the Promise Keepers. A Las Vegas Review-Journal article from 2000 says that he was attending Meadows Fellowship Foursquare Church, a pentecostal denomination, at the time.

The Republican from Nevada said that he had "violated the vows" of marriage and "the worst thing I have ever done in my life.

"If there was ever anything in my life that I could take back, this would be it. I take full responsibility for my actions," he said.

The Department of Justice filed a brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act, a law President Obama has condemned in the past.

The 1996 law bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage and enables states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages in other states.

Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle breaks down the differences between the Bush administration and Obama administration for defending the law.

Its court filing steered clear of the justification of the law it had offered under President George W. Bush: that it promotes a traditional form of marriage best suited for procreating and raising children.

Instead, the Obama administration argued that the law preserves long-standing state authority to define marriage while saving taxpayer dollars.

With societal attitudes in flux, the department said, the law adopted "a cautious policy of federal neutrality towards a new form of marriage," allowing states to expand the traditional definition of wedlock but declining "to obligate federal taxpayers in other states to subsidize a form of marriage their own states do not recognize."

A spokesperson gave Ben Smith at Politico this statement:

As it generally does with existing statutes, the Justice Department is defending the law on the books in court. The president has said he wants to see a legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act because it prevents LGBT couples from being granted equal rights and benefits. However, until Congress passes legislation repealing the law, the administration will continue to defend the statute when it is challenged in the justice system.

It may take a while to see any impact from President Obama's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The office's director, Joshua Dubois said Thursday that his office is still compiling data about existing faith-based programs before it gives policy-based recommendations for the President in February 2010. Dubois also indicated that there won't be an announcement regarding the President's stance toward religion-based hiring policies anytime soon.

Since the announcement last February that President Obama was renaming President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (FBNP), leaders of faith-based programs have speculated on whether President Obama would override former President Bush's policy of allowing federally-funded religious organizations to take religious belief into consideration in hiring employees.

DuBois said on Thursday that because the president understands the importance of the issue, he wants to "fully understand" both sides of the policy. "There are a range of issues that we're working on a day to day basis that aren't as titillating," he added.

DuBois said the office's advisory council will consider how to "use the bully pulpit of the presidency" to promote the administration's four priorities for the office: economic recovery, reducing the number of abortions, promoting interfaith dialogue, and strengthening the role of fathers in society. He was speaking at an event organized for the release of the Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy's report on "The Bush Faith-Based Initiative and What Lies Ahead."

The House of Representatives easily approved legislation June 10 despite warnings it would empower the State Department to promote abortion and homosexuality in other countries.

The House voted 235-187 for the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, H.R. 2410, which permits funding for the State Department and other entities for the next two years.

Prior to the vote, pro-life and pro-family organizations -- including the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, National Right to Life Committee and Family Research Council -- asked for defeat of the bill because of its establishment of an Office for Global Women's Issues, which they said appeared destined to lobby for the repeal of pro-life laws of foreign governments.

The Family Research Council (FRC) also called for representatives to vote against the bill because it said the measure would make a priority of a State Department attempt to pressure other countries to rescind laws restricting homosexual and transsexual behavior.

Several Christian groups signed a letter this week to as the House to oppose a bill that would legalize online gambling in the U.S.

"The prevalence of gambling addiction is three to four times higher with Internet gambling versus noninternet gambling. ... online gambling represents a highly invasive and reckless form of taxation dependent on human exploitation," the statement says.

Signers included Focus on the Family Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Gary Bauer, president of American Values, Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family, and Tom McClusky of Family Research Council.

The government started enforcing the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act this week by seizing more than $30 million in assets. The signers also urge the House to oppose a bill that would give banks more time to comply with UIGEA.

Several Christian activists don't want to see immigration reform get left behind the administration's economic and health care concerns.

In a press conference on Wednesday, members of Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CCIR), a nonpartisan coalition of churches and other organizations, expressed urgency that immigration reform happen this year. "Every single day that we wait on immigration reform is more suffering we are inflicting on undocumented people," said Jim Wallis, President and CEO of Sojourners. "This is a matter of faith for us. The way we treat the stranger, the scriptures say, is the way we treat Jesus in himself. And the stranger, in the face and form of undocumented people, is not being treated very well."

Their objective might be challenged in the House by Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) and in the Senate by Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont), who want to add same-sex partners in the same category as spouses in new immigration legislation. Senator Leahy told The New York Times it was "a matter of fairness," while Honda said in the San Francisco Chronicle that "it's a civil rights issue."

Politico reported that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is withdrawing its support from the bill over the issue of gay rights. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told Politico that the addition of gay rights language was a "slap in the face to those of us who have fought for years for immigration reform." However, on Wednesday, Rodriguez indicated that the group's unity is their greatest asset when he said that "the strength of the coalition is stronger than anything that may arise in Congress."

A Congressional aide told Dan Gilgoff that the White House is leaning towards supporting the Pregnant Women Support Act, which aims to reduce abortions by providing support to low-income pregnant women.

"I don't want to get in to reading the tea leaves on the White House's position or strategy for this issue, but I would call their interest in the Pregnant Women Support Act significant," the aide told him.

Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission endorsed the bill sponsored by Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN) and Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA), which would, among other things:

President Obama has mentioned Jesus Christ during several recent high-profile speeches while former President George W. Bush usually talked about his faith in less prominent places, Politico reports.

Writer Eamon Javers makes the case uses three recent speeches:

- In his speech last week in Cairo:
"All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be ... when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, peace be upon them, joined in prayer."

- At the University of Notre Dame commencement:
"I found myself drawn - not just to work with the church but to be in the church," Obama said. "It was through this service that I was brought to Christ."

- Making the case for his economic policies in April:
"We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand," Obama said. "We must build our house upon a rock."

Obama could be trying to dispel rumors that he is a Muslim, since the percentage of those who believed the rumor during the campaign has not changed.

Analysts and leading evangelicals are reacting pretty strongly to specific concerns about President Obama's "speech to the Muslim world" in Cairo on Thursday, including his definition of democracy, persecution by Muslims, support of Israel, and use of religion to support his goals.

National Review Online asked religious freedom activist Nina Shea, "Is there an 'Arab world' approach to religious freedom?"

She responded:

None of the Arab countries is ranked as "free" in the Center for Religious Freedom survey, though the degree of repression varies. Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia are the worst, while Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, and Oman are relatively better. All restrict minorities in varying degrees, and virtually all officially sponsor anti-Semitism. And all are intolerant of and punish apostates, heretics, blasphemers, and those who "insult" Islam. This has resulted in repressing converts from and critics of Islam as well as writers, scholars, artists, journalists, democracy activists, reformers, women's rights proponents, and others who exercise the right to free speech. This has contributed to the political, intellectual, and economic stagnation of this part of the world, as observed in the U.N.'s Arab Development Report.

Freedom House issued a statement applauding Obama's commitment to democracy. However, American Values President Gary Bauer, writing for Human Events, thought that Obama's stance for universal values was too broad:

Somewhere lost in all of the hype over Obama's outreach to the world is a sense that he stands most proudly as the American President. It's time for the president's soaring rhetoric to be applied in support of this great nation and its Judeo-Christian heritage.

Bauer also criticized Obama for neglecting to mention persecution by Muslims. Prior to the speech, Bauer had hoped that Obama would address the persecution of Christians in many Muslim countries. Bauer noted Obama singled out Saudi Arabia as a good example of "interfaith dialogue" even though last March the State Department placed the country on its list of severe violators of religious freedom. Bauer was disappointed that Obama worked harder to "ingratiate himself to Muslim leaders" than to criticize their faults:

[T]he president could have said so much more. The suppression of basic human rights is a fact of life throughout much of the Islamic world, and Muslim nations make up a large percentage of the State Department's list of the world's most severe violators of religious freedom. That list includes Saudi Arabia, and its dictator, King Abdullah, whose "counsel" Obama sought earlier this week in a trip to Riyadh.

Some in mainline Protestant circles found much to like in the Obama speech.

On the campus of Cairo University today, President Obama delivered a speech mainly addressed to the 1 billion plus followers of Islam around the world.

Cairo is recognized as the intellectual HQ of global Islam, so selection of Cairo as the venue for this speech was the easy part. I've read thru the transcript of the address and here are two stand-out ideas that I impressed me:

First idea: The US President bears a particular duty to resolve differences between the West and Islam.

Obama said:

We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world -- tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of coexistence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

This is such an unusual formation to depict the core matter as tension between the Superpower United States and "Muslims around the world." Many non-Muslims will not agree with this conceptual framework.

Second idea: World peace hangs in the balance and peace-minded Christians, Muslims, and Jews should deploy "Golden Rule"-based ethics.

Here's the quote:

But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There's one rule that lies at the heart of every religion -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. (Applause.) This truth transcends nations and peoples -- a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian or Muslim or Jew. It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the hearts of billions around the world. It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today.

Once again, Obama draws on his core commitments to pragmatic approaches to address complex political situations. His call to "a new beginning" will seem so very naive to Middle East experts, but many have also under-estimated Obama. So don't count him out yet.

As activists and journalists try to make sense of George Tiller's murder, some are trying to link the pro-life movement with the killing while others are trying to separate the two.

"People have a right to disagree about abortion, but it's impossible to separate today's tragedy from the violent language that has been directed for years at doctors like George Tiller," a statement from People for the American Way states. "Those who have inflamed emotions and dehumanized their opponents around the issue of abortion should take pause before they continue such dangerous rhetoric."

The L.A. Times responds by saying that Tiller's killing should not be exploited for political gain.

"It's unfair to ask antiabortion activists to muffle their message because it might inspire an unbalanced individual to commit an atrocity," the editorial concludes.

A coalition of leaders from conservative groups, including many evangelical activists, recently petitioned Republican Senators to use their filibuster power to lengthen the Supreme Court nomination debate.

The petition carefully avoids any mention of Sonia Sotomayor, or any call to vote against President Obama's nominee. Instead, the coalition asks Republican Senators to "make crystal clear why Americans should believe that Republicans are intelligent defenders of the Constitution, or not." The Third Branch asks that the filibuster "honestly displays the differences between Republicans and Democrats to the American people."

The Third Branch Conference, formed in 2005 by Manuel Miranda, was originally known as "The National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters." Its purpose was to fight attempts to block President Bush's nominations through the use of a Senate filibuster.

Yet, in this letter, the conference calls on Senators to be ready to use a "traditional filibuster." The stated goal is not to block the nominee but to extend the debate so that the public understands the differences in the parties' judicial philosophies.

President Obama issued a proclamation honoring "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Month 2009," while former Vice President Dick Cheney issued his support for same-sex marriage on a state-by-state basis.

"Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community," Obama's proclamation states. "Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans."

Cheney said at the National Press Club yesterday that "people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish." Cheney's position appears to put him to the left of President Obama, who has said he supports civil unions, rather than same-sex marriage.