Monthly Archives: February 2008
Obama Fired Up Over Photo
By rvineis — February 25, 2008
The Obama Clinton fight over faith has escalated dramatically. According to Drudgereport.com, Hillary Clinton’s aides have been circulating a photo of Obama wearing traditional Somali garb. The Clinton campaign has not refuted the charge, but the Obama camp accused his opponent of “shameful offensive fear-mongering”. Stay tuned as this develops…
Obama Reaches out to Jews
By rvineis — February 24, 2008
Barack Obama tried agressive outreach into the Jewish community Sunday. He met with Jewish leaders yesterday in an effort to clear up vakakta rumors. Speaking in Cleveland, he reasurred them of his stance on Israel, his relationship with his controversial pastor Jerimiah Wright, and the “Muslim” emails. Obama’s remarks were likely spurred by the Clinton […]
Miracle Guy
By Mark Silk — February 24, 2008
Seeing the Huckabee clip from yesterday’s SNL put me in mind of the name of the show’s original cast.
South Texas
By Mark Silk — February 24, 2008
If Obama has a special card to play with Hispanic Catholics in South Texas (see here), it hasn’t registered yet, according to this geographical breakdown of the recent WaPo/ABC News poll.
The Evangelical Perplex
By Mark Silk — February 24, 2008
So what’s up with white evangelicals? David Brody quotes what the grizzled (well, henna’d) Richard Land offers by way of advice to John McCain, which boils down to: Talk to me and my kind and embrace the old values voter agenda as tightly as you possibly can. Then you’ve got Jim Wallis and company who […]
GOP Loses Amigos
By rvineis — February 23, 2008
Samuel Rodriguez contributes to tomorrow’s Washington Post with his take on the rift between the GOP and Hispanic evangelicals. Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Evangelical Conference, feels that the immigration debacle of last summer drove a wedge between the traditionally agreeable Republican party and evangelical Latinos. Rodriguez: “In the end, Hispanic evangelicals are married […]
Black Church Mobilized
By Mark Silk — February 23, 2008
The Plain Dealer looks at how the upcoming primary is playing in Cleveland’s black community with Mark Naymik’s article on the challenges faced by congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Clinton supporter, and Margaret Bernstein’s on Obama’s church support. The latter focuses on Olivet Institutional Baptist Church and its pastor, Otis Moss, Jr. (Moss’s son, III, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 23, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service Controversial blogger resigns from Southern Baptist mission board (RNS) A controversial blogger who recently resigned from the Southern Baptist’s International Mission Board vows to keep fighting what he calls an increasingly political atmosphere in his denomination. “I will continue to press for more cooperation and accountability, transparency and openness on […]
Blacks and whites merge to forge new future
By Bruce Nolan — February 23, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ These old walls have never heard music like this. On Sundays, when morning light fills the vaulted space of the former First United Methodist Church on Canal Street, drummer Vel McCall sometimes lays down an uptempo, hip-swaying gospel beat for what used to be that sober Protestant […]
Celibacy in Brazil
By Francis X. Rocca — February 22, 2008
A national assembly of Brazilian priests has reportedly written a letter to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy calling for removal of the celibacy requirement for priests. (An unnamed Brazilian bishop is quoted saying that there are already lots of married priests in his country, and that the Vatican is pretending it doesn’t know.) The […]
White Democratic Worshippers
By Mark Silk — February 22, 2008
Hillary Clinton does substantially better than Barack Obama with white Democratic voters who say they attend worship weekly or more, according to a new Gallup analysis. The differential among those voters is 57 percent to 29 percent, whereas among the occasional attenders and those who seldom or never darken the door of a place of […]
IAF Mariachi
By Mark Silk — February 22, 2008
“On the streets of Chicago he began working to achieve a vision of protecting working people…”
The Huck Tapes
By Mark Silk — February 22, 2008
Hanna Rosin has a lovely piece up on Slate today on her search for video and audio tapes of Mike Huckabee’s sermons, when he was a Baptist pastor in Pine Bluff and Texarkana in the 1980s. They may not be, as Rosin says (presumably with tongue in cheek) “the 2008 campaign’s version of the Pentagon […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 22, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service Pope urges Jesuits to commit to orthodoxy VATICAN CITY (RNS) For the second time in two months, Pope Benedict XVI urged leaders of the Catholic Church’s largest religious order to affirm their commitment to orthodoxy in several controversial areas, including religious pluralism and human sexuality. Benedict made his remarks on […]
Web site encourages churches to break the mold
By Matthew Streib — February 22, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In an era of declining attendance, churches across the country are scrambling to embrace modern marketing tools: Web sites, podcasts, billboards and the like. But a backlash is forming, as critics argue that while these megachurch-inspired tactics fill the pews, they sometimes lead to a weakened Christianity and ecclesiastical […]
