Opinion
COMMENTARY: The Islam I know
By Tracy Gordon — September 19, 2008
With the anniversary of 9/11’s tragic evil events so fresh in our minds, it may seem an odd time for me to write positively about the Islam I know. The airwaves have been packed with shrill, demonizing rhetoric about radical Islamic terrorists who are consumed by hate and seem unfazed by the slaughter of innocents. […]
COMMENTARY: The Islam I know
By Dick Staub — September 19, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) With the anniversary the tragic, evil events of Sept. 11, 2001 so fresh in our minds, it may seem an odd time for me to write positively about the Islam I know. In the aftermath of the attacks, the airwaves have been packed with shrill,demonizing rhetoric about radical Islamic […]
Oooookay!
By Mark Silk — September 18, 2008
A little more than half of Americans think that at least half of all average Americans will go to heaven.
Pew Premie?
By Mark Silk — September 18, 2008
Here’s what Pew has to say about religion in reporting its latest poll on the presidential race: McCain’s support among white evangelical Protestants, a key Republican voter group, has inched up to 71% (Obama is supported by 21% of evangelicals). Based only on voters who express a preference between the two candidates, McCain’s lead among […]
Charisma and its discontents
By Mark Silk — September 18, 2008
At Temple Beth El last night I was struck again by the bitterness and vituperation that Obama provokes in some people. Why should a candidate whose campaign has been built on a rhetoric of bringing people together, who engages in a minimum of personal attack, inspire such antipathy? Back during the primary campaign, the antipathy […]
West Hartford Jews
By Mark Silk — September 18, 2008
Last night I attended a forum on the presidential election and the Jewish vote at Beth El Temple, one of two large Conservative synagogues in West Hartford, featuring representatives of the Republican Jewish Coalition and the National Democratic Jewish Council. Of the several hundred attendees, only a handful raised their hands when asked who was […]
COMMENTARY: Energy crisis
By Cathleen Falsani — September 17, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It wasn’t my finest moment. As we filed into the theater and were shown to our seats in the nosebleed section, I grumbled aloud about what a raw deal I was getting. I was supposed to be in the VIP seats down front. I was supposed to be getting […]
The Scranton Perplex
By Mark Silk — September 17, 2008
David Kirkpatrick’s article on Scranton Catholics and the abortion issue in today’s NYT has left me scratching my head. The premise, enunciated in the headline, is: “Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes.” But is it the abortion issue that’s doing the dividing? Yes, some of the dozens of Catholics that Kirkpatrick talked to cite it […]
COMMENTARY: No more business as usual
By Tom Ehrich — September 17, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Here in America’s financial capital, Sunday (Sept. 14) was normal in most respects. Streets were filled with shoppers, parks with strollers and picnickers, and homes with people watching the Jets lose and the Giants win. But our always-on communications brought a steady stream of sobering news from […]
COMMENTARY: No more business as usual
By Tom Ehrich — September 17, 2008
NEW YORK-On the one hand, the bankruptcy of investment firm Lehman Brothers and the forced sale of brokerage giant Merrill Lynch struck many as not surprising after years of living large in a shadowy, high-risk world beyond normal financial regulation. On the other hand, in the complex interconnections of a modern economy, those collapses will […]
Pastor, I Am Banned
By Mark Silk — September 16, 2008
Good interview in Salon with the American Baptist pastor whose book seems to have inspired Sarah Palin’s excellent book banning adventure.
Whom do you fear more?
By Mark Silk — September 16, 2008
“Governor Palin scares the hell out of me,” former New York mayor Ed Koch told the Jewish Week‘s James Besser this week. And as Besser reports, there seems little question that like Koch (who supported President Bush in 2004), a lot of Jewish voters feel the same way. Students of the subject agree that nothing […]
Avaritia
By Mark Silk — September 16, 2008
When he signed up Sarah Palin, John McCain committed his campaign to the tried and true moral values agenda of the religious right, but now he’s gone it one better by denouncing Wall Street for the deadly sin of greed. I always thought that greed was the fairy dust that brought the magic of the […]
Tune in
By Mark Silk — September 15, 2008
If you’re interested, I’ll be talking (presumably via a soundbite or two) about the impact of Sarah Palin on religious/geographic voting blocs on the CBS Evening News this evening at 6:30. Byron Pitts reporting. Update: Wall Street 1, Palin religious impact, 0. Story to air later in the week.
What Lincoln said
By Mark Silk — September 15, 2008
It turns out that the collected words of Abraham Lincoln are on line and searchable, and indeed there is no evidence that Lincoln made that rather pompous statement about being on God’s side so widely attributed to him–and recently alluded to by Sarah Palin. But my colleague Ron Spencer has called my attention to a […]
