Columns
HCR: the community health care center dodge
By Mark Silk — March 19, 2010
In its editorial endorsement of the Senate’s health care reform bill, the National Catholic Reporter takes the USCCB to task for buying into the idea that, because the bill doesn’t specifically forbid the community health care centers to be funded from performing abortions, it would therefore fund abortions. …the bishops have to be clear that […]
Obama v. Israel?
By Mark Silk — March 19, 2010
Charles Krauthammer thinks Obama is anti-Israel. Israelis disagree. Poor neocons.
Benedict’s play
By Mark Silk — March 18, 2010
John Allen has constructed a case that upon becoming pope, Benedict XVI had a species of conversion experience regarding sexual abuse by priests. Prior to that he “seemed just another Roman cardinal in denial.” Or perhaps, just another sometime archbishop who swept charges under the rug. But all this changed when he assumed Peter’s chair. […]
Go, Sisters!
By Mark Silk — March 17, 2010
Hear them roar. The leaders of 60 orders of nuns have sent a letter to all members of Congress urging support of the Senate health care bill. Here’s the punchline: Congress must act. We are asking every member of our community to contact their congressional representatives this week. In this Lenten time, we have launched […]
Religion in the News out
By Mark Silk — March 17, 2010
The new issue of Religion in the News is on the stands–well, posted electronically. Leading off, your editor argues that the rudderless Christian right is (pace Ben Smith and Sarah Posner) snuggling into teapartyism. The lead story, Andrew Walsh’s “An Arny of One,” traces the muted ideological debate over the Fort Hood massacre. Next comes […]
Profile in Courage
By Mark Silk — March 16, 2010
Is it possible that one Catholic bishop has the guts to come out for HCR? Cf. this.
Glenn Beck, Social Justice, and the LDS Church
By Mark Silk — March 16, 2010
I’ve caught a moderate degree of flak from a few Mormons who believe I’ve misrepresented the position of their church regarding social justice. To restate my argument, it was that 1) the Mosaic Law, as enunciated in the Holiness Code of Leviticus, holds that the poor are to be provided for as a matter of […]
Same-sex Catholics in Boulder
By Mark Silk — March 16, 2010
It is hard to imagine anyone who could be unmoved by the interview given to NCR’s Thomas Fox yesterday by the two lesbian partners who have been told by the archdiocese of Denver that their two daughters can no longer attend a parish school. While it’s not for me to say whether they are “good […]
One Pledge of Allegiance, indivisible
By Mark Silk — March 15, 2010
For those who like such things, I’d recommend curling up on a rainy day with the Ninth Circuit’s 2-1 decision in Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School District, which reverses a district court ruling that having public school children recite the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase “under God” violates the First Amendment’s prohibition of […]
Why pro-lifers aren’t pro-HCR
By Mark Silk — March 14, 2010
Expanding health coverage reduces abortions. That’s what T.R. Reid argues in today’s WaPo, and it’s a powerful argument. Look at our peer countries in the developed world. All have universal health coverage and most include abortion in that coverage and all have lower rates of abortion than we do. Why? On the front end, women […]
Uganda bill going down?
By Mark Silk — March 13, 2010
Last week’s statement critical of the proposed anti-homosexuality law by the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) certainly suggests that. It’s signed by the leaders of the country’s Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, and Seventh-Day Adventist churches, as well as by its Muslim Mufti, and published in New Vision, the state-owned and largest circulation daily. As Box Turtle […]
Social Justice for Glenn Beck
By Mark Silk — March 12, 2010
Under withering fire from numerous corners of the religious blogosphere, Glenn Beck first doubled down on his animadversions against religious bodies that place “social justice” on their escutcheons, then walked himself back a bit (relevant clips here). What emerges is the Beckian doctrine that religious injunctions to care for the poor and do other socially […]
Vatican Ragged
By Mark Silk — March 12, 2010
The Irish bishops come to town and are sent away assured that nothing serious is going to happen to them. Pedophile scandals proceed to break out on the Continent, centering on Germany. The pontiff’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, does a Sgt. Schultz, saying he knew nothing about allegations of abuse at the schools affiliated with his […]
So if the Senate bill is not pro-abortion…
By Mark Silk — March 11, 2010
..then how to understand those who insist it is? Over at Politics Daily, David Gibson walks carefully through the allegations, with the help of Washington and Lee law professor Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, an ardent pro-lifer who’s an expert on abortion and health care. “The bottom line is that health care reform is pro-life,” Jost said. […]
