By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

A who's who of Christian right leaders, including Chuck Colson and Tony Perkins, have partnered with a handful of more moderate religious voices, including National Association of Evangelicals President Leith Anderson and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, to release a document that reasserts the primacy of three culture war issues for Christians in the public square: abortion, marriage, and religious liberties.

A handful of those who signed the document, called "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience," gathered today at the National Press Club for the launch event. The declaration reads like a throwback to the culture wars of the 2004 election, but Colson says the project is aimed at instilling social conservative political orthodoxy in a new generation of believers.

"We argue that there is a hierarchy of issues," he told the New York Times. "A lot of younger evangelicals say they're all alike. We're hoping to educate them that these are the three most important issues."

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

(AP Photo / Alexandre Meneghini)

A girl attends class in a school in Qutbal, Pakistan. The country is witnessing a boom in private schools as parents look for alternatives to underfunded public schools and to the exclusively religious focus of madrassas.

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Now that Sen. Harry Reid has released the Senate version of the healthcare bill, the two main sides in the culture war—abortion rights advocates and foes—are back to their usual corners.

The House healthcare bill's strict ban on federally subsidized abortion coverage earned Democrats the wrath of their abortion rights allies and praise from abortion opponents. The Senate healthcare plan lacks the language of the House's Stupak-Pitts amendment, which prohibits abortion coverage in the public plan and from private plans receiving government subsidies; instead, it has language that hews closer to the House's scuttled Capps amendment, which allows abortion coverage in the public plan and in private plans receiving federal dollars as long as the money comes from pooled private premiums. (Abortion opponents call it an accounting trick.)

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

(AP Photo / Gregorio Borgia)

The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhists' spiritual leader, attended a Tibet conference in Rome yesterday as President Obama wrapped up his three day visit to China. Obama declined to meet with the Dalai Lama before his trip to China, which opposes Tibet's attempts to become more autonomous.

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Abortion coverage is way down on the list of concerns of those who oppose Democratic-led healthcare reform, a new Pew survey finds. A majority of Americans—55 percent—oppose abortion coverage as a "guaranteed medical benefit" in a government-run health insurance plan, but just 3 percent of those who oppose Democratic-led reform volunteer abortion as their top concern, according to the poll.

Among reform opponents, 27 percent name cost as their top concern, while another 27 percent cite a bigger role for the federal government. Eight percent worry most about the complexity of the legislation, and 8 percent cite skepticism that reform will work.

Check out this graph from Pew:

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

(AP Photo / M. Spencer Green)

The Rev. Charles Robinson speaks about the suicide ruling in the death of Chicago Public School Board President Michael Scott at Chicago's Holy Starlight Missionary Baptist Church today. More than two dozen ministers and activists gathered to question the medical examiner's ruling that Scott, who was found in a Chicago river Monday with a single gunshot wound to the head, committed suicide. They're calling on state and federal authorities to look into the death. Local police are still investigating.

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

A new Pew survey taken shortly after the November 5 shootings at Fort Hood shows a modest uptick in concerns about Islamic extremism in the United States and internationally but no dramatic surge in such worries. Slightly more than half of Americans (52 percent) reported being "very concerned about the possible rise of Islamic extremism in the United States," up from 46 percent in April 2007.

Check out this graph comparing fears about Islamic extremism in 2007 versus today:

Interesting to note that Pew found Americans paying very close attention to the Fort Hood shooting, with more following that story closely than any other, according to the group's News Interest Index.

These bits of Pew's analysis on the correlation between age and education and concerns about Islamic extremism jumped out at me: