Right before the Bush inauguration, many women were greatly reassured when Laura said of Roe v. Wade on the 'Today' show, 'No, I don't think it should be overturned.' Three days later, her husband reimposed the 'global gag rule' on groups abroad that receive U.S. funding for family planning.

We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.

Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.

I would stand there at times and remember how beautiful God created this world, and then I would be reassured that he would certainly take care of me and all of my loved ones.

"In the years since the disaster, I often think of my friend Arturo Nogueira, and the conversations we had in the mountains about God. Many of my fellow survivors say they felt the personal presence of God in the mountains. He mercifully allowed us to survive, they believe, in answer to our prayers, and they are certain it was His hand that led us home. I deeply respect the faith of my friends, but, to be honest, as hard as I prayed for a miracle in the Andes, I never felt the personal presence of God. At least, I did not feel God as most people see Him. I did feel something larger than myself, something in the mountains and the glaciers and the glowing sky that, in rare moments, reassured me, and made me feel that the world was orderly and loving and good. If this was God, it was not God as a being or a spirit or some omnipotent, superhuman mind. It was not a God who would choose to save us or abandon us, or change in any way. It was simply a silence, a wholeness, an awe-inspiring simplicity. It seemed to reach me through my own feelings of love, and I have often thought that when we feel what we call love, we are really feeling our connection to this awesome presence. I feel this presence still when my mind quiets and I really pay attention. I don't pretend to understand what it is or what it wants from me. I don't want to understand these things. I have no interest in any God who can be understood, who speaks to us in one holy book or another, and who tinkers with our lives according to some divine plan, as if we were characters in a play. How can I make sense of a God who sets one religion above the rest, who answers one prayer and ignores another, who sends sixteen young men home and leaves twenty-nine others dead on a mountain?

Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs rising or falling grasping at kisses and toys advancing boldly sudden to take alarm retreating to the corner of arm and knee eager to be reassured taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.

A man desires praise that he may be reassured that he may be quit of his doubting of himself he is indifferent to applause when he is confident of success.

Mainstream cinema raises questions only to immediately provide an answer to them so they can send the spectator home reassured. If we actually had those answers then society would appear very different from what it is.

We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.

Let them be reassured it has never been one of our intentions to ban religion in society but solely to protect the national education system from any conspicuous display of religious affiliation.

For a long time I thought I could deal with my anger and hostility on my own. But I couldn't. I denied that it had affected me and yet I was so frantic on the inside with other people: I needed to be constantly reassured.