Columns
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 […]
The Proclamation
By Mark Silk — May 7, 2009
Madison would have liked this: On this day of unity and prayer, let us also honor the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. We celebrate their commitment to uphold our highest ideals, and we recognize that it is because of them that we continue to live in […]
Marriage enhancement, abortion reduction
By Mark Silk — May 7, 2009
Brody has posted a piece of an interview with Harry Knox, representative of the LGBT community on the OFANP Advisory Council, in which Knox says he’ll bring up with his fellow councilors the issue of gay adoption as part of its abortion-reduction strategy. Here in Connecticut, where we’ve had same-sex marriage for a year, I […]
Catholics Disunited
By Mark Silk — May 7, 2009
Over on God In Government, WaPo’s Jaqui Salmon reported yesterday that D.C. Archbishop Wuerl and Arlington, Va., Bishop Loverde will not be gracing tomorrow’s National Catholic Prayer Breakfast nor the accompanying evening Mass. The keynote address will be delivered by Raymond Burke, sometime archbishop of St. Louis and now Vatican canon law consigliere, who was […]
Hey, bishops!
By Mark Silk — May 6, 2009
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good has stage-managed a petition (see press release after the jump) from Catholic social justice types calling on the Obama administration to support an independent torture commission. While they’re at it, how about calling on the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops to do the same?
Tasked with the Day of Prayer
By Mark Silk — May 6, 2009
The Hartford Courant‘s Susan Campbell has the goods on the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Definitely a bridge too far for even the most evangelical-friendly Obamaites.
As Maine goes…
By Mark Silk — May 6, 2009
…so goes the nation, according to the old saw. All the same-sex marriage dominoes in New England have fallen except New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and the former is teetering. (As in California but not elsewhere in the region, a popular referendum–known as a “people’s veto”–could reverse the decision made in Augusta.) Here are the […]
Richard Land on Torture
By Mark Silk — May 6, 2009
In 2005, Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, told the Nashville Tennesseean that it “is permissible to inflict discomfort to gain information that will save lives, as long as it doesn’t cause permanent damage.” In 2007, he wrote on the WaPo/Newsweek blog, “I condemn torture and […]
Day of Prayer
By Mark Silk — May 5, 2009
President Obama’s decision to issue a Proclamation for the National Day of Prayer but take a pass on the East Room festivities laid on by his predecessor seems pretty much of a piece with James Madison’s efforts to walk the line between custom and constitutional mandate in the matter of presidential religious leadership. As Madison […]
Ave atque vale, Jack
By Mark Silk — May 4, 2009
I spent a little time covering Jack Kemp for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during his unsuccessful presidential campaign for the 1988 GOP presidential nomination. He was a relentless character who attached his personal ambition to economic idees fixes Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in […]
Torture Gap
By Mark Silk — May 1, 2009
Andrew Sullivan, who’s been serving as Anti-Torture Tribune of the Blogosphere, is seriously distressed by Pew’s new finding that the more people go to church, the more likely they are to support torture. I guess this wouldn’t have surprised Torquemada–but to be fair, white evangelicals (as we already know) are more down with torture than […]
Notre Obama
By Mark Silk — May 1, 2009
Catholics may not love Obama as much as Muslims, Jews, and Nones, but a 67 percent approval rating isn’t anything to sneeze at. That’s four points higher than the national approval rating. Given that Catholics supported Obama in the election at just the national rate of 53 percent, it means that he is now outperforming […]
