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
Remember MLK?
By Mark Silk — March 21, 2008
Today, E.J. Dionne offers a powerful riposte to fellow Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson’s claim that Barack Obama had chosen the Path of Wright rather than the Path of Martin Luther King, Jr. The telling words of King, as presented by Dionne, are: Listen to what King said about the Vietnam War at his own […]
How Could He?
By Mark Silk — March 21, 2008
In today’s column, Charles Krauthammer asks how Barack Obama could not have left Jeremiah Wright’s church. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that Krauthammer is not engaging in agitprop here, that the question he poses is worth trying to answer. One possibility is that Obama actually embraces the inflammatory things that, thanks to […]
Muslim #2
By Mark Silk — March 20, 2008
Andre Carson has assumed his seat in the House of Representatives representing Indiana’s seventh district as the second Muslim elected to Congress. My information is that, at least on the Democratic side, there was a decision to let him assume the seat as a courtesy to his late grandmother Rep. Julia Carson, who died last […]
Huckabee on Obama/Wright
By Mark Silk — March 19, 2008
Huck’s fundamental decency, his pastor’s experience, and his understanding of race in the South–on display. P.S. Plus, perhaps, his knowledge of what videos of his own old sermons, had anyone ever been able to lay hands on them, might have done to his campaign.
Reassurance?
By Mark Silk — March 19, 2008
In his blog, Shmuel Rosner, the chief U.S. correspondent for Haaretz, recounts some bumptious comments by former George W. Bush secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger at a conference for young Jewish leaders in Washington. Eagleburger’s role was to represent presidential aspirant John McCain on a panel also featuring Daniel Kurtzer (for Barack Obama) and Ann […]
You say Sunnis, and I say Shiites
By Mark Silk — March 19, 2008
OK, politicians are busy folks who can’t always be expected to know who’s who in the world without a scorecard. Still, it’s unsettling that John McCain, on his latest swing through the Middle East, should have on several occasions asserted that al-Qaeda is receiving training in Iran. An elementary knowledge of the religious order in […]
The Speech
By Mark Silk — March 18, 2008
He had me at “two hundred and twenty one years ago.” OK, maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. I’ll spare you the dithyrambs. To my eyes and ears, the core of the speech was this: But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort […]
Letter from Israel
By Mark Silk — March 18, 2008
From his sabbatical in Tel Aviv, my colleague Ron Kiener has sent this account of the Israeli view of the presidential election: Israelis are slowly coming to terms with the fact that their favorite living American political figure, former President Bill Clinton, will not be returning to the White House anytime soon. One cannot underestimate […]
Wright et al.
By Mark Silk — March 18, 2008
The Washington Post‘s Eli Saslow provides a good sketch of Jeremiah Wright’s church. A different kind of contextualization can be found in a lengthy comment by “vega” posted in response to this analysis piece on Politico by John F. Harris and Jim Vandehei (response number 2). Vega is evidently Frank Schaeffer, the movie director and […]
Going on Offense. Spreading the Defense.
By Mark Silk — March 17, 2008
This could be a defining moment, and not just in the campaign. Fasten your seat belts.
Textual Analysis
By Mark Silk — March 17, 2008
Mollie, in line with GetReligion’s gimlet-eyed determination to ferret out evidence of liberal tilt in the MSM, argues that Jeremiah Wright is getting softer treatment for his “God damn America” pronouncement than Jerry Falwell did for his post-9/11 remarks. At the risk of consigning myself into the netherworld of liberal apologetics, let’s just take a […]
On Guilt by Association
By Mark Silk — March 16, 2008
Guilt by association is an integral part of presidential campaigns. Candidates hire staff and hunt for supporters far and wide. They seek to bask in whatever glow those associated with their candidacies can shed. And when a supporter casts a negative light–as will inevitably happen–they can’t pretend it’s irrelevant to the enterprise. The only question […]
Obama Denounces
By Mark Silk — March 15, 2008
Writing on Huffington Post, Barack Obama has denounced the widely viewed comments of his pastor in no uncertain terms. Impressively, he acknowledges the legitimacy of the questions raised by the comments about his relationship with Wright: Because these particular statements by Rev. Wright are so contrary to my own life and beliefs, a number of […]
Those Pesky Pastors
By Mark Silk — March 14, 2008
Ambinder has a sensible post on the issue of pastoral endorsements, to the effect that with bedfellows like Hagee and Parsley, John McCain has to be careful about going after Wright; or what’s sauce for Obama’s goose is sauce for McCain’s gander. Brody, meanwhile, quotes some anonymous “key Democratic strategist” (for any particular campaign?) suggesting […]
The IRS Investigates
By Mark Silk — March 14, 2008
Before us, now, is a series of possible violations of the law against partisan political activity by non-profit organizations–specifically by religious institutions allegedly supporting Barack Obama’s candidacy for president. Besides the official IRS inquiry into Obama’s appearance at the United Church of Christ convention last year, there are assertions that a pastor in Las Vegas […]
