Columns
Stupak gets his vote
By Mark Silk — November 7, 2009
The decision of the House leadership to allow a vote on Rep. Bart Stupak’s robust pro-life amendment is, of course, bad news for pro-choicers, and a big win for the Catholic bishops, who played hardball and are now on top. But it confronts House Republicans with an interesting dilemma. They can vote en masse for […]
On the lam
By Mark Silk — November 6, 2009
I’m going to Montreal tomorrow morning for a few days among the religionists at the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting. No computer (don’t ask), so posts will be few if any. Back Tuesday. A good weekend to all.
Traditionalist Anglicans go to Rome
By Mark Silk — November 6, 2009
They have 20 parishes in the UK, and claim 400,000 members worldwide. Maybe this is all there is to it. Much ado about precious little.
Gordon Robertson’s Birthright
By Mark Silk — November 6, 2009
Taglit-Birthright is the operation the sends young Jews on free trips to Israel in order to firm up their Jewish identity and assure the “continuity” of the tribe. To that end, it mounts programs for alumni of the trips–via Birthright NEXT. And next up on a Birthright NEXT-sponsored program in New York is Gordon Robertson, […]
Religion in the News!
By Mark Silk — November 5, 2009
As you can see, the new issue of Religion in the News leads with the notorious C Street house, which figures in both the editor’s column on The Family and Marie Griffith’s examination of L’Affaire Sanford. Andrew Walsh reviews the Tiller murder blame game, not without tough words for the (who us?) pro-life community. On […]
That Pesky God Gap
By Mark Silk — November 5, 2009
Over on the Religion Dispatches blog, where religious progressives go to shake hands with each other, there’s a little excitement about some research purporting to show that all that fuss about the God Gap was overdone. As Candace Chellew-Hodge enthuses: A new study from the University of Florida may just be the amplification of our […]
Comments, please
By Mark Silk — November 4, 2009
After a hiatus of I don’t know how many weeks, the comments function has been restored to this blog. So feel free to comment away.
Take-away from Election Day
By Mark Silk — November 4, 2009
The recipe for GOP success is a return to the Gingrich days of the 1980s and early 1990s, with Reaganesque candidates like Virginia’s Bob McDonnell hiding their social conservatism under a bushel as social conservatives mobilize quietly behind the scenes. My guess is that the much touted “war within the GOP” will be smaller than […]
Religious Correctness in Litchfield
By Mark Silk — November 3, 2009
You can understand a father’s wanting to put a fine point on a memorial to his son, who died at the age of 23 in the World Trade Center on 9/11. What Peter Gadiel wants the memorial to say of his son James is: A gentleman and a gentle manLifelong resident of KentMurdered by Moslem […]
Vito and Nick; or, there’ll always be a Brooklyn
By Mark Silk — November 2, 2009
Vito Lopez, the capo di tutti capi of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn, is currently the beneficiary of robo-calls by Nicholas DiMarzio, the capo di tutti capi of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, urging every registered voter in City Council District 34 to support Lopez. Why City Council District 34, when Lopez, who’s not […]
Married Anglo-Catholic priests?
By Mark Silk — October 30, 2009
If this is right, not so many. The pope’s personal ordinariate to the Anglicans would then permit existing married Anglican priests to be grandfathered in as married Catholic clergy, but you wouldn’t be able to be freshly ordained as an Anglo-Catholic priest. Which is to say, this wouldn’t be the same deal as the Eastern […]
Wallis on abortion and health care reform
By Mark Silk — October 30, 2009
Over on Religion Dispatches, Sarah Posner cornered Jim Wallis on where he actually stands on abortion these days, and here’s what he told her: “I believe the best response to abortion is not to criminalize what, I believe, is often a tragic and desperate choice; but rather to find effective and proven solutions to reduce […]
Benedictine Radicalism
By Mark Silk — October 30, 2009
Over at the WaPo/Georgetown kaffeeklatsch, Hoya gov prof Patrick J. Deneen (inspired by Dr. Robert Moynihan’s latest newsflash from Rome) argues that Pope Benedict (like the late Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire) is neither left, right, nor center, but a radical seeking to marshal a smaller, tougher, and more traditionalist Christianity against the barbarism of […]
A New Michael Steinhardt Award
By Mark Silk — October 29, 2009
In our day, a statement of such awe-inspiring obtuseness has been emitted by a Great Personage that it not only demands widespread notice but actually merits special recognition for all time. Therefore and herewith, I announce the b’rit milah (we Jews don’t do baptisms) of the Michael H. Steinhardt Award for Macher Dopiness, the first […]
Blue Dog Bart Stupak will vote for health care reform…
By Mark Silk — October 29, 2009
…even if his abortion exclusion amendment fails, according to what he said recently in Cheboygan. There were members of the audience who were not happy. So why doesn’t Stupak make a better case for himself. Such as that it’s not a question of the federal government paying for abortions but helping subsidize the purchase of […]
