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
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 […]
The Party that Prays Together
By Mark Silk — March 13, 2008
Democrats will do the faith thing in Denver.
Bush, Man of God
By Mark Silk — March 13, 2008
Take a look at the excerpts from Jacob Weisberg’s new book on President Bush post in Slate today. Weisberg is not the first to get behind the Billy Graham walk-on-the-beach myth, but his version seems to be the best we have so far. Evangelist Arthur Blessit, not Graham, is the guy who made the difference. […]
Another Pastor for McCain
By Mark Silk — March 12, 2008
In Mother Jones, David Corn calls attention to another McCain-supporting megachurch pastor whose animadversions against another religion might oughta be problematic for the GOP standard bearer-apparent. This time it’s Rod Parsley of Columbus, Ohio, and Islam is the religion he’s got a problem with. As in, that Islam is a “false religion” that should be […]
Done, and Done
By Mark Silk — March 11, 2008
The Catholic League is satisfied with John McCain’s repudiation of “any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee’s, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics.” As in this from Donohue: “Sen. McCain has done the right thing and we salute him for doing so. As far as the Catholic League is concerned, this case […]
Buckeye evangelicals
By Mark Silk — March 10, 2008
The conference call didn’t leave me with much more to say about the Zogby poll of Ohio evangelicals. While I don’t doubt the anecdotal evidence that white evangelicals are more in play this year than they’ve been in several election cycles, the evidence for party switching, based on these polls, has to be considered inconclusive. […]
End of an Era?
By Mark Silk — March 10, 2008
In yesterday’s Washington Post, E. J. Dionne postulates the end of the era of the Religious Right: R.R. RIP, 1980-2008. I’m inclined to agree, with a bit of caution, inasmuch as liberal journalists have been announcing the Religious Right’s demise ever since the early 1980s. Less persuasive is Dionne’s grand periodization of the political past […]
More Hageeography
By Mark Silk — March 9, 2008
After my last post on the purported anti-Catholicism of John Hagee, I spoke with Mary Navarro Farr, a San Antonio woman who spent seven years at Hagee’s church a quarter-century ago. While she never formally joined the church, she sang in its choir, went on a trip to Israel led by Hagee, and generally functioned […]
Evangelical Democrats, Ohio Style
By Mark Silk — March 8, 2008
Jim Wallis and Zogby were at it again last week, coming in behind the exit polls to discern the white evangelical vote in the Democratic primary in Ohio. According to the email teaser, these folks favored Clinton over Obama 57 percent to 35 percent. That’s a significant finding, given that white Protestants as a whole […]
McHagee Lives
By Mark Silk — March 7, 2008
With the March 4 primaries out of the way, it’s clear that the John McCain/John Hagee endorsement story is not going away any time soon. Egged on by reporters, Nancy Pelosi has joined in the chorus of condemnation. Liberal Catholic groups like Catholics United have added their voices to the call by Bill Donohue of […]
The Real Huck
By Mark Silk — March 6, 2008
Jim Wallis looks for Mike Huckabee to step up as the leader of a new, more enlightened engaged evangelicalism. As noted in this place earlier, I’m a bit of a skeptic on that proposition. The question to be answered is whether the real Huck is the pre- or the post-New Hampshire Primary Huck. Pre-, as […]
Bullet dodged
By Mark Silk — March 6, 2008
While the eyes of Texas (and the rest of the nation) were upon Clinton and Obama, a Cleburne urologist named Barney Maddox was spending a lot of money on fancy mailings to try to oust incumbent Pat Hardy as the GOP candidate for the District 11 seat on the Texas state school board. Given the […]
The Catholic Vote
By Mark Silk — March 5, 2008
Out of yesterday’s Democratic primaries, the religion question that has struck–perhaps confounded–me is: Does Obama actually have a Catholic problem? If you simply take Catholics and Protestants, state by state, it would seem that he does. But that’s largely because the African-Americans are counted among the Protestants. Take them away, and what we’re mostly left […]
The asshole from Texas
By Mark Silk — March 4, 2008
If Chuck’s the schmuck from New York, what does that make Rev. Land?
