Opinion
Asymmetries
By Mark Silk — January 14, 2009
In today’s column, Tom Friedman offers his thoughts on how Israel should proceed in its latest asymmetrical war against a foe with less military might but an ability to inflict harm at once physical, psychological, and in the court of world opinion. On the same op-ed page, Jeffrey Goldberg writes about a different type of […]
COMMENTARY: Shifting course
By Tom Ehrich — January 13, 2009
(UNDATED) Twenty-five years ago, I met my first “survivalist.” He wasn’t a glowering extremist from back-country Idaho. He was a suburban homeowner and technologist who realized that he needed to be more self-sufficient. A bad recession was in full swing. An intricate global economy based on Arab oil looked like a house of cards. So […]
FDR and the Money Changers
By Mark Silk — January 13, 2009
Here are some of the “words that burned and scourged” (as the NYT’s Arthur Krock put it) that Franklin Delano Roosevelt employed in his first inaugural address 76 years ago: And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers […]
Israeli Take-away from Clinton Hearing
By Mark Silk — January 13, 2009
“You cannot negotiate with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognizes Israel and agrees to abide by past agreements”–or as Yediot headlines it: Clinton says ‘no’ to Hamas talks Hillary Clinton says US won’t talk to Hamas before it recognizes Israel’s right to exist Sounds more Bushian than Obamaite to me.
Extremes
By Mark Silk — January 13, 2009
So on the one hand, you’ve got the Rob Schencks and Patrick Mahoneys of the world doing all they can to sacralize the government, and then you’ve got Michael Newdow, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, et al. doing all they can to desacralize it. I’m inclined to say a pox on both your houses and […]
Thought Experiment
By Mark Silk — January 12, 2009
Let’s suppose that Obama’s decisions to have Sharon Watkins give the National Prayer Service sermon and Gene Robinson pray at the Lincoln Memorial pre-inaugural event were fully planned and the timing of their announcements premeditated. It would suggest a strategy of leading with your right and then coming in with the left–kind of what you’d […]
Compass Boxed
By Mark Silk — January 12, 2009
One white evangelical male pastor. One black male prophet. One white mainline female priest. Completing the Inaugural Clergy Trifecta of Invocator, Benedictor, and Homilist, the Rev. Sharon E. Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has been chosen by President-elect Obama to deliver the sermon at the National Prayer Service […]
So Help Me God
By Mark Silk — January 12, 2009
Brody is puffing this little public religion stunt by a couple of B-list Beltway evangelicals. He sees it as an admirable expression of conservative evangelical readiness to pray for the new Democratic president. I don’t quite see it that way. It seems that Rob Schenck of Faith and Action and Patrick J. Mahoney of the […]
What Alliance?
By Mark Silk — January 11, 2009
In the NYT obit of Richard John Neuhaus, Laurie Goodstein wrote: With Charles Colson, the former Watergate felon who became a born-again leader of American evangelicals, Father Neuhaus convened a group that in 1994 produced “Evangelicals and Catholics Together.” It was a widely distributed manifesto that initially came under fire by critics, who accused the […]
The Prop 8 Gap
By Mark Silk — January 9, 2009
A newly released report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, based on post-election polling, has reanimated the debate over whether or not African Americans were responsible for the passage of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative reestablishing California’s ban on gay marriage. The principal news is that 58 percent of African-American voters, […]
COMMENTARY: Burn, baby, burn
By Tracy Gordon — January 8, 2009
COMMENTARY Burn, baby, burn 700 words A photo of Dick Staub is available via https://religionnews.com By DICK STAUB c. 2009 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Is president-elect Barack Obama’s extravagant inaugural the equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned? Just this week, Obama warned Americans about the sickness of our national economy. Sober-minded lawmakers announced that […]
Moralizing Man in Immoral Society
By Mark Silk — January 8, 2009
I first met Richard John Neuhaus in the mid-1980s, when I was working on a book about religion in America since World War II. I wanted to interview him about his role in the antiwar movement, and specifically about Clergy Concerned [later, Clergy and Laity Concerned] About Vietnam, the antiwar organization that he created with […]
Way to go, Abe!
By Mark Silk — January 8, 2009
Hat tip to Number One Son for earning a NYT Caucus shout-out for his highly entertaining Huffpost “Open Letter to the Obama People” on their everlasting gobsmacking email solicitations. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Enough already.
COMMENTARY: My annual Aha! moment
By Cathleen Falsani — January 7, 2009
(UNDATED) In the Christian calendar, we officially left behind the Christmas season behind on Tuesday (Jan. 6) when we moved into the Feast of Epiphany, or, as I like to think of it, the Feast of Aha! Depending on what part of Christendom you hail from, Epiphany commemorates the three Magis’ visit to the newborn […]
Directing the Partnerships
By Mark Silk — January 7, 2009
Announced appointments send signals, and as the top positions in the incoming administration fill up, I’m waiting to see who the president-elect chooses to head his new Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships (COFANP). Like the head of Bush’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, COFANP’s director will be charged with coordinating activities among satellite […]
