Opinion
COMMENTARY: Brand identity (crisis)
By Tracy Gordon — July 18, 2008
At first blush, General Motors and the Jewish Theological Seminary, two icons of industry and religion, seem to have little in common. But today both “brands” are nonetheless suffering losses of sales (GM) and membership (JTS/Conservative Judaism). As a result, GM and JTS are experiencing severe financial turbulence that some observers believe may threaten their […]
COMMENTARY: Brand identity (crisis)
By James Rudin — July 18, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) At first blush, General Motors and the Jewish Theological Seminary _ two storied icons of industry and religion _ seem to have little in common. GM is the world’s largest auto manufacturer, and JTS is the central institution for Conservative Judaism. Since 1908, GM has produced millions of cars […]
Deal or No Deal
By mcmorris — July 17, 2008
While Mark gets a well-deserved break from the blogosphere, the familiar “with friends like these” beat goes on. Over in Alex Koppelman’s War Room at Salon there’s a report on a group called Catholics United who are demanding that Deal Hudson gets a pink slip from the Catholics for McCain National Steering Committee. It seems […]
Life on J Street
By Mark Silk — July 17, 2008
J Street, the new dovish Israel lobby, has a big new survey of Jewish voters. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, typical of surveys by ideologically driven organizations, far too many of the questions are posed in so ideologically skewed a way as to render many of the results if not worthless […]
CW on the Dems
By Mark Silk — July 17, 2008
Jane Lampman of the Christian Science Monitor had nice profile profile of Leah Daughtry, the Pentecostal pastor who is CEO of the Democratic National Convention, a few days ago. It does, however, trade heavily in what has now become narrative orthodoxy: that not until two years ago did the Democrats take faith-based campaigning seriously, and […]
COMMENTARY: Anti-Catholicism, coming to a campus near you
By Phyllis Zagano — July 17, 2008
Anti-Christian hate mongers would be boring if they weren’t so dangerous. Lately, University of Minnesota biology professor P.Z. Myers has been attacking Catholic belief and practice, his comments veiled by his tissue-thin notion of “free speech.” Myers regularly blogs against anything vaguely religious. He has a particular penchant for anti-Catholicism. So he was wild with […]
Away Message
By Mark Silk — July 16, 2008
I’ll be taking a few days off, and may or may not be off the grid. The Greenberg Center’s trusty administrator, Christine McMorris, may be finding some things to post; and I may find a way to squeeze something in as well. But if not, I’ll be back on Monday at the latest.
The Evangelical Bloc
By Mark Silk — July 16, 2008
Go here to pick up the thread of a discussion between GOM’s Dan Gilgoff and John Schmalzbauer in re: whether evangelical voters are a monolithic voting bloc. I’m with Dan on this one. The problem, simply, is that shorthand versions of white evangelical voting behavior sometimes suggest that every last white evangelical votes Republican, and […]
Whoa!
By Mark Silk — July 16, 2008
Here, courtesy of Brody, is Heidi Hess Saxton, the Founder of the adoption services group “Extraordinary Moms Network,” on The Great McCain Same-Sex Adoption Waffle: [S]aying a child is better off in a same-sex household than to continue waiting for placement in a traditional home is like saying an unborn child is better off if […]
Not that there’s anything wrong with that
By Mark Silk — July 16, 2008
In responding to the viral charges that he’s some kind of Muslim, Barack Obama has caught some flak for, in his insistence that he is not and never has been, seeming to acknowledge that there might be something wrong with that. On Larry King last night, he took the occasion of commenting on the notorious […]
What Divide, NYT?
By Mark Silk — July 16, 2008
“Poll Finds Obama Candidacy Isn’t Closing Divide on Race” goes today’s NYT headline, but looking at the actual poll, I’d say Adam Nagourney and Megan Thee have missed the story. Sure, black Americans are big supporters of the first major party black candidate in history. And sure, his candidacy has not altered the way they, […]
COMMENTARY: A conversation that’s long overdue
By Tom Ehrich — July 16, 2008
As the housing market implodes and financial institutions struggle, a difficult but necessary societal conversation lies ahead. The pain is real, of course. But from an ethical standpoint, is the sudden turn of home ownership from dream to nightmare such a bad thing? This is the conversation we need to have. Many egos are tied […]
Gaps
By Mark Silk — July 15, 2008
Over at MyDD, Todd Beeton surmises that the way to understand the Obama campaign is not in terms of lining up supporters ideologically (i.e. capturing the middle) but demographically (i.e. the young, the black, and the female). This makes sense to me. But what of the religious divide? As this blog has repeatedly emphasized, the […]
Jesse No-Run
By Mark Silk — July 15, 2008
Former independent Minn. governor Jesse Ventura told Larry King last night that he wasn’t about to joint the Franken-Coleman senatorial smackdown–though he left open the possibility that he might vault into the ring at the last minute if “God comes and speaks.” Since Ventura holds himself out as an atheist, however, you figure he rates […]
Rel by Quin
By Mark Silk — July 15, 2008
A new Quinnipiac national poll, showing Obama up over McCain 50-41, has McCain leading 61-29 among evangelicals and 54-39 among Catholics. As with the recent Newsweek poll, this says that Obama is weaker among Catholics than his immediate Democratic predecessors. It also suggests that it may not matter.
