Mark Silk
Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and director of the college's Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. He is a Contributing Editor of the Religion News Service
All Stories by Mark Silk
Jerusalem, Not Off the Table
By Mark Silk — June 6, 2008
My mistake. Obama’s Jerusalem comment does not seem to have been vetted by his Middle East brains trust. All he meant to say, er, was, well, as the Jerusalem Post has it: But a campaign adviser clarified Thursday that Obama believes “Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between […]
Re: Hall Monitors
By Mark Silk — June 6, 2008
Jeff Sharlet has a response to my earlier “Jejeune?” post that I’ll respond to here. He begins as follows: We don’t really have the data to say whether the public reacted to Wright as the media did. Here’s what we know: the story began as the youtube adventure of a group of conservatives, less interested […]
New Religious Baseline
By Mark Silk — June 5, 2008
OK, Gallup has a road map poll for the general election (conducted through May, which is to say prior to Obama sewing up the nomination) that gives us a good baseline going forward. Yes, Virginia, there’s still a big religion gap–19 percentage points among those who say they attend worship services at least weekly. That’s […]
One Jerusalem, Indivisible
By Mark Silk — June 5, 2008
The big story out of Obama’s speech to AIPAC yesterday was the following sentence: “And Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” It is, among other things, the headline in Haaretz’s prominently featured story. The comment should be seen in the context of a statement made three weeks ago by […]
Jejune?
By Mark Silk — June 4, 2008
Jeff Sharlet has a long response to my unsolicited slap at him–a friendly, thoughtful response, which deserves the same. Here’s the money quote: Those are my sour grapes, yes, but they grow along a fence dividing two very broad camps of journalists: bomb throwers and hall monitors. Both camps contain all kinds of good and […]
Voters as Votaries
By Mark Silk — June 4, 2008
In her non-concession speech last night, Hillary Clinton said: I often felt that each of your votes was a prayer for our nation, a declaration of your dreams for your children, a reflection of your desire to chart a new course in this new century. And, in the end, while this primary was long, I […]
Montana Dems and the None Factor
By Mark Silk — June 3, 2008
The first-take exit polls show Obama winning all attendance categories except weekly (more-than-weekly not large enough to register)–which is to say, he got the less religiously observant. He lost the Protestants sans Other Christians by a few points, but when combined, won them. He did much better among Catholics and Other Christians than among Protestants […]
South Dakota Dems
By Mark Silk — June 3, 2008
The early version of the S.D. exit polls show Clinton with moderately large margins in all religion categories, doing slightly better among Catholics than Protestants. Obama won only the non-religious, by 54 percent to 46 percent–exactly the same figures by which Clinton won Protestants.
The horror, the horror
By Mark Silk — June 3, 2008
Jeff Sharlet is guest-blogging on Beliefnet, and at the end of his most recent post writes: The new media narrative, in which the Wright controversy will go down as a speed bump on the path to power, is evidence that they believe they have rid the candidate of his demons. But all they really did […]
The Nominee
By Mark Silk — June 3, 2008
A couple of rather poignant passages from Chicago Sun-Times religion writer Cathleen Falsani’s 2004 interview with Barack Obama. OBAMA: … It’s interesting, the most powerful political moments for me come when I feel like my actions are aligned with a certain truth. I can feel it. When I’m talking to a group and I’m saying […]
It’s on
By Mark Silk — June 3, 2008
A referendum to ban gay marriage will definitely be on the ballot in California in November. What will the presidential candidates say? My guess: McCain will say he believes it’s good for voters in each state to decide, and that personally he’s against it. Obama? In his why-I-left-Trinity press conference, he cited his potential problem […]
In case you’re in the neighborhood
By Mark Silk — June 3, 2008
I’ll be in Boulder Thursday to deliver a keynote speech, “Think Locally, Act Globally,” at a conference on Media, Spiritualities and Social Change” sponsored by Naropa University and the journalistic components of the University of Colorado and the University of Nevada, among others. I’ll be speaking at UC’s University Memorial Center at 3:30. The campaign […]
Excommunicado
By Mark Silk — June 3, 2008
In today’s episode, E.J. Dionne turns to the story of Obamican law professor Douglas Kmiec, who was denied communion by an overzealous priest at a mass held for a group of Catholic businessmen he was addressing. Along with an argument that such denial violated the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ recent statement on how the faithful may […]
How Pflegrant?
By Mark Silk — June 2, 2008
For a little perspective on Fr. Pfleger, this from the New Republic’s blog. From Pfleger and Wright to Hagree and Parsley, it’s clear that the traditional role of religion in American electoral politics has been profoundly unsettled. It used to be that the object of the exercise was for the candidate to be seen receiving […]
