Get Religion wonders about recent stories on the ordination of female Catholic priests, and whether the media shields the male priests who may be involved in the ordination rites:
“To what degree did editors and other members of the Sun team intentionally participate in the hiding of a national or even global news story by agreeing to shield Catholic staffers and, perhaps, clergy who participated in the Womenpriests rite in Baltimore?”
Speaking of Catholics, Anthony Stevens-Arroyo at the Washington Post’s On Faith blog asks if there is a specific “Catholic approach” to debates over the debt ceiling:
“I think it is important for Catholic America to quickly recognize that the unseemly partisan fighting about whether the deficit will be reduced when the rich will loose tax loopholes (most Democrats) or when only spending will be cut (most Republicans) is a surrogate argument about the social fabric of the United States. Is Capitalism in America to be unbridled? Or should the people rely on elected government to limit the power and wealth of the few in the papal call for Social Democracy?”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal blog is all aflutter about Harvard students who are taking action against Subramanian Swamy, a Harvard Summer School economics instructor who penned an op-ed in an Indian newspaper railing against Islamic terrorism in a way that “many have called offensive and inflammatory.”
“He also suggests in the op-ed that the Kashmir Valley be settled with ex-servicemen to demonstrate a sort of civilian shock-and-awe campaign that would establish it as Hindu and Indian once and for all.
Oh yes, he also wants to make it illegal to convert from Hinduism. If that sounds unconstitutional, he clarified in the interview that this would only apply to induced conversion.”
Politco.com notes that Megapastor and Megatweeter Rick Warren had exactly 140 characters of opinion to share about recent debt discussions:
“Megachurch pastor Rick Warren, who delivered the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration (much to the consternation of some liberals), sent a message from his Twitter account on Tuesday that appeared to criticize Obama’s insistence that the rich should pay more taxes as part of a debt and deficit deal.
‘HALF of America pays NO taxes. Zero,’ Warren wrote. ‘So they’re happy for tax rates to be raised on the other half that DOES pay taxes.'”
Huffington Post reports that developers of the Park51 Muslim community center in New York City are apparently hoping that the media hubub of last year won’t return as 9/11 approaches. No word on how a massive story calling attention to that fact will effect their chances of sliding under the radar:
“As political firestorms go, few have consumed more oxygen than last summer’s ‘ground zero mosque’ controversy in lower Manhattan.
Though it was neither at Ground Zero nor a stand-alone mosque, the Park51 project was cast as an insult to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by extremist bloggers whose venomous tone was taken up in the pages of Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post and on Fox News.”
Finally, the Tweet of the Day comes from progressive Muslim author Reza Aslan who points out this article by saying the following:
@rezaaslan Hey Ahmadinejad: you stole election, tortured kids, & threatened world. What R U gonna do now? Be an X-MEN villain!
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