Columns
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. […]
Freedom of worship, oh no!
By Mark Silk — March 11, 2010
Some conservative paladins of Religious Freedom have gotten their knickers in a twist because they have discerned a new propensity on the part of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to use the expression “freedom of worship” rather than “freedom of religion” in major public addresses at home and abroad. A couple of weeks […]
The OFANP Report
By Mark Silk — March 10, 2010
And the the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships completed their report and saw that it was good and presented it to the president. So what comes next? The recommendations range across a wide range of government departments, and include both highly specific programmatic suggestions and airy hopes for […]
No children of same-sex couples need apply
By Mark Silk — March 8, 2010
What to make of the decision in the Land of Chaput, aka the Archdiocese of Denver, to boot a preschooler out of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School in Boulder for having two mommies? The archdiocese says it must do so because it “would be a cause of confusion for the student in that what […]
Avatarred and feathered
By Mark Silk — March 8, 2010
The Motion Picture Academy may have sent Avatar down in flames, but my guess is that it’s not going to quiet the ideological squabbling over the movie. This blog doesn’t get a lot of comments, but there have been more, over a longer period, on my little post on Avatar’s Christian theme than on any […]
The Levada policy
By Mark Silk — March 7, 2010
On Friday, a second former official of Catholic Charities in Washington wrote a letter denouncing the agency’s decision to stop offering insurance policies that cover its employees’ spouses. Last week, meanwhile, over on In All Things, James Martin served up a link to then-Archbishop of San Francisco William Levada’s letter justifying his 1997 policy that […]
