Spiritual Politics
What Hinckley Begat
By rvineis — January 31, 2008
Time’s Dan van Biema has a piece on the significant legacy of LDS President Gordon Hinckley. The article relies on Spiritual Politics contributor Jan Shipps’ expertise and hypothesizes that without Hinckley a Mormon’s presidential campaign would not gain traction outside LDS locales. van Biema on Romney: "But were it not for Hinckley’s relentless 20-year publicity […]
Noo Yawk
By Mark Silk — January 31, 2008
New York City is an ethno-religious wonderland, and for a little look into what’s going on there in the run-up to Super Tuesday, take a look at this, from Daily News blogger Elizabeth Benjamin.
What Happened to Huck?
By Mark Silk — January 31, 2008
Vanity Fair‘s James Wolcott has this dispeptic assessment of the Huckabee failure: The zombie march of Giuliani’s and Fred Thompson’s maladroit campaigns will entrance political dissecters for seasons to come but less remarked is the misguided direction the Huckabee campaign took after its win in Iowa. Despite his financial disadvantages, Huckabee had a real opportunity […]
At the Reagan Library
By Mark Silk — January 31, 2008
God made one fleeting appearance at the Republican debate last night, when (surprise!) Mike Huckabee said, “[P]eople in this country I think are grateful to God they’re in a land that people are trying to break into and not one they’re trying to break out of.” Now that caucus and primary results have come in […]
Hillary and the Duke
By Mark Silk — January 30, 2008
For anyone interested in the author’s secular reflections on the social construction of candidates’ biographies.
Mitt’s Last Chance
By Mark Silk — January 30, 2008
Hugh Hewitt, fighting for Romney till the last dog dies, puts the best face he can on the Florida results and argues that a stop McCain effort will require Huckabee’s people to look down the road and switch to the Mittster. The shadow of the ’96 Dole campaign will fall on McCain now, and the […]
Huckabust
By Mark Silk — January 29, 2008
OK, according to the Florida exit poll, Huckabee got 32 percent of the white born-again/evangelical vote, Romney 31 percent, McCain 26 percent, and Giuliani 6 percent. In a word, Huck did worse among white evangelicals than he’s done in any state thus far; and white evangelicals showed that they are increasingly prepared to vote for […]
Mitt and Ralph
By Mark Silk — January 29, 2008
That’s Reed. Bottom line: Religious Right bigs prefer Romney to McCain.
Sunshine Christian Soldiers
By Mark Silk — January 29, 2008
Here’s a Florida pastor’s cri de coeur for Huckabee: Where have all the evangelicals gone? The polls show Huck struggling in fourth place. If there are as many evangelicals in Florida as John Green thinks there is, then a smaller proportion of them are voting for Huckabee than elsewhere. Of course, there are various possible […]
Faith in our Union
By rvineis — January 29, 2008
David Kuo and John J. DiIulio Jr, former directors of the White House office of Faith Based Initiatives, criticized the Bush administration’s leadership of their department in today’s NYT. Kuo and Dilulio defended the positive effects of religious giving like providing social services to low income citizens, daycare, and assistance for the homeless. Yet, they […]
Bush: Faith Helped My Fight with Drinking
By rvineis — January 29, 2008
President Bush said today that his faith helped beat his alcohol problem. Bush speaking to a faith based program aimed at reforming inmates said, “I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem.”
Obama in Macon
By rvineis — January 28, 2008
Here is Obama at Harvest Cathedral Church in Macon, Georgia. He uses the story of Luke 10, the good samaritan, to demostrate his public service background.
Anglicans for Obama
By Mark Silk — January 28, 2008
As this American Anglican website shows, religious conservatives continue to be drawn to Obama. Obviously they know that he’s pro-choice and in favor of civil unions (if not same-sex marriage). But they sense in him a moral seriousness and a spiritual authenticity that’s hard for them to resist–or perhaps, that they don’t want to resist.
Mormons v. Christians
By Mark Silk — January 28, 2008
To bring things up to date (see earlier post) on that Focus on the Family video in which Tom Minnery expresses his appreciation for Romney’s “acknowledging” that “Mormonism is not a Christian faith”: The AP’s Rachel Zoll got on the story right away, and learned from Minnery that he had come to that conclusion based […]
Huck Hope
By Mark Silk — January 28, 2008
OK, so the Washington Post‘s Joel Aschenbach doesn’t deal in profundities, but how do you do a little profile on the Hope, Ark. that both Billy Clinton and Mike Huckabee came from, and write a sentence like this–“Anyone on the Huckabee trail in Hope has to pay a visit to a local dentist, Lester Sitzes […]
Mark Silk
Spiritual Politics
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
