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
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 […]
The Word from CBN
By Mark Silk — June 2, 2008
Thus pronounceth David Brody: Look, McCain, Obama and Clinton aren’t going to pay attention to an online petition. That’s not the point here. There is a larger issue to consider. Evangelicals, for the most part, are lukewarm on McCain. They may vote for him…they may not but one thing is for sure; they’re not energized […]
What evangelicals?
By Mark Silk — June 2, 2008
Yesterday, Terry Mattingly was beating his familiar drum on the uncertain ontology of evangelicals. What is an evangelical? Why do journalists seize on a character like pastor Rod Parsley and imagine that he somehow speaks for all of them? Why tmatt, religion reporter since the dawn of time, doesn’t even hardly know who Parsley is! […]
Puerto Rican Protestants, dissed
By Mark Silk — June 2, 2008
Let me call your attention to the comments posted to my previous entry by my colleague Juhem Navarro. Juhem taxes the exit pollsters with assuming that Puerto Ricans are more or less all Catholics–a fair charge, since why else suppress the usual primary poll questions on religious affiliation? He points out that, according to the […]
Puerto Rico
By Mark Silk — June 1, 2008
The only religion questions on the Puerto Rico exit poll had to do with attendance, and the differences among the groupings were not notable. For what it’s worth, Clinton did best among weekly attenders, beating out Obama 73-27; worst among monthly attenders, outpolling Obama 62-38. If anyone thinks this means anything, I’d be be happy […]
Trinitarian No More
By Mark Silk — June 1, 2008
For those who, for partisan or non-partisan reasons, have been most critical of Barack Obama’s religious affiliation, the refrain has been, “Why did he stay in that church so long?” The implication being that he either believes the worst that Jeremiah Wright had to offer, or is too morally obtuse not to have been offended […]
Bye, Trinity
By Mark Silk — May 31, 2008
Obama leaves his church. Let’s see what he has to say about the decision tonight.
George v. Pfleger
By Mark Silk — May 31, 2008
What I missed yesterday was the afternoon’s reprimand of Fr. Pfleger by his boss Francis George, the cardinal archbishop of Chicago. Let’s assume, then, that Bill Donohue knew that Pfleger had incurred episcopal displeasure. Is it any more the Catholic League’s business to serve as the hierarchy’s enforcer of ecclesiastical discipline? More interesting, though, is […]
No Comment?
By Mark Silk — May 31, 2008
Not that it’s likely to make a difference, but has anyone asked the Clinton campaign for a reaction to New York Gov. David Paterson’s order that state agencies recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state? Earlier in the campaign, this would have been a subject of considerable media interest, especially after Hillary’s flip-flop on supporting […]
Donohue v. Pfleger
By Mark Silk — May 30, 2008
Bill Donohue, sachem of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, does not lack for partisan chutzpah. In his ongoing war on Barack Obama, he today took after the Illinois senator for his relationship with Fr. Michael Pfleger, last Sunday’s Trinity U.C.C. sermonizer. Here’s a piece of what Donohue had to say: Father Pfleger’s […]
Man of God
By Mark Silk — May 30, 2008
When does a “controversial” preacher become a public pariah? In Jeremiah Wright’s case, it was when he danced gleefully around the podium before dozens of cameras at the National Press Club. In John Hagee’s case, it was when an old audiotape seemed to suggest that he believed God had acquiesced in the Holocaust to hasten […]
Over the Line?
By Mark Silk — May 30, 2008
Last week, Tacoma News Tribune political reporter Niki Sullivan wrote a story about an appearance by Washington State’s GOP gubernatorial hopeful Dino Rossi at a meeting of the local chapter of the Christian Businessmen’s Connection. On the strength of an audiotape and a blogger’s post, Sullivan suggested that the not-for-profit had violated the IRS rules […]
Father Mike
By Mark Silk — May 29, 2008
Father Michael Pfleger, the priest of the Chicago’s famous largely African-American Catholic Church St. Sabina’s, has been called the greatest white black preacher in America. Here, last Sunday, he did some major signifying as the guest preacher at, yes, Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, wherein he makes some serious ugly fun of Hilary Clinton […]
Protestant-Catholic-None
By Mark Silk — May 29, 2008
The latest Pew poll shows Barack Obama widening his slight lead among Catholics over John McCain since April from two to four percentage points, losing seven percentage points to McCain among Protestants, and increasing his margin over him among the unaffiliated by nine percentage points. The biggest shift came among white evangelicals, who now favor […]
The Abortion Card
By Mark Silk — May 29, 2008
GOM wonders why John McCain, in seeking to firm up his evangelical support, hasn’t played the abortion card. After all, his record on abortion (with the not unimportant exception of his support for stem cell research) is as good as any pro-lifer could wish. The answer, I submit, is that abortion has become a much […]
