Opinion
Done, and Done
By Mark Silk — March 11, 2008
The Catholic League is satisfied with John McCain’s repudiation of “any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee’s, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics.” As in this from Donohue: “Sen. McCain has done the right thing and we salute him for doing so. As far as the Catholic League is concerned, this case […]
Buckeye evangelicals
By Mark Silk — March 10, 2008
The conference call didn’t leave me with much more to say about the Zogby poll of Ohio evangelicals. While I don’t doubt the anecdotal evidence that white evangelicals are more in play this year than they’ve been in several election cycles, the evidence for party switching, based on these polls, has to be considered inconclusive. […]
McCain to go to Israel
By rvineis — March 10, 2008
John McCain will travel to Israel next week in an effort to secure Jewish support in the U.S. and to show off his foreign policy credentials.
End of an Era?
By Mark Silk — March 10, 2008
In yesterday’s Washington Post, E. J. Dionne postulates the end of the era of the Religious Right: R.R. RIP, 1980-2008. I’m inclined to agree, with a bit of caution, inasmuch as liberal journalists have been announcing the Religious Right’s demise ever since the early 1980s. Less persuasive is Dionne’s grand periodization of the political past […]
Nothing New
By rvineis — March 9, 2008
Nicholas Kristof has a worthwhile piece in today’s NYT about the bigotry surrounding Obama. Kristof puts these recent events into a historical context noting that racist smears seem to be one of America’s favorite pastimes. On race: There is a parallel with presidential campaigns in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when one of the […]
More Hageeography
By Mark Silk — March 9, 2008
After my last post on the purported anti-Catholicism of John Hagee, I spoke with Mary Navarro Farr, a San Antonio woman who spent seven years at Hagee’s church a quarter-century ago. While she never formally joined the church, she sang in its choir, went on a trip to Israel led by Hagee, and generally functioned […]
Evangelical Democrats, Ohio Style
By Mark Silk — March 8, 2008
Jim Wallis and Zogby were at it again last week, coming in behind the exit polls to discern the white evangelical vote in the Democratic primary in Ohio. According to the email teaser, these folks favored Clinton over Obama 57 percent to 35 percent. That’s a significant finding, given that white Protestants as a whole […]
McHagee Lives
By Mark Silk — March 7, 2008
With the March 4 primaries out of the way, it’s clear that the John McCain/John Hagee endorsement story is not going away any time soon. Egged on by reporters, Nancy Pelosi has joined in the chorus of condemnation. Liberal Catholic groups like Catholics United have added their voices to the call by Bill Donohue of […]
COMMENTARY: No more Mr. Nice Guy
By Dick Staub — March 7, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Where did this idea originate _ that Christianity is about being “nice”? It is an odd outcome and irrational progression from Jesus, whose very arrival on earth threatened to overturn everything: the Roman Empire, the Jewish religious powers and most significantly, the lives of every human on earth. Essayist […]
COMMENTARY: No more Mr. Nice Guy
By RNS Blog Editor — March 7, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Brushing back a thick layer of dust, Tudor Parfitt revealed a distinctive interwoven pattern carved around the outside of the “terribly, terribly damaged” wooden artifact tucked away on the bottom shelf of a Zimbabwe warehouse. “The moment I saw it, I felt there was something weird about it,” said […]
The Real Huck
By Mark Silk — March 6, 2008
Jim Wallis looks for Mike Huckabee to step up as the leader of a new, more enlightened engaged evangelicalism. As noted in this place earlier, I’m a bit of a skeptic on that proposition. The question to be answered is whether the real Huck is the pre- or the post-New Hampshire Primary Huck. Pre-, as […]
Bullet dodged
By Mark Silk — March 6, 2008
While the eyes of Texas (and the rest of the nation) were upon Clinton and Obama, a Cleburne urologist named Barney Maddox was spending a lot of money on fancy mailings to try to oust incumbent Pat Hardy as the GOP candidate for the District 11 seat on the Texas state school board. Given the […]
COMMENTARY: Living in the gray with the Man in Black
By Cathleen Falsani — March 6, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It has been suggested, on more than one occasion, that if another face were to be added to the quartet of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore, it should be Johnny Cash. The Man in Black would have my vote. You’d be hard-pressed to name someone more […]
The Catholic Vote
By Mark Silk — March 5, 2008
Out of yesterday’s Democratic primaries, the religion question that has struck–perhaps confounded–me is: Does Obama actually have a Catholic problem? If you simply take Catholics and Protestants, state by state, it would seem that he does. But that’s largely because the African-Americans are counted among the Protestants. Take them away, and what we’re mostly left […]
COMMENTARY: Attention (church) shoppers!
By Tom Ehrich — March 5, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) My first reaction to the much-publicized U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life was, “Hooray for common sense!” In finding that 44 percent of Americans change their religious affiliation as they grow up, the survey proved that religious life isn’t an exercise in […]
