Columns
Thought for the day
By Mark Silk — June 30, 2009
For religious conservatives, “common ground” means we agree to talk and you agree to compromise.
Madoff, frozen
By Mark Silk — June 30, 2009
Throwing the book at Bernard Madoff, Judge Denny Chin pronounced his crimes as “extraordinarily evil.” Indeed, one of his victims noted that Dante defined fraud as the worst of all sins, reserving the lowest circle of Hell for those who betray those with whom they share particular bonds of love and trust. That certainly works […]
Red State Hypocrisy
By Mark Silk — June 29, 2009
The big moralizing about Mark Sanford has begun–I mean, the kind of typically American penchant for reading Large Meanings into the latest celebrity example of old-time human frailties (cf. Simpson, O.J.). Who can resist? Certainly not the moralists of the New York Times. On Saturday, there was liberal statistics op-ed guy Charles Blow with some […]
Camp (David) Meeting
By Mark Silk — June 29, 2009
Amy Sullivan has the scoop on the Obamas’ choice of church: Camp David’s Evergreen Chapel. A politic move, and probably a wise one: Not only do the Obamas seem to want to be together as a family at Camp David whenever possible (so where else go to church?), but it was going to be a […]
Mark and David
By Mark Silk — June 27, 2009
I’m not so sure that it was such a good idea for Mark Sanford to justify not resigning as governor based on David’s retention of the Judean kingship after taking Bathsheba and having her husband killed. God, exceedingly wroth, imposed some pretty severe penalties (conveyed by Nathan the Prophet in II Samuel 12:10-14): Now therefore […]
Michael Jackson, undead
By Mark Silk — June 26, 2009
A disclaimer at the beginning of the Thriller film reads, “Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult.” OK, so what does it endorse? With apologies to Jacksonologists, for whom this may be a commonplace, as a non-fan I’m struck, viewing […]
Family Ties
By Mark Silk — June 26, 2009
WaPo’s Manuel Roig-Franzia’s has a story today on that mysterious “C Street” house where Mark Sanford went for some Bible study and help with his sparking problem. It’s a Capitol Hill residence associated with “TheFellowship” or “The Family,” the secretive religious organization best known for sponsoring the National Prayer Breakfast. The guy with the skinny […]
Mark, we hardly knew ye
By Mark Silk — June 25, 2009
In his at times barely comprehensible press conference remarks yesterday, Mark Sanford did manage to make it clear that he’d been spending time wandering through the woods of Bible-based therapy, seeking to recover his moral compass and repair his marriage. It’s about what one would expect of a Southern Republican politician these days. But Sanford […]
New Issue of RIN!
By Mark Silk — June 24, 2009
The latest issue of Religion in the News is now on line, for those of you who can’t wait for your hard copy. The cover story is Jerome Chanes’ look at how the Madoff scandal played in the Jewish press–and why it’s been such a huge disgrace in the Jewish world. In the Catholic world, […]
Confidence in Religion
By Mark Silk — June 24, 2009
According to a new Gallup poll, confidence in religion is up four points over the past year, with 52 percent of Americans now expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in “the church or organized religion.” The big winner in Gallup’s annual institutional confidence sweepstakes is the presidency, which shot up from […]
Reviving the SBC
By Mark Silk — June 24, 2009
One of the guilty pleasures I discovered during my turn in the South was following the Southern Baptist Convention, that huge grumpy quasi-denomination that once bestrode the region like a colossus. It’s fallen on hardish times of late, what with baptisms down and membership aging. To gin up institutional revival, SBC president Johnny Hunt last […]
The Niebuhrian
By Mark Silk — June 23, 2009
There’s been a fair amount of div. school-type talk linking Barack Obama to Reinhold Niebuhr, the great political theologian of post-World War II America whose star has of late been in the ascendant. And indeed, Obama (unlike many a politician who once upon a time invoked him–e.g. Jimmy Carter) seems to have actually read and […]
Dodd embraces SSM
By Mark Silk — June 23, 2009
Sen. Chris Dodd, fighting for his political life here in Connecticut, has announced a change of heart on same-sex marriage: He now supports it. Anti-SSM professional Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut calls Dodd out for political expediency: “He took a position against same-sex marriage when he was running for president because that […]
Notre Dame’s Pastor
By Mark Silk — June 22, 2009
Having discussed the matter in executive session and gotten out of Dodge…er San Antone, the Catholic bishops have now issued a statement on behalf of their comrade, the Ordinary of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who criticized and boycotted his local Catholic university when it bestowed an honorary degree on the President of the […]
Faith-Based Future
By Mark Silk — June 22, 2009
Anyone interested in following the fortunes of Son of Faith Based: the Obama Years needs to download “Taking Stock: The Bush Faith-Based Initiative and What Lies Ahead,” a Pew-sponsored report of the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy released this month. Author David J. Wright gives provides a fine (if […]
