Opinion
COMMENTARY: Break out the rain coats
By Tom Ehrich — January 6, 2009
(UNDATED) The earth doesn’t literally move when paradigms shift. In fact, it might be years before anyone truly notices. But shift they do, and there’s no going back. Consider my typical day in summer 1963: I called friends on a hard-wired family telephone and borrowed my mother’s big Ford sedan to drive to the mall […]
Billy’s Critics
By Mark Silk — January 6, 2009
Gilgoff’s got a post up about Rick Warren and Billy Graham that concludes: But I wonder if it’s fair to compare Warren with Graham on responding to the Christian right, given that so much of Graham’s time in politics—though by no means all of it—happened before the rise of the Christian right in the 1980s. […]
U-Turn on J Street
By Mark Silk — January 6, 2009
Well, maybe not quite a U-Turn, but let’s just say that the fledgling lobby has walked back its pick-no-side position on Gaza . This it did in an unsigned response to Eric Yoffie and a message from executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami. In the former, it portrays itself as part of a large company of worried […]
The Meaning of Billy
By Mark Silk — January 5, 2009
“Billy Graham’s America,” Grant Wacker’s presidential address at the just concluded annual meeting of the American Society of Church History, not only provided a brilliant summation of Graham’s significance in 20th-century American culture but also suggested a way to understand the current debate over the future of evangelicalism. That’s because evangelical leaders like Rick Warren […]
This week at the RNC
By Mark Silk — January 5, 2009
This week will feature various events for the six candidates for Republican National Committee chair to strut their stuff. According to Politico’s Alexander Burns, there are not a lot of happy campers in RNC-land. In preparation, Ken Blackwell rolled out a list of supporters that, if not exactly a Who’s Who of theocons and ecocons, […]
Which Street?
By Mark Silk — January 3, 2009
J-Street, the fledgling peacenik alternative to AIPAC, has gotten itself in a crack for, in the eyes of some, seeing a moral equivalence between Hamas firing missiles into Israel and Israel’s bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza. That’s not quite true, but close enough. Here are relevant passages from its most recent statement: As friends […]
COFANP
By Mark Silk — January 2, 2009
What’s in a name? What George Bush established as “The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives” (OFCI) Barack Obama is rechristening “The President’s Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships” (COFANP). According to the Obama campaign’s position paper on the subject, “The new name will reflect a new commitment to strengthening the partnership between […]
COMMENTARY: A busy year ahead
By Tracy Gordon — January 1, 2009
(UNDATED) Several historical milestones occurring in 2009 offer religious communities and their spiritual leaders some extraordinary teaching moments. These milestones demand attention within America’s churches, synagogues and mosques. The events include Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, two 1929 anniversaries (the 80th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the start of the Great Depression) and […]
COMMENTARY: Doubts about `Doubt’
By Phyllis Zagano — January 1, 2009
(UNDATED) I have doubts about “Doubt”, the new Meryl Streep/Philip Seymour Hoffman movie that wonders whether Father Flynn (Hoffman) seduced a student in St. Nicholas Catholic School headed by the iron-fisted Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep). In some ways, the film is a historical and cinematic cliche. The nuns are dour old maids. The priests are […]
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.
