For those of us who work for social justice, victory can seem elusive. But then there are times when we mobilize at the right time with the right message and our leaders cannot help but listen and respond.

This weekend was one of those times.

Last week I wrote explaining that Haiti's $700 million debt to the international financial institutions must be cancelled as an urgent step in recovery and as a matter of justice.

In the wake of Haiti's catastrophic earthquake, people of conscience in the U.S. and around the globe mobilized to call on our leaders to do the right thing for Haiti. On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Geithner responded to that call, announcing: "Today, we are voicing our support for what Haiti needs and deserves - comprehensive multilateral debt relief."

I couldn't agree more. On Saturday, the news got even better when the Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers announced that they agreed with him - Haiti wouldn't have to pay back its debts.

This is truly a victory for Haiti, where massive debt payments have long forced the country into underdevelopment.

This is also a win for debt campaigners and people of faith and conscious around the world. Fifteen years ago, the US Treasury Secretary never would have uttered what Geithner said on Friday. It would have been considered crazy to cancel Haiti's debts to help it recover. Debt was sacred; countries had to pay their debts before anything else - before clean water, education, or health. Yet, thanks to a growing call from people of faith around the world who believed in scripture's vision of debt cancellation and restoration of right relations between nations, the Jubilee movement was born. In 1999, 70,000 people made a human chain in Scotland calling for debt relief. Leaders responded with the first global comprehensive debt cancellation plan.

One day he's dissing gay activists as immoral "buggers" and perhaps the "greatest threat" to the nation. Then, he's embracing anti-discrimination legislation and conceding the "right" gay residents have to job and housing protections.

What swayed state Sen. Chris Buttars?

His church.

In November, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced its support of Salt Lake City's measures safeguarding gay and transgender residents from discrimination.

Suddenly, Buttars, R-West Jordan, and his Mormon colleagues on the right who had vigorously -- and vociferously -- opposed such laws faced a choice: Should they back or buck their church?

This same "follow the prophet" pressure gripped LDS liberals when the Utah-based church came out in favor of California's Proposition 8, defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. For Latter-day Saints, adherence to their prophet's instructions is more than an abstract notion. It is repeated often from the pulpit and written into the Mormon identity.

Roman Catholic lawmakers bump into similar dilemmas when the pope or bishops weigh in on issues from abortion to health care to capital punishment. How much deference, if any, do politicians of faith owe to their ecclesiastical leaders, especially in religions with top-down hierarchies?

Catholics regard their leaders as stand-ins for Christ who speak on moral issues with an undeniable authority. The church's catechism states "the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms."

In today's political universe, that seems increasingly to cut both ways.

"Whenever people claim, 'the church says,' that's a clue that one side [of the debate] is trying to shut down the other," says Alpine resident Charles Randall Paul, a Mormon and president of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy. "It's possible for Mormons to say, 'You're a prophet, but I think you're wrong about this.' "

In the summer of 1943, when Adolf Hitler's armies marched unchecked across Europe, a pastor in a remote New England village decided to write a prayer.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change," he began, "the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

It is now known as the Serenity Prayer. It's been adopted by 12-step recovery programs and cited in numerous self-help books. Yet few people know who wrote it. His name is Reinhold Niebuhr, and he was a Protestant pastor in the mid-20th century whose words tended to unsettle people, not offer comfort.

Niebuhr is getting attention again because he has a fan in the Oval Office.

In a widely cited New York Times column, President Obama called Niebuhr his "favorite philosopher." But how precisely has Niebuhr's philosophy influenced Obama and his handling of everything from health care reform to fighting terrorists?

The answer may be seen by looking at Obama's first year in office, several scholars, and a relative of Niebuhr's, suggest.

Who was Niebuhr?

At first, there seems to be little resemblance between the cool, cerebral Obama and the pugnacious Niebuhr.

Niebuhr was a blunt critic of morally complacent Christians. He thought the church was full of idealists who believed that progress was inevitable and that love alone would ultimately conquer injustice, some Niebuhr scholars say.

"He said there was a difference between being a 'fool for Christ' and a plain damn fool," says Richard Crouter, author of the upcoming book "Reinhold Niebuhr: On Politics, Religion and Christian Faith."

Niebuhr lived during an age of global calamities. He was born in Missouri in 1892, the son of a German-born minister. He preached and taught theology during the Great Depression and World War II. He saw the suffering of workers at Henry Ford's auto plant -- lack of pensions, dismissals for sickness -- when he became a pastor in Detroit, Michigan, Crouter says.

Focus on the Family, the evangelical radio ministry that grew into a powerhouse of the religious right, enters a new era this month as founder James Dobson steps down, ceding his microphone to a leader with a markedly different style and set of priorities.

Mr. Dobson, a 73-year-old child psychologist, will record the last of his daily radio broadcasts for the Colorado Springs-based ministry this month.

Taking over from him will be Jim Daly, an M.B.A. who has been with the ministry for two decades and became its president in 2005.

On the radio since the late 1970s, Mr. Dobson has built an audience estimated at 1.5 million daily listeners in the U.S. and more than 200 million world-wide. He began his ministry advising parents, urging, for instance, a firm hand in child discipline, including spankings with a paddle.

In the past two decades, Mr. Dobson pushed into politics by funding ad campaigns and mobilizing his radio audience to bombard Congress with calls on hot-button legislation.

An anti-abortion television ad scheduled to run Sunday during the Super Bowl has drawn renewed attention to his ministry.

Mr. Daly, 48, said he wasn't backing away from Mr. Dobson's conservative social agenda, as the Super Bowl ad shows. The ministry collected more than $2.5 million just days after Mr. Daly proposed the idea.

But, Mr. Daly said, he has no use for the sharp personal attacks on politicians employed by Mr. Dobson.

"I don't see evil behind everything," Mr. Daly said. Mr. Dobson declined to be interviewed for this article.

Mr. Daly said he preferred to build bridges with others. While Mr. Dobson blasted President Barack Obama for "fruitcake" ideas, Mr. Daly praised the president for his devotion to family and last summer attended a White House event celebrating fatherhood.

On abortion, Mr. Daly said he wouldn't spend much energy fighting for a ban--though that remained his ultimate goal--but would emphasize adoption.

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention urged President Obama Feb. 5 to do everything within his power to secure release of 10 volunteer missionaries jailed in Haiti.

Morris Chapman, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, SBC president Johnny Hunt and former president Frank Page sent a letter to the president voicing concern "that the continued detainment and possible conviction of these Baptist mission volunteers will distract the world's attention and undermine the relief efforts so desperately needed by the Haitian people."

The Baptist leaders said they don't know all the facts of the case and therefore cannot speak with authority about the motives and actions of the group comprised mainly of members from two Southern Baptist congregations in Idaho.

"What we can assure you of, however, is that many Southern Baptists are currently in Haiti -- and elsewhere around the world -- for the sole purpose of doing whatever is necessary to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, the hungry and the oppressed," they wrote. "It is possible that the Baptist mission volunteers currently detained in Haiti have acted with the noblest of intentions in a desperate situation to meet an immediate need. We pray that is the case."

They called for diplomatic negotiations toward "a solution that respects the rule of law, honors international agreements and ensures the best possible care and full legal representation for these Baptist mission volunteers."

They also asked Obama to provide medical treatment and spiritual counsel to the missionaries while they are detained and to arrange for a representative of their churches, the SBC or both to visit them in Haiti as soon as possible.

Upon the team's release, the leaders asked the president to allow those representatives to accompany the missionaries home in order "to provide pastoral care and spiritual encouragement."

The Baptist leaders cited the denomination's track record of disaster-relief ministries like response to Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami that killed thousands in 2004.

Although Jews as a group are not what come to mind when most people summon up images of tough-as-nails men holding machine guns, ask them about Israeli soldiers and it changes. Although the foundational myth has been challenged recently by events, most people still think of Israeli soldiers as strong, proud, attractive, testosterone-filled daredevils, men and women alike, who take life-defying risks for their country.

But Israel's army has accepted gay men and lesbians alongside straight men and women since the country was founded. It's never been an issue. If you can fight, it doesn't matter who you sleep with.

Part of that, of course, was because the nascent state didn't have the luxury of turning too many people away from its military, but part of it comes from the Jewish ideal of k'vod habriyot, human dignity. The U.S. military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, simply put, is an affront to k'vod habriyot, and it should be overturned.

The United States was founded on the principles that all people were created equal. We know that sexual orientation is innate, and it cannot be God's will to give gay men and lesbians less dignity than God has given the rest of us. We believe strongly, therefore, that every American citizen, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, should have the right to serve our country. And no American citizen should have to lie about the person he or she most loves. The "don't ask" part of the "don't ask, don't tell" equation is on target - it is no one's business, ever. But the "don't tell" part is a violation of every person's right to seek love, and the right that Thomas Jefferson affirmed for us, the right to the pursuit of happiness.

I do understand the complexity of this issue, and the wide range of emotions it elicits. We Conservative Jews have had public discussions about the role of gay men and lesbians in our synagogues and seminaries, and we consistently have upheld k'vod habriyot as our movement's goal and rallying cry. This process has not always been smooth but I believe that Conservative Jews are better for having begun it, just as I believe that repealing "don't ask, don't tell" will improve the moral tone of our country and our armed forces.

The election, two months ago, of the Rev. Mary Glasspool, a priest who has been in a committed relationship with another woman for more than 20 years, as a suffragan (assistant) bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, has brought added turmoil to the Episcopal Church in the United States and to the worldwide Anglican Communion. There has been sporadic schism since the regular ordination of women as priests in 1977 and especially since the election of the Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. He is the first openly gay bishop in the history of those Christian bishops -- Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Greek and Russian Orthodox among them -- who trace their succession back to the apostles.

In protest, several dozen parishes have aligned themselves with conservative Anglican bishops in Africa, and the Roman Catholic Church has offered to take in disaffected Episcopalians. In 2008, the leadership of the Anglican Communion, to which the American church belongs, tried to keep things together by urging the Americans not to elect other openly gay people as bishops until the Communion could establish more common ground. The Los Angeles electors' choice of a gay woman as bishop has pushed the denominational envelope to the point of tearing.

The Glasspool election and its ensuing uproar make me realize how much has changed since 1976, when my father, who came to the Los Angeles diocese as a priest in 1947, died. About the biggest controversy within the church during most of his ministry was over proposed revisions to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

At that time, marriage was strictly Adam and Eve. Gays were closeted, whether they were in the congregation or the male-only priesthood. Until 1971, when women were first ordained as deacons, the highest post a woman could attain was member of the vestry, the elected group that manages parish business. But even that was uncommon; usually the highest ranking woman in the parish was the leader of the altar guild, which arranges the flowers in the church, sets up the Eucharistic vessels and washes and irons the linens used in the service. Women could not be priests because -- according to the reasoning that had held for two millenniums -- none of the apostles was a woman. This made as much sense as saying that, as none of the apostles was a scholar, scholars could not be priests, or that because all the apostles were Jews, only Jews could be ordained.

Focus on the Family, sponsor of the Tim Tebow ad at the Super Bowl, isn't the only conservative evangelical group riling its critics right now.

Some folks are worried about President Obama munching toast at last week's National Prayer Breakfast with friends of Ugandan homophobe David Bahati. But while the prayer event held the headlines, leaders of the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, made news, too.

They wouldn't go as far as Uganda's kill-the-gays bill pushed by Bahati. They would just outlaw homosexuality, like shooting up illegal drugs, here in the USA, according to Tobin Grant's weekly roundup of the latest from Christian activist groups, for Christianity Today.

One says the U.S. Supreme Court erred in 2003 when it overturned laws criminalizing homosexuals' "private sexual conduct" and the other says gay behavior is a "public health menace."

First, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, at the end of a discussion of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, which boots gays out of military service, asked Peter Sprigg, a senior policy fellow for the Family Research Council, "should we outlaw gay behavior?" Sprigg replied:

I think that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned the sodomy laws in this country, was wrongly decided. I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association added to the outlaw idea during the Thursday edition of Focal Point, the AFA talk show he hosts. Restoring anti-sodomy laws, he says, would solve the "problems" of gay marriage, gay rights in the workplace and other issues. He said,

Laws not only curb dangerous and risky behavior, they keep such behavior from being normalized, sanctioned and endorsed by the rest of society, and as such render an enormous benefit to a healthy culture.

Faith has always played an influential role in the black community. Throughout history, churches have served as a foundation for building community strength and healthy lifestyles, as well as for inspiring change.

That's why the Florida Department of Health (DOH) has tapped into the faith community to mobilize HIV prevention efforts statewide.

As the newest initiative of the We Make the Change (WMTC) campaign, the Bureau of HIV/AIDS joined forces with the Eleventh Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and the General Baptist State Convention.

Our AME partnership goal is to establish at least one AME church in each of Florida's 67 counties as an HIV testing site or test location. Our partnership with the General Baptist State Convention establishes an HIV outreach system with faith-based organizations affiliated with the convention.

Recent data show that 114,057 adults in Florida are currently living with HIV/AIDS. Of the HIV cases reported in 2008, (46 percent) were among black people. As black people continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV, DOH and faith leaders are working together to reduce the stigma of having the virus, and provide HIV testing and prevention.

It is important that we encourage congregations to discuss the effects of HIV/AIDS on Florida's black communities. By addressing denial issues in the faith community associated with the disease, we can promote the importance of HIV testing and knowing your status. We can provide better care and treatment to those infected.

Defying conventional wisdom that a hardened partisan divide and looming midterm elections will prevent the type of compromises necessary for big reforms, business leaders and environmentalists are redoubling their efforts to advance an energy and climate bill in the Senate.

It's a seemingly improbable goal, but upending that way of thinking is one of the objectives of a Capitol Hill lobbying blitz launched last week by executives from nearly 200 large and small companies. A dozen CEOs -- including Shell Oil's Marvin Odum, Duke Energy's Jim Rogers and NRG Energy's David Crane -- are scheduled to meet with lawmakers and administration officials Tuesday.

"Comprehensive climate change legislation is not part of the liberal agenda," said Crane, whose company operates a wide range of energy facilities that run from wind to coal to nuclear. "It's a decidedly centrist thing. We reduce carbon emissions, and we reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Both parts of the political spectrum should come together on that."

"Any capitalist with a pulse knows China is moving forward," said Tad Segal, a spokesman for U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of business and environmental groups that favor reform. "We can solve a crisis at the same time we grow jobs."

Another business coalition, called We Can Lead, which includes a mix of pro-reform businesses, is taking the campaign to the public by running television and print ads urging Congress to "move swiftly and boldly" and pass legislation.

At a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Los Angeles last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann offered a candid view of her positions on Israel: Support for Israel is handed down by God and if the United States pulls back its support, America will cease to exist.

The Republican Jewish Coalition is the same organization that recently hired former Sen. Norm Coleman. Bachmann's appearance on Feb.1 is part of a whirlwind of national events for Bachmann in February. Next up: she's keynoting the Take Back Washington North Dakota event in Bismarck this Friday night.

Here's a transcript of some of her remarks at the RJC event:

I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.

Right now in my own private Bible time, I am working through Isaiah . . . and there is continually a coming back to what God gave to Israel initially, which was the Torah and the Ten Commandments, and I have a wonderful quote from John Adams that if you will indulge me [while I find it] . . . [from his February 16, 1809 letter to François Adriaan van der Kemp]:

Boy tackles mom. That was about it.

The ad that made former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam, the unintended stars of Super Bowl XLIV was not a screed against abortion. Nor was it a heartwarming story about a mother ignoring doctors' advice and having her baby.

It was, instead, a lighthearted take on a mother-son relationship.

In the ad, Pam Tebow holds a baby photo of Tim, now 22.

"I call him my miracle baby," she says. "He almost didn't make it into this world. . . . you know, with all our family's been through, we have to be tough."

Suddenly, she appears to be tackled and flies off-screen.

"Timmy!" she scolds, popping back up. "I'm trying to tell our story here!"

Tim joins her and apologizes. "You still worry about me, Mom?"

"Well, yeah," says Pam Tebow. "You're not nearly as tough as I am."

The tagline, "Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life," directs viewers to the website of the sponsor, Focus on the Family, the Colorado-based evangelical Christian organization. The ad was posted there: www.focusonthefamily.com "> www.focusonthefamily.com .

In the two weeks leading up to Sunday's game, the ad had been the subject of furious debate. Groups supporting abortion rights -- including NOW and NARAL Pro-Choice America -- condemned CBS for accepting the ad, the first political ad the network has accepted for a Super Bowl broadcast.

The large television in the middle of Archbishop Philip Hannan's house in the heart of Covington is frozen at a crucial moment in the third quarter when the New Orleans Saints squared off against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game.

An empty chair faces the screen, a small plate with a fork and crumbs rests on the end table beside the chair. The 96-year-old retired archbishop naps quietly in the other room.

He will replay the glorious ending later and relive the thrill he experienced at the Superdome on that night as a guest of Saints owner Tom Benson and his wife, Gayle.

"I think the most important thing is it gave Benson vindication of everything he has tried to do," Hannan said.

The archbishop is the most visible and recognizable symbol of the NFL organization's intertwined relationship with religion. Hannan is recovering from an Oct. 30 stroke that caused him to miss his first home game in the Saints' 43-year history. He's the face of the local religious community that counts itself among the Who Dat faithful.

"I don't think (Benson) puts him there just to flash the archbishop around or anything like that, " United Methodist pastor Gene Finnell said. "I think (Benson) respects his clergy leadership and enjoys the fact that he can share something really special for him with those church leaders."

Hannan is perhaps the first religious leader to become a Saints fan. He gave the franchise the church's blessing when a newspaper contest picked the team's mascot. State officials wanted to ensure it would not offend the church.

"I said it was OK, but you should keep in mind that all the Saints are martyrs, " Hannan recalled with a chuckle.

Catholic Charities Immigration Services is coordinating the diocese's postcard campaign to let the state's representatives and senators know that Catholics support comprehensive immigration reform.

Maricella Garcia, director of the Little Rock office, said her staff is working with the U.S. bishops' Justice for Immigrants campaign to get the cards signed by parishioners around the state and sent in a mass mailing to Washington.

Fifty thousand sheets of postcards have been ordered for Arkansas. Each sheet includes three cards, two for Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and one for the parishioner's representative.

In January the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said more than one million sheets of postcards have been ordered.

Garcia said the immigration postcards will not be distributed the same as previous pro-life campaigns. Instead of handing the cards out during Masses, CCIS employees and volunteers will man tables after Masses at various churches in February and March. Garcia said the staff wants to be available to talk to parishioners in person about their views and provide feedback if needed. Also they need to ensure that only U.S. citizens sign the cards.

"Permanent (legal) residents and others who shouldn't be in the voting process can't be used as the reason why we have so many cards (filled out)," she said.

But Catholics don't have to wait until the campaign comes to their parish. Electronic versions are now available at www.justiceforimmigrants.org. Through the Web site, supporters can confirm their zip code and the appropriate postcards will automatically be generated.

The text of the electronic and paper postcard says: "I am a concerned constituent and agree with the U.S. Catholic bishops that the U.S. immigration system is broken and is in need of repair. I ask that this year you support immigration reform legislation that keeps immigrant families together, adopts smart and humane enforcement policies and ensures that immigrants without legal status register with the government and begin a path toward citizenship. Our families and communities cannot wait!"

The campaign's theme is "We are one family under God."

Garcia said reform is needed because "it's the right thing to do."

"You have to do the right thing, even if it's hard," she said. "The right thing do it is that the 13 million undocumented people living in the United States and working here are able to come out of the shadows and be full participants in society. When they don't do that, crimes go unreported, people are victimized, employers are free to hire people at lower wages."

When night falls in Port-au-Prince, thousands of homeless Haitians find shelter beneath weatherproof plastic sheets emblazoned with the logo of Samaritan's Purse, a group that's zealous to spread Christianity worldwide.

The 20-by-20-foot sheets offer a tangible way to demonstrate God's love for people regardless of their beliefs, said Barry Hall, director of program support at Samaritan's Purse, a North Carolina-based relief organization headed by evangelist Franklin Graham.

And though the logos don't add warmth, they may still help local churches on the ground get credit for distributing the plastic sheets, along with similarly marked blankets and personal hygiene kits.

"It may have our name on it because we supplied it to them, but it's the local church that these people see meeting their needs," Hall said. "We try to leave that church in a better position" to evangelize.

As faith-based relief agencies work to help Haitians manage an epic crisis after the Jan. 12 earthquake, most are taking pains to give aid according to need, not creed, and disavow proselytizing.

World Vision, for example, a massive relief group based in Washington state with nearly 800 aid workers in Haiti, makes sure those who distribute aid aren't simultaneously trying to win converts.

But even after decades of responding to emergencies, members of the Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organizations are still wrestling with how best to proclaim the gospel, offer spiritual support and advance other organizational goals in disaster zones.

Some Christian outreach efforts in Haiti have already sparked controversy. Last week, Haitian officials detained members of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, for allegedly trying to leave the country with 33 children, some of whom may not be orphans.

Meanwhile, some in Haiti's large voodoo community fear Christian relief groups are pursuing ulterior motives. Max Beauvoir, Haiti's chief voodoo priest, has already accused foreign Christian groups of "trying to buy souls" and said Haitian Christians "grab" scarce resources and receive preferential treatment.

Relief ministries tend to follow strict protocols in disaster zones to ensure the vulnerable aren't exploited. But protocols vary according to each group's understanding of the risks at hand.

Last September, more than 20 religious institutions, from Scientologists to Buddhists to Catholics, agreed to a set of guidelines that urged relief groups to refrain from imposing moral values or engaging in inappropriate evangelism.