Opinion
Here We Go
By Mark Silk — September 6, 2008
With Kirk Johnson and Kim Severson’s piece on Sarah Palin’s religion in today’s New York Times, the subject is officially on the front burner. The following excerpt does not dampen my interest in learning why Palin left the Pentecostal church where she was baptized as a teenager in the year she ran for lieutenant governor: […]
Whatever
By Mark Silk — September 5, 2008
According to a new Economist/YouGov poll, 17 percent of Americans would use the word “religious” to apply to Barack Obama and 17 percent of Americans would use the word “religious” to apply to John McCain.
The Three Orders
By Mark Silk — September 5, 2008
In the Middle Ages, it was was conventional to divide society into three orders: those who toil (the peasants), those who fight (the lords), and those who pray (the monks). In today’s Republican Party, there is also a tripartite division. Those who toil may be considered the evangelicals; those who fight, the bosses…er, the economic […]
The Gap, The Gap
By Mark Silk — September 5, 2008
Gallup has a terrific new survey out on the religious attendance gap–God Gap if you will–among non-Hispanic white registered voters in re: presidential preference. In a nutshell, McCain is rocking along at a better than 2-1 clip among those who say they attend worship at least weekly (33 percent), while Obama enjoys a 12 percentage […]
Palin the Pentecostal
By Mark Silk — September 5, 2008
Thanks to the likes of AP’s Eric Gorski and Rachel Zoll (here) and the Wall Street Journal‘s Suzanne Sataline (here), we now know that Sarah Palin was formed religiously in a pretty old-timey Pentecostal church. Here’s the lede to Sataline’s story in yesterday’s paper: At the Pentecostal church where Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin worshipped for […]
The Home Stretch
By Mark Silk — September 5, 2008
As the presidential race enters its final phase, where do things stand on the religion front? The Democrats in general and the Obama campaign in particular have made a fair showing that they are not the anti-faith party. Given that Americans have grown a bit leery of mixing religion and politics, the party of Jefferson, […]
What’s in a Word?
By Mark Silk — September 5, 2008
NYT has a cool graphic this morning showing the number of times speakers at the two conventions used particular words. As it turns out, GOP speakers invoked the name of God (“God”) nearly twice as often Democratic ones, 43 to 22. But when it came to the tickets themselves, the invocations were tied: Biden and […]
COMMENTARY: Political (mis)communication
By Tracy Gordon — September 5, 2008
Back in my first sales job, we used talking points to quickly help a prospective client identify the preferability of our product over others. I was taught to highlight the features, advantages and benefits of my product over the competitors. Were politicians products and elections simply about “closing a sale,” such an approach might be […]
Altar Call
By Mark Silk — September 4, 2008
Former Redskins coach Joe Gibbs: “I believe that electing John McCain and Sarah Palin will spark a return to God’s Word and a spiritual revival that will bring our nation together.” This strikes me as one of remoter possibilities of the next four years.
COMMENTARY: Political (mis)communication
By Dick Staub — September 4, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In today’s political, rhetorically cluttered soundscape, it is important to reflect on two seemingly incompatible facts: talk is cheap, and words matter. This came to me not long after Sen. John McCain selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, when Larry King asked Democratic analyst James Carville […]
Surprised?
By Mark Silk — September 4, 2008
Sixty-six percent of white evangelicals are now backing McCain, up from 57 percent this weekend, according to a new CBS poll.
Now You See It, Now You Don’t
By Mark Silk — September 4, 2008
Christianity Today‘s Sarah Palin…oops, Pulliam (sorry, Sarah) has noted how easy it was to see all the religious outreach in Denver, and how hard it is to discover any in St. Paul. Likewise GetReligion’s Mollie. The Dems clearly wanted to flaunt what people don’t think they have. And the Repubs clearly want to hide their […]
Fairy Tale
By Mark Silk — September 4, 2008
In the current New Yorker, Peter J. Boyer offers a portrait of the religious configuration of the presidential race that is at once out of date, worthwhile, and profoundly credulous. It’s out of date because it’s effectively pre-Palin. Yes, there’s a paragraph about her selection sandwiched in near the end, but it hardly takes account […]
COMMENTARY: They will know we are Christians …
By Cathleen Falsani — September 4, 2008
Who is a Christian? It seems like a simple question, but when I typed my inquiry into Google earlier this week, the answer came back in 20 million hits. I’ve always understood a Christian to be someone who believes Jesus was who he said he was and tries to live the way Jesus said to […]
The Servant
By Mark Silk — September 3, 2008
In her acceptance speech, Sarah Palin repeated the line from her Dayton announcement speech in which she signaled fellow evangelicals that she was one of them, to wit: “We are expected to govern with integrity and goodwill and clear convictions and a servant’s heart.” John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter explained the enthusiasm that […]
