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Yes, there is a debate -- and some say it is a moral debate -- about the appropriateness of the arrest in Switzerland, and possible extradition to the United States, of the film director Roman Polanski. The fact that there is a debate merits some consideration all by itself.

in connection with the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl, Samantha Gailey (now Samantha Geimer), in 1977, and .

His victim and wishes to put the matter to rest. But victims do not determine whether assailants should stand trial for a crime as serious as rape.

Others say it's been a long time, and it's better to simply move on. But some of the clerical child abuse cases being investigated in Ireland stretch back even further, and we can expect some prosecutions in those cases. Would anyone be questioning the rightness of Mr Polanski's arrest

The 'perception gap' seems greatest between American and French responses to the arrest. that gap is as wide as the Atlantic:

"As Polanski's fans across Europe decry his detention, his lawyers say they're filing appeals of both his arrest and eventual transfer to the U.S. "To the French mind, this has made Polanski a combination of Oscar Wilde and Alfred Dreyfus - the victim of systematic persecution," Stanger says. "To the American mind, he's proof that no one is above the law."

I've been reading William Safire's essays on words and writing, published in the New York Times, for years. He began his column in 1979 and submitted just a few weeks ago. The liberal New Yorkers I got to know in the late 90s, when I lived in the city for a time, loved his essays and books on language, even though they shook their heads at his conservative political commentaries.

Safire has died, aged 79. Inevitably, his role as a speechwriter for Richard Nixon, and the first line of an obituary should aim to note a figures principle accomplishment in life. In fact, Safire's greatest achievement was his work as a speechwriter for the English language.

Amongst Safire's rules for the proper use of English are these: 'Remember to never split an infinitive. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. Avoid clichés like the plague. And don't overuse exclamation marks!!'

I recommend a stroll through the

The picture shows Bill Safire receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush in 2006.

Gordon Brown has, , invoked the values of the Good Samaritan -- this time in an effort to distinguish between Labour and Conservative responses to the recession. Labour, he said, was an expression of a commitment . This in the same week we discovered that Pope Benedict will make a state visit to Britain next year. And that juicy revelation was leaked to the press, according to Ruth Gledhill, by a Downing Street adviser. It was Ruth who broke the story of the pope's visit, and on this week's Sunday Sequence she was convinced that there would simply be no space in the itinerary for Northern Ireland -- an assessment now shared by David Willey, the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s veteran Rome correspondent.

Gordon Brown isn't the only statesman to use religious language for political purposes. On this week's programme, we examined the role of faith in the life of two politicians -- one historical, the other contemporary. The Oxford historian Richard Carwardine explored the complex faith journey of Abraham Lincoln, whose bicentenary is being marked this year, and Klaus Larres from the University of Ulster traced religious footprints in the path to power of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, widely described as the most powerful woman in the world today. You can hear both those interviews, along with a debate about the whether the new prosecution guidelines for assisted suicide are a step towards legalised euthanasia, on this week's Everyday Ethics podcast.

about the death of the Rev Ian Thompson, Dean of Chapel at , and the university's director of studies in theology and religion, who was found dead at his home near Cambridge on Thursday afternoon. It is now believed that Mr Thompson took his own life following 'historic' accusations of child sex abuse, some stretching back to the 1970s.

As Dean of King's College, millions of TV viewers worldwide watched Ian Thompson give readings at the college's . But in December 2007, Strathclyde Police submitted a report to the Scottish prosecution service in connection with alleged 'indecencies' involving children in Ayrshire. Ian Thompson was born in Glasgow and graduated from Aberdeen University. He served with the Salvation Army before being ordained in 1994. After pastoral roles in Scotland, he moved to Cambridge in 1999, serving as Chaplain in both Selwyn and Newnham colleges, before being appointed at King's in 2005. Mr Thompson has served as a .

Update: King's College, Cambridge, have published the following announcement on their official website:

'It is with great regret that we announce the death of Ian Thompson, our much loved Dean. Ian unprecedently and successfully combined the roles of both college deans, being Lay Dean as well as Dean of Chapel. With great energy, care, and determination, he supported many groups in College and outside, particularly in connection with rowing. His sudden death leaves the College in a state of shock and he will be much missed by many. His funeral will be private, and a Memorial Service will be held at a later date. Your prayers are asked for his widow Ann and for his family.'

Yesterday, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland, Sir Alasdair Fraser, issued his and urged the people of Northern Ireland to respond to a 12-week consultation on public interest factors in favour of prosecution and those against prosecution for this offence. The guidance is essentially the same as the interim policy issued yesterday by the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales.

Prosecution services hope the guidelines will inform the public about the factors they will take into consideration in determining whether to prosecute in cases of assisted suicide. In essence, what is being proposed is that people will not be prosecuted unless they stand to gain from the death of those they assisted, or if there is evidence that they encouraged someone to take their own life, or if the 'victim' was legally unable to give consent to their actions. Full details below the fold.

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He was the leader of America's largest evangelical Christian association, the founder and pastor of one of America's most famous mega-churches, a campaigner for "family values" and a vocal opponent of gay marriage legislation. Then Ted Haggard was exposed as a liar and a hypocrite: a male escort revealed that he had been having sex with the pastor for years, who also turned out to have a fondness for . After lying on TV about the allegations, Haggard finally came clean and resigned from his pastoral position. His wife Gayle and family stood by him, but the terms of the settlement with his church in Colorado required them all to permanently leave the state. (Richard Dawkins visited Haggard's church for his Root Of All Evil documentary, and .)

A television production company following Haggard during that first year after the scandal in 2006, while he received counselling and tried to put his life back together. Haggard continues to claim that he is not gay; he is "a heterosexual with issues". The HBO film, The Trials of Ted Haggard, aired in the US earlier this year. Soon, he was guest preaching in various churches, talking about the power of restoration, and challenging the church to reach out to fallen Christians with love rather than rejection.

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It's looking very unlikely. But we now have confirmation that the next .

We can expect that the high point of the visit will be the much-anticipated beatification of John Henry Newman, either in Birmingham or in London. Many commentators have pondered the likelihood of a visit to Northern Ireland during a UK tour; there is a sense that John Paul II's 1979 visit to Ireland was incomplete because security concerns led to the cancellation of the planned northern leg of the pope's visit.

You can still watch Tony Curry's documentary about that visit, which was broadcast last night, on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer.

"We call him the dumb ox, but in his teaching he will one day produce such a bellowing that it will be heard throughout the world." -- Albertus Magnus's prescient description of his student, Thomas Aquinas. Seven hundred years after Thomas's death, we're still talking about his ideas. This week's In Our Time considers Thomas's theology and its influence on both the Catholic church and western philosophy.

Here are the top 15 quotations from Thomas Aquinas, courtesy of :

1. A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.

2. All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.

3. Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

4. Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.

5. By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.

6. Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.

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I've been reading the ), which is now the most talked-about legal document in British politics. The Attorney General, Baronness Scotland, helped steer the Act through the House of Lords, but its provisions have now returned to haunt her. Baroness Scotland has paid an "administrative penalty" of £5000 because she failed to make a copy of the documentation she saw relating to the employment of a housekeeper who turned out to be an illegal immigrant.

The Attorney General did not know that Loloahi Tapui was an illegal immigrant, by the Act requires employers to obtain and copy the relevant documentation before they employ anyone. In this case, the baroness says she saw Loloahi Tapui's passport and believed the relevant documentation was in order, but neglected to make a copy of it for her own record.

Baronness Scotland says she has committed a "technical breach" akin to "driving into the City and not paying the congestion charge. ". Other commentators accuse her of "breaking the law" or "committing and offence". Road traffic "offences" are, after all, still "offences" and what they offend is "the law".

The Act in question appears to support the Attorney General's language, since section 15 speaks of "penalty notices" which may be issued to those who act "contrary to this section", whereas section 21 of the Act (which does not apply in this case) uses the language of "offence" in relation to "anyone who employs another . . . knowing that the employee is an adult subject to immigration control".

These are subtle legal differences that will, of course, be entirely lost amid the political sandstorm that is brewing.

I've finished the re-imagined -- a feat of epic screenwriting and one of the greatest productions in the history of television. Much has been written about the theological, political and ethical themes explored directly or indirectly in Battlestar, and I now feel free to read some of that commentary without fear of spoilers. En route to joining the Battlestar discussion community, I've returned to , where we first encounter a character called "Starbuck'.

Don't let the fact that a major coffee house chain is named after Melville's Quaker intellectual. Starbuck's role in the journey of the Pequod (in pursuit of the whale) has much in common with Kara Thrace's role in the journey of Galactica (in pursuit of Earth). Kara, nicknamed Starbuck, does not fear death; she fears being forgotten. Being forgotten is the ultimate form of loneliness and abandonment.

This is Melville:

"Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organization seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than from ignorance... [H]is far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child, tend[ed] to bend him ... from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. "I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale." By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward."

-- Starbuck, first mate of the Pequod, speaking in Moby-Dick, Chapter 26.

In this week's Everyday Ethics podcast: uncovers Ireland's hidden sexual history in his new book, , and we ask if the idea of sin is running out of steam in the modern world. Jesuit priest joins evangelical Protestant campaigner and social analyst to debate whether sin is a manmade concept or a reflection of God's will. In a separate interview, we explore Samuel Johnson's personal faith with Johnson scholar , who has been has been reading the sermons of Dr Johnson on the 300th anniversary of his birth.

On today's Sunday Sequence, Brian McClinton, editor of Ireland's bimonthly humanist magazine, spoke of the dilemma he faces in deciding whether to publish articles expressing attitudes to homosexuality that many humanists would consider "prejudiced". Our conversation was prompted by a correspondence battle in about the limits of free speech within the humanist community.

"A sound practice of daily prayer is essential for our well-being." That's the advice of the new Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, in . Read the full text of the letter or listen to the archbishop read his pastoral letter . (Oddly enough, the Westminster diocese website describes the archbishops as "Right Reverend"; I think "Most Reverend" is the correct honorific, if such things matter.)

It would be interesting to see if there is any empirical evidence to support the claim that a daily routine of prayer promotes good health -- and the converse, that not following such a routine tends to diminish our sense of well-being. This kind of research has been attempted in recent years, and we've reported the results, but it's always difficult to interpret the findings.

Take the research examining the potential of to "boost heath and cure impotency" by the University of Malaya. The head of the research team, Madya Fatimah Ibrahim, said their study suggested that the practice of prayer could help patients with erectile dysfunction. There's a lot of bowing in the traditional muslim prayer style, and the researchers note that twelve "rakaat" (the unit of a set of those actions in a prayer) was equal to thirty minutes of light exercise. Add to that exercise value the obvious de-stressing potential of calming meditation, concentrated focus, and the impact on a subject's breathing, and one can easily appreciate that this kind of prayer can have physiological and psychological benefits for participants. One can imagine similar de-stressing effects in traditional Christian prayers.

For that matter, one can see the de-stressing potential of reading a good book on a beach, swimming, or taking a daily walk to reshuffle the ideas in our heads.

Generally speaking, those experiments that purport to show that "prayer works" are open to the challenge that it is something alongside the act of praying (such as movement, mental focus, deep breathing, stillness) that is working.

This is the poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh reading from his recently published memoir . I took the picture today while visiting Cathal's home in Gortahork, in the Donegal Gaeltacht, to record an interview for a new series on Radio Ulster in which i meet writers to talk about their work and the places where they write. I've already interviewed Germaine Greer and Max Hastings, and I'll be recording another two programmes this week.

Cathal's memoir is his first book in English. He describes his upbringing in his ancestral home in Gortahork, his extraordinary parents, his schooling, his travels in London and what was perhaps the most important discovery of his life -- that Irish is his emotional language, the language of his soul. The book ends when Cathal is just twenty years old, so we must hope for further installments because the first volume is quite wonderful.

Cathal loves tea -- we got through two pots in one visit -- and over tea I discovered that he has never owned a computer, not even a typewriter. He writes every poem, and every book, in longhand. He's never accessed the internet either, and when I asked him about Google, he said he'd heard of it but he'd never seen it. He has a television, but that was purchased only recently to enable Cathal to watch Manchester United play. The landline telephone was a distraction from work, so that's now unplugged, but he recently bought a mobile phone and assures me he is now able to send text messages. I expect he'll soon be sending haiku messages to his entire address book.

On this week's Everyday Ethics podcast, we investigate the man some people say invented Christianity, and whose critics accuse of kick-starting sexism in the church: the Apostle Paul. Cambridge biblical scholars Professor and join the Irish Augustianian scholar to give listeners a beginner's guide to the latest academic studies on St Paul, his letters and their essential message. I also talk to David Fergusson, one of Britain's leading theologians, who takes on the New Atheist movement in his new book,(Oxford University Press, 2009). Professor Fergusson's book is a version of his Gifford Lectures, delivered last year. We also explore the political and religious ideas at play in , the science fiction film currently being screened in the UK, that explores xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa with and . Listen to the podcast here.

You still have time to watch this week's Newsnight Review special, which explores the cultural legacy of Charles Darwin. Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood, Ruth Padel and Richard Coles talk about the new film , which we'll be reviewing soon on Sunday Sequence. The film describes itself as the "true story" of Charles Darwin. Whether it really is the true story of the great scientist's life, and his deeply religious wife Emma, remains to be seen. Whether religious America is also an open question.

They also talk about the play , which has just returned to the London stage. That play became an extraordinarily influential film directed by Stanley Kramer in 1960, which I selected and introduced for last year's Belfast Film Festival.

Margaret Atwood's new book, , imagines a "scripturalist" religious community called God's Gardeners who try to unite religion and science. Read a sample of the book .

An update on the Alan Turing post. Gordon Brown has now made a public apology on behalf of the UK government for the mistreatment of Alan Turing.

I think this is my personal favourite from the current crop of theologically-informed, intelligently-designed, liturgically-literate evangelistic t-shirts.

The market is apparently growing for theology you can write across your chest.

What slogan would you write across your t-shirt?

Sometimes, a pause in a script line can make all the difference ...

Sorry, , I couldn't help myself.

Hardcore Profits, a ´óÏó´«Ã½ documentary about the pornography industry, has been looking into those organisations who have investments, directly or indirectly, with in the adult entertainment business. The programme includes an interview with Thomas Strobhar, a conservative Catholic campaigner, who has been challenging the investment policy of one of the Catholic Church's most powerful financial bodies. He is particularly concerned about , "one of the largest investors of Catholic institutional money in the world. They invest billions of dollars for over 1,000 Catholic dioceses, religious institutes, educational institutions and health care organizations."

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A delegation will be travelling to Tripoli in the for the IRA victims. The Stormont minister Jeffrey Donaldson, MP, will be part of that delegation, and and will now associate itself with the efforts to secure a compensation package. Not everyone thinks this plan is the best way forward for drawing Libya back into full membership of the international community. Yesterday, I heard one person describe the idea as 'ludicrous', and they offered the following analogy to make plain the silliness of the plan: it's like asking a car manufacturing company to compensate the victims of an accident. I've heard this moral analogy suggested a number of times in the public debate about compensation, but it really ought not to be allowed on logical grounds. If a car manufacturing company gave a car to a customer with the full knowledge that this person intended to use the car to run down a third party, then the family of that third party would have a pretty strong case, in court, when they demanded compensation from the company. In fact, that company would be considered accomplices to the crime. There may be other political and diplomatic issues at play in this current debate, but perhaps we can agree that the analogy of the car manufacturing company should be quickly retired. There's a vast and obvious moral difference between Semtex and a saloon car.

John Rawls, who died in 2002, was of the last -- and any -- century. His most important work, , is studied by students of philosophy, law, politics, sociology, and many other disciplines, in colleges across the world. Rawls sums up his contractarian account of "justice as fairness" in these now quite famous words:

"The perspective of eternity is not a perspective from a certain place beyond the world, nor the point of view of a transcendent being; rather it is a certain form of thought and feeling that rational persons can adopt within the world ... Purity of heart, if one could attain it, would be to see clearly and to act with grace and self-command from this point of view."

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. . . But -- in the words of -- we could use the love of God. Brian is one of Northern Ireland's finest singer-songwriters, and he'll be performing live on tomorrow's Sunday Sequence and talking about his new album Gospel Road. I've been listening to the CD today, and Brian has clearly been journeying down the gospel road in the company of Elvis, Johnny Cash and the Prophet Malachi. The result is, from beginning to end, simply wonderful.

I don't have any video of any Gospel Road tracks, but, to whet your appetite, here's performing his song Daddy's Into Jesus Again:

Pope Benedict is upsetting atheists again. This time he has been and suggesting that atheism is dangerous to the natural world. Well, that's how the story has been reported. Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society has dismissed the pope's comments as ". At the risk of sounding like the pope's press officer, this seems to be another example of a media-driven papal puff piece. Here's what the pope actually said:

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This can of theological worms is on display in the offices of the Radio 4 Sunday programme.

I'm visiting my Sunday colleagues in Manchester today and I couldn't resist catching this religious artefact for cyber-posterity. It's one of a number of spiritual curios on display in the office.

That's Sunday producer Carmel Lonergan in the background, functioning, for the purposes of this photograph, as the curator of the exhibition.

post scriptum: The blog is now under pre-moderation rules, which means you will notice a slight delay before your comments are published.