Opinion
Regulars! Occasionals! Almost Nevers!
By Mark Silk — December 31, 2008
Communion of the Saints
By Mark Silk — December 31, 2008
A few days ago, Ed Kilgore over at Beliefnet’s Progressive Revival lamented that the old-time creedal beliefs no longer define the body of the faithful the way they used to. These days, a “conventionally orthodox Protestant” like himself is likely to considered a bad Christian in many conservative Protestant circles because he supports abortion rights […]
COMMENTARY: An inspired choice, even with his uninspiring theology
By Tom Ehrich — December 31, 2008
(UNDATED) Whenever I lead a communications workshop, I show church Web sites that miss the mark: out-of-date designs and content, a “provider driven” and not “customer driven” focus, too many photos of buildings and clergy and not much apparent thought to what a visitor might be seeking. Then I show the Web site for Saddleback […]
Still At It
By Mark Silk — December 30, 2008
The two Dans are still mixing it up over religion and the Dems, God & Country Dan here and and here, and Pastordan here, the latter enlisting enough in the way of comments to suggest that the discussion has generated more than a modicum of interest, at least at the corner of Street and Prophet. […]
Stop the Presses
By Mark Silk — December 28, 2008
Protestants read the Bible more than Catholics. Also: Politically, 41% of regular churchgoers are Republicans, 34% are Democrats, and 25% are unaffiliated with either major party. Fifty-six percent (56%) are politically conservative, 23% moderate and 20% politically liberal.
The New Establishment
By Mark Silk — December 27, 2008
Dan Gilgoff, late of Beliefnet’s God-o-Meter and now covering religion for U.S. News where he blogs as God & Country, has decided to crash our little three-way on religion and the Democratic Party. In a word, he objects to Pastordan’s denigration of Mike McCurry’s account of the Democratic Awakening. I’ll leave it to the good […]
Bah, Humbug!
By Mark Silk — December 26, 2008
If the Wall Street Journal wishes to give its readers a Christmas gift next year, how about retiring “In Hoc Anno Domini,” the pseudo-scriptural holiday editorial tapped out by Vermont Royster in 1949 and published by the newspaper on or about December 24 every year since. Historically confused, intellectually incoherent, and by now virtually incomprehensible, […]
Tres Amigos
By Mark Silk — December 24, 2008
Pleasant it is to arrive at (more or less) mutual agreement with cyberfriends, especially at this time of year. After a lively discussion, Pastordan, Rmj, and I seem to have found the same page to be on in re: the Democratic Party and its re-engagement in public religious discourse. Rmj offers a paragraph that, it […]
Bogus Bogus Trend Story?
By Mark Silk — December 23, 2008
Slate’s media watchdog Jack Shafer thinks he’s got the NYT dead to rights for Paul Vitello’s December 14 story on how the recession is boosting worship attendance, at evangelical churches in particular. Not so, clucks Shafer, citing Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport’s marshalling of evidence that there has, in fact, been no increase in church attendance […]
I can get it for you wholesale; or
By Mark Silk — December 22, 2008
If you’re so rich, why aren’t you smart? In one of the dopier letters to the editor I’ve seen in the New York Times, American Jewish Congress executive director David Harris takes the Gray Lady to task for emphasizing Bernard Madoff’s Jewishness: Yes, he is Jewish. We get it. But was this relevant to his […]
McCurrying Favor
By Mark Silk — December 22, 2008
My oh-so-good (if sometimes intemperate) twin Pastordan can’t seem to stop fretting about Mike McCurry’s (and my, and now Adventus’) readiness to acknowledge something like the standard narrative of a Democratic party gone increasing secular if not a- or anti-religious over the past generation. Let me just add a couple of points to a discussion […]
Pastor to the President
By Mark Silk — December 21, 2008
Once upon a time, presidents tended to choose their own pastors, or reasonable facsimiles thereof, to give the invocation at their inaugurations. The idea was: Here’s the guy who presides over my religious life, the guy I go to for spiritual counsel, and so I’m going to honor him by letting him say the prayer […]
Jews Rule, Unaffiliateds Drool
By Mark Silk — December 19, 2008
That is, according to the Pew’s new toting up of the religious identities of members of the next Congress, Jews are the most overrepresented, with 8.4 percent of the representatives and senators as opposed to just 1.7 percent of the U.S. adult population. That beats out those pillars of mainline Protestantism, the Anglican/Episcopalians and the […]
Dialogue on Divorce
By Mark Silk — December 19, 2008
Over at Religion in American History a few days a ago, Matt Sutton was inspired by the Newsweek brouhaha to put up a post calling out evangelicals for taking the hard line on gay marriage while being pretty squishy (these days) on divorce. Matt’s point is that if evangelicals are going to to nix the […]
Riddle me this
By Mark Silk — December 18, 2008
Pastordan wants his friends in the RIC to “explain why, despite all evidence to the contrary, they thought it was a good idea to mainstream Rick Warren as a “moderate Evangelical.” Brody, meanwhile, has got scads of pro-lifers raging at Warren for being willing to anoint a pro-choicer president. Obama, for his part, claims this […]
