President Obama’s May 9 declaration that he supports same-sex marriage was only surprising to people who hadn’t been paying attention. We obviously don’t agree with his conclusion, but had no illusions that he would ultimately believe anything else about the institution of marriage.

The timing of the announcement, on the other hand, was both understandable and curious. Understandable because members of his administration, most significantly Vice President Joe Biden, forced his hand. Curious because like many, we had long believed President Obama would not make the announcement until he had decided it would benefit him politically, and this timing might not help him at all.

Because his announcement breaks no new ground for the administration, it’s natural to wonder how it will impact the upcoming presidential election campaign. Our guess is that it won’t benefit and could hurt the president.

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Georgetown University earned the respect of values voters everywhere recently over, of all things, a student benefits plan. They affirmed that, in keeping with the school’s Catholic heritage (and financial backing), it would continue to make a benefit plan available to students that did not include coverage for contraceptives. Georgetown students aren’t bound to purchase the college’s benefits plan, and indeed most students are of the age where they can continue to be carried on their parents’ plans.

The university was castigated widely among the Left for its decision. The opposition was personified by law student Sandra Fluke, who vocally insisted that Georgetown provide free contraceptives as part of its benefit plan even though it was, you know, Catholic.

Now Georgetown is giving back much of the good will it earned by inviting Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to give a commencement address. What in the name of the Komen Foundation is going on here?

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North Carolina on May 8 became the 30th state to define marriage in its state constitution as the union of one man and one woman – the way God does. About 58 percent of those casting votes on Amendment One voted “yes.” This is good news.

The results shouldn’t surprise anyone, but somehow came as a shock to same-sex marriage advocates, who seem to believe they have a right to have their view magically become the majority view. Fortunately, life doesn’t work that way.

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Years ago a colleague named Joel Kirkpatrick surprised us by sending us a copy of his book A Field Guide to Evangelicals and Their Habitat. Like his website, LarkNews.com, it was a tongue-in-cheek satire of evangelical culture, as only someone from the inside could document. It purported to reveal, among other things, the typical work schedule of a worship leader (Monday, day off; Tuesday-Friday, think about what songs to play on Sunday; Saturday, day off, Sunday, play songs).

Kilpatrick’s book was funny on purpose. T.M. Luhrmann’s May 6 article on evangelicals in The New York Times is funny too. We’re just not sure Luhrmann knows it.

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Our best-educated guess is that readers of these pages are not casual advocates of biblical morality. Our feedback suggests that you’re “all in,” as we are. So it can be bracing now and then to realize that there is a significant number of people in this nation that don’t understand why we place such importance on issues of life, faith, marriage, family, religious liberties, social justice and citizenship. But that surely is the case.

Federal Judge Michael Urbanski must be one of those people. He’s presiding over a case concerning the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school buildings in Giles County, Virginia. The school board wants the commandments to be posted, a student and parent represented by the American Civil Liberties Union want them to come down. Urbanski has asked the sides to reach a “reasonable compromise.” Huh?

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Congress is considering legislation that would transfer decision-making authority on Medicaid spending from the federal government to the states. We support it for many reasons, but specifically because it would make it harder for states to use tax dollars from this program to finance abortions.

H.R. 4160, sponsored by Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana, is part of the House’s official budget plan. Click here to ask your Member of Congress to support it. Full Story . . .

Last month, Connecticut became the 17th state to abandon the use of the death penalty. Last year, a Gallup poll suggested that support for capital punishment dropped to 61 percent from 64 percent in 2008. That’s a significant majority, but it’s the smallest percentage in favor of the death penalty since the early 1970s.

Those statistics and a rare thoughtful column from E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post got us wondering if capital punishment is an idea whose time has come and gone, or will soon pass, in this nation. Especially if the alternative of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is considered, the time might be right for America to get out of the execution business. Full Story . . .

A federal judge has at least temporarily stopped Texas from distributing tax dollars earmarked for women’s health in the way it sees fit. The immediate beneficiary of the decision is Planned Parenthood, the politically well-connected not-for-profit organization that makes millions of dollars each year by performing abortions. Full Story . . .

Taking on stay-at-home moms is fraught with peril in any context. To try to make them a political punching bag is downright foolish. Even if you buy the notion that Hilary Rosen intended to demean Ann Romney’s choice of profession, she set off a firestorm that some media critics called “faux outrage” but may actually be an introduction to the first thoroughly social-media-driven presidential campaign.

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