Thursday digest

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New today from the Century:

• The editors on the limits of the presidency: "When FDR used the specter of "fear itself" to order up the New Deal, he
  brilliantly crystallized his mandate for reform. But this mandate was
  already present; the speech didn't create it. The reality of governing
  is that many elements are outside the president's control, via rhetoric
  or anything else."
• Katherine Willis Pershey likes the Back to Church Sunday video: "Many of my friends who reposted the video are socially and
  theologically progressive. Some serve congregations that officially welcome gay
  and lesbian Christians. The organizers of Back to Church Sunday clearly prefer
  that their video and companion materials not be used to invite folks to such
  communities. . . . But I've learned that if I wanted all the farmers who grow
  my food to share my political convictions, I'd be pretty hungry."
• "Sooner or later it comes down to faith"--but, James McGrath asks, faith in what?
• Lois Huey-Heck on an anonymous piece of art in the middle of a river.

In the news:

• Jesus cell phone ad ruled 'disrespectful'
• Okla. anti-Shariah amendment heads to appeals court
• In recession-hit Hungary, churches take over state schools

Links from elsewhere:

• Remembering Fr. Mychal Judge
• The C of E does club-culture ministry
• The governor of Georgia wants a man with white-supremacist connections to run immigration enforcement.
• Matt Drudge goes blatantly racist