Monthly Archives: September 2009
Tuesday’s religion round-up
By Daniel Burke — September 22, 2009
President Obama is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu and Abbas in a rare trilateral conclave, progressive religious groups are gearing up for the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, and the Love Boat captain is back on course. Catholics in North Carolina are being told not to pass the peace or drink from the Communion chalice for […]
Hispanics tackle `machismo’ culture in churches
By Tracy Gordon — September 22, 2009
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — As the new pastor at Vino Nuevo Church, the Rev. Gladys Mejias-Ashmore has been teaching a lot about family, parenting — and the dangers of machismo. In Latin culture, the macho man looms large as boss of wife and family. But more than a few Hispanic evangelical pastors are teaching that […]
COMMENTARY: Crossing borders
By Tom Ehrich — September 22, 2009
NEW YORK — Still wrestling with fatigue from a three-day business trip, I made the 13-block walk to the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where my wife’s English as a Second Language class was holding an end-of-term party. I was greeted by Julia, an exuberant Salvadoran who, a […]
SBC retirements
By Mark Silk — September 22, 2009
A major changing of the guard at the Southern Baptist Convention is on the way with the retirementof two longtime officials–Executive Committee president Morris Chapman and foreign missions head Jerry Rankin. But they’ll have to pry the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission out of Richard Land’s cold dead hands.
Burke v. O’Malley
By Mark Silk — September 22, 2009
Wow. That Archbishop Burke should rally the troops against Cardinal O’Malley’s presiding at Sen. Kennedy’s funeral is, as David Gibson writes, “remarkable.” The occasion–an annual gala for Catholic conservatives–was not exactly public, but the semi-official report on it from Deal Hudson–no Randall Terry he–would not have been made without Burke’s assent. What we’re seeing looks […]
Brooks disses Kristol fils?
By Mark Silk — September 22, 2009
On père: So while others were marching to barricades, picking out bits of the truth that confirmed their own prejudices, editing contrary evidence and working themselves up a righteous lather, Kristol would adopt an attitude of smiling forbearance. He was able to pick a side without losing his clarity. Update: But see Sullivan’s brief evisceration […]
Abortion thought for the day
By Mark Silk — September 22, 2009
Currently about as many miscarriages take place in the U.S. as abortions–900,000 of the former and 800,000 of the latter, or 20-25 percent of all pregnancies in each case. Those who believe that there is a live person from the moment of conception presumably struggle from time to time with the theodicy question: Why does […]
Huckabee wins straw poll of ‘values voters’
By RNS Blog Editor — September 21, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was the clear favorite among attendees of the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit in a straw poll of 10 possible Republican presidential candidates in 2012. Huckabee won 28 percent of the 597 votes cast in two days of balloting that ended Saturday (Sept. 19). Four candidates — […]
Jewish groups protest Iowa’s Saturday caucus scheduling
By RNS Blog Editor — September 21, 2009
(RNS) Moving Iowa’s mid-term caucuses to a Saturday disenfranchises Jewish voters who can’t participate in such events during their Sabbath, according to a letter signed by 18 national Jewish organizations on Friday (Sept. 18). The complaint about the Jan. 23, 2010 scheduling was sent to Iowa Republican Chairman Matt Strawn and Democratic Chairman Michael Kiernan, […]
Graham’s grandson will keep Fla. pulpit
By RNS Blog Editor — September 21, 2009
(RNS) The Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham, will remain as pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after dissidents failed in their attempt to oust him. At a congregational meeting on Sunday (Sept. 20), members of the congregation rejected, 69 percent to 31 percent, a motion to end […]
For ‘values voters,’ health care reform holds little value
By RNS Blog Editor — September 21, 2009
WASHINGTON — Health care reform may be Priority No. 1 in Congress and at the White House, but for the 1,825 religious conservatives who gathered here for the annual Values Voter Summit over the weekend, the subject was barely on their radar screen. “To me, there are so many more important issues than health care […]
Monday’s religion round-up
By Daniel Burke — September 21, 2009
Millions of Muslims celebrated the end of Ramadan over the weekend, and some were joined in fasts this year by Christians. Swine flu is prompting Italian Catholics to take precautions before kissing reliquaries, the U.S. ambassador to Malta teasingly tells President Obama he should convert to Catholicism, and the Vatican has called bishops to Rome […]
Profile of the Nones
By Mark Silk — September 21, 2009
The latest report is out from the 2008 Trinity American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)–a profile of the country’s no-religion population. For political junkies, the big news is that whereas in 1990, Democratic Nones outnumbered Republican Nones by just 4-to-3, they now outnumber them nearly 3-1. That’s because virtually all the new Nones–those born after 1973, […]
Straw Huckabee
By Mark Silk — September 21, 2009
So Mike Huckabee won the Values Voters Summit 2012 straw poll with 28 percent of the vote, while second place was shared by Palin, Pawlenty, Pence, and Romney, each of whom picked up about 12 percent. Does that mean anything? Neither WaPo’s Chris Cillizza nor Time‘s Amy Sullivan thinks so, and it’s hard to disagree. […]
Now he’ll know
By Daniel Burke — September 19, 2009
So, the Time magazine journalist who penned the famous “Is God Dead?” article in 1966 has shuffled off this mortal coil. It seems worth asking whether the kind of journalism John Elson practiced is gone with him. From Time magazine’s cover you might have thought the article was a bit of bombastic provocation, the kind […]
