Faith-Based Day of Action to Support of Health Care Reform
Faith leaders will hold 50 prayer vigils and rallies in 45 cities in 18 strategically chosen states to communicate to members of Congress that health care reform is a priority for the religious community. More than 14,000 people are expected to participate. (Stephanie Condon, CBS News)

What Does “God” Mean?
The word “God” is the most vacuous word in the English language. In 21st-century America, no other word is so empty of meaning that it can span linguistic usage from the most profane text messaging exclamation to the most sacred name describing the Almighty in monotheistic traditions. (Gary Laderman, Religion Dispatches)

More From Penn’s Neuroscience Boot Camp
Scientists have joined the ranks of those seen to be qualified to speak about morality, according to anthropologist Mark Robinson, a Princeton Ph.D student. (Tom Heneghan, FaithWorld Blog, Reuters)

Emotion Can Be Communicated With Five-Second Touch
Fleeting physical contact can express specific emotions—silently, subtly and unmistakably. (Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times)

Spiritual Camp for Young Muslims Tries to Combat Extremism
Rather than angry calls for jihad (holy war) or a vitriolic denunciation of the West and its aggressions against Islam, Islamic preacher Muhammed Tahir ul-Qadri’s message, equally forcefully delivered, is about moderation, peace, inclusion, and understanding. (Luke Baker, Reuters)

Responding to Complaints About Atheists
Mark Mercer: We will both narrow and broaden the atheists’ critique. We need to narrow it where that critique applies to only a few phenomena within religion and to broaden it where it’s not just the attitudes of some believers that are at issue. (The Ottawa Citizen)

Q&A
Paul Root Wolpe
Paul Root Wolpe, 52, is a medical sociologist and bioethicist who directs the Center for Ethics at Emory University and is the first chief of bioethics for NASA. (Claudia Dreifus, The New York Times)