Columns
Is anyone surprised…
By Mark Silk — September 9, 2009
…that religious right leaders made regular visits to the Bush White House? Their care and feeding has been important to Republican presidents since Reagan, and helps explain their domestication within the GOP.
The Silence of Religious Voices?
By Mark Silk — September 9, 2009
Over on Religion Dispatches, Emory prof. Gordon Newby has a piece decrying the “silence of religious voices” on behalf of health care reform. That’s evidence that Newby hasn’t been listening very hard. Quite a few religious voices have been raised for those with ears to hear–or more accurately, with eyes to scan. Coalitions have formed, […]
How much federal funding of abortion?
By Mark Silk — September 8, 2009
Tom Reese, S.J. quotes chapter and verse to show that, yes Virginia, the Catholic bishops really do support health care reform, a few episcopal recusants notwithstanding. But one bit of rhetoric finesse has to do with the issue of federal funding of abortions. Here’s Tom’s last graph: The bishops do not want an abortion fight […]
Supernatural indoctrination
By Mark Silk — September 8, 2009
OMG Obama is going to mention Harry Potter and invoke God’s blessing on our children!!!
Go to District 9
By Mark Silk — September 7, 2009
It’s a sci-fi thriller, a shoot-’em-up, a buddy film, and–in our mixed-race age–a parable of the limits and possibilities of empathy. I would hope that in three years a wise Prawn father with the richness of his experiences will reach a better conclusion than a South African human who hasn’t lived that life–or we’re all […]
The value of a liberal arts education
By Mark Silk — September 6, 2009
Ayatollah Khamenei said this week that the study of social sciences “promotes doubts and uncertainty.” He urged “ardent defenders of Islam” to review the human sciences that are taught in Iran’s universities and that he said “promote secularism,” according to Iranian news services. “Many of the humanities and liberal arts are based on philosophies whose […]
James Wood and I.B. Singer
By Mark Silk — September 5, 2009
If you’re catching up on your New Yorkers this Labor Day weekend, don’t overlook lit prof. James Wood’s review essay, “God in the Quad,” from the August 31 issue. (Here’s the link to the abstract; the full digital version is behind the magazine’s firewall.) Wood, a non-believer whose father became a priest late in life, […]
Jindal the evangelical
By Mark Silk — September 4, 2009
Welton Gaddy, president of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance and pastor of a liberal Baptist church in Monroe, La., has gotten into a spat with La. Gov. Bobby Jindal over the latter’s practice of helicoptering up to north Louisiana of a Sunday at state expense to attend services and press the flesh at one or another […]
The delegitimation campaign
By Mark Silk — September 4, 2009
He’s a Muslim, he wasn’t born in America, and he’s a socialist who shouldn’t be allowed to speak to my kid.
The O’Malley Doctrine
By Mark Silk — September 3, 2009
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s defense of his decision to preside at Sen. Kennedy’s funeral is notable on a number of grounds, but above all as an articulation of what is emerging as the public stance of the moderate wing of the American hierarchy–as opposed to the right-wing Burke-Chaput axis. The message is that yes, of […]
When to apologize
By Mark Silk — September 3, 2009
Addressing Washington archbishop Donald Wuerl’s campaign against legalizing same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital over on America‘s In All Things blog, prolific contributor Sean Michael Winters (hi, Sean Michael!) writes: The Church does not owe anyone an apology for stating our belief in the importance of traditional marriage, nor for the argument that our society […]
Guess who’s not not religious?
By Mark Silk — September 2, 2009
Conservative white Republicans constitute 27.9 percent of the American adult population who say religion is important to them, but just 13.7 percent of Americans who say it is not important.
Pop quiz of the day
By Mark Silk — September 2, 2009
Does God want Mark Sanford to stay in office? Why or why not?
Robert F. McDonnell, pro-family ideologue
By Mark Silk — September 2, 2009
Bob McDonnell, the GOP gubernatorial candidate in the blue-ing state of Virginia, is falling all over himself to disavow a thesis he wrote 20 years ago in pursuit of degrees in law and public policy at Pat Robertson’s CBN University (now Regent). The thesis, “The Republican Party’s Vision of the Family: The Compelling Issue of […]
What to make of the Rev. Steven L. Anderson
By Mark Silk — September 1, 2009
Fred Clarkson has a good round-up on Religion Dispatches today of the tale of Chris Broughton, the assault-rifle-toting protester at Pres. Obama’s Phoenix speech last week, and his “praying-for-Obama’s-death” pastor, Steven L. Anderson of Tempe’s storefront Faithful Word Baptist Church. The only thing odd about Clarkson’s piece is his claim that the MSM missed the […]
