Columns
Catholic leaders, take 2
By Mark Silk — May 14, 2009
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Religious burdens
By Mark Silk — May 14, 2009
A few days ago, Rod Dreher lamented the costs imposed by same-sex marriage (really gay rights altogether) on the scruples of those who have religious objections to SSM and gay rights. And he’s right, there are costs. The irony is that the Supreme Court’s 1990 Smith decision, written by social conservative Antonin Scalia, deprives these […]
Apology
By Mark Silk — May 14, 2009
The Spiritual Politics server was down. As you can see, it’s back up. Sorry.
Catholic leaders?
By Mark Silk — May 13, 2009
Given the array of signatories, I’m inclined to disagree with Pastordan’s worried judgment that Harry Knox, the faith guy for the Human Rights Campaign, will be dumped from the OFANP Advisory Council for remarks critical of Pope Benedict. If he listened to those folks, Obama would withdrawing from his Notre Dame speech and walking around […]
Civil Religion, unexclusive and exceptional
By Mark Silk — May 13, 2009
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Speaking Truth to Romney
By Mark Silk — May 12, 2009
Michael Steele has apologized to Mitt Romney for telling the truth about his candidacy. As in: [R]emember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. Doubt it? Read this.
Detainee Flu
By Mark Silk — May 12, 2009
Among the five ways Obama is, in the view of Kristol’s latest WaPo column, “surprisingly vulnerable to political and substantive attack,” is his decision to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Kristol does not specify the nature of the president’s Guantanamo problem, contenting himself with the reflection that it is very like Jimmy Carter’s returning […]
Learning from the Jews
By Mark Silk — May 11, 2009
Writing in the Guardian yesterday, Ed Kessler contends that the current pope is not seriously interested in Catholic-Jewish interchange: The central problem for Pope Benedict resides in his vision of the Catholic church. He sees it as a totally completed institution that does not need to learn anything new theologically from dialogue with other Christians […]
Abstinence-only obit premature
By Mark Silk — May 11, 2009
Last week, Politico’s Ben Smith reported that the Obama Administration had x’ed out funding for abstinence-only sex ed programs. Beloved as these are of social conservatives and their political watercarriers (cf. Administration, Bush), there’s no evidence that they actually work (Levi 1, Bristol 0). Also, liberals don’t believe in abstinence. (OK, OK.) Brody has leapt […]
Recipe for the GOP
By Mark Silk — May 11, 2009
A lot of people, even the odd Republican herself, are indulging in the thought experiment of imagining what the GOP should do to get its groove back. Open the doors to moderates! Throw social conservatives under the bus! Go back to basics! Stay the course! Unless I’m missing something, though, no one has proposed readjusting […]
What’s the casus belli?
By Mark Silk — May 9, 2009
The increasingly agitated, increasingly bishop-led anti-abortion crowd in the Catholic church gets a firm pop from the always mannerly Peter Steinfels in his NYT column today. Noting the 1-4 ratio of those joining and those leaving the church in America today, he concludes: Under normal circumstances, it is hard to imagine any institution’s leadership contemplating […]
Quote for the Day
By Mark Silk — May 9, 2009
“Man, these Islamic guys want to cut my hands off. Maybe it’s time for a change.” — Abshir Boyah, Somali pirate boss
Burke v. Faithful Citizenship
By Mark Silk — May 8, 2009
In his keynote speech at the National Catholic Day of Prayer breakfast, Archbishop Burke declared: But, there is no element of the common good, no morally good practice, which a candidate may promote and to which a voter may be dedicated, which could justify voting for a candidate who also endorses and supports the deliberate […]
Bishops against Notre Dame…and for
By Mark Silk — May 8, 2009
Archbishop Raymond Burke gave the expected screed at this morning’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, including on Notre Dame. His words on the subject to the National Catholic Register last night were: “What it should do is have Notre Dame come clean. Is it Catholic or isn’t it? A Catholic institution, a Catholic university, cannot give […]
How to build a progressive movement
By Mark Silk — May 8, 2009
For a few days now I’ve been pondering Christopher Evans’ essay, “Grassroots Faith: The Lessons of the Social Gospel,” over on Religion Dispatches. It’s a rather Socratic exercise, in the sense that it raises questions without answering them; but what’s clear is that Evans 1) is in favor of a grassroots approach; 2) is anxious […]