Those politicians who think the Dodd-Frank law went too far in attempting to reform Wall Street will likely need smelling salts after taking a look at a proposal for reforming the global financial system that was released by the …
Religion
Santorum Not Familiar with Catholic Teaching About the Poor
I generally think questions sprung on candidates to name such-and-such country’s leader or to identify a text from their religious scripture are unfair gotchas that don’t tell us much of substance. But this interchange at the Values Voters Summit between Rick Santorum and a Catholic member of the progressive group Faith in Public Life is …
Articles of Faith: Is the Death Penalty in Keeping with Catholic Doctrine (and Should Scalia Resign)?
Updated, 10:36 a.m.
September has been execution season in the United States. In the past month, Texas executed two prisoners, Florida and Alabama each sent an inmate to the death chamber, and in Georgia, the controversial …
Articles of Faith: Is Obama Really Losing His Jewish Support?
Tell me where you’ve heard this before: Jewish voters are unhappy with Barack Obama. He’s seen as insufficiently supportive of Israel. There are questions about whether he can win enough Jewish votes to carry key states.
If you guessed “during the 2008 Democratic primaries,” then ding, ding, ding! A loaf of raisin-studded challah for …
Articles of Faith: Will a Slew of Overturned State Laws Galvanize the Christian Right?
Judges on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sounded skeptical this week as they heard arguments about why a ban on sharia law in Oklahoma courts should become part of the state’s constitution. “We just have sharia law …
Articles of Faith: The Importance of Understanding Religion in a Post-9/11 World
It’s hard to remember now, but in the days immediately following the attacks of 9/11, a spirit of religious unity reigned. Shocked political foes gathered together at the Washington National Cathedral for a prayer service that …
Articles of Faith: What Journalists Should Be Asking Politicians About Religion
A few weeks ago, I opened up my Twitter feed early in the morning and immediately wondered if I was being punk’d. Instead of the usual horse race speculation, my colleagues in the political press corps were discussing the …
Bishops to Supercommittee: Don’t Think About Touching Programs for the Poor
Oh, those religious people–always droning on and on about the poor. It’s like they have nothing else to do. (Other than getting arrested by the hundreds at the White House for protesting a proposed Canadian oil pipeline.) And it’s like the Bible told them to or something. If they love the poor so much, why don’t they marry …
Articles of Faith: Can Rick Perry’s Evangelical Appeal Reach Beyond Texas?
Since his entry into the GOP presidential race earlier this month, Rick Perry has rocketed to the top of national polls and attained frontrunner status. The position of the Anybody But Mitt candidate, briefly occupied by Michele
…
Articles of Faith: Why Republicans Don’t Want to Debate Birth Control
In the midst of what has already been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer, the Obama administration last week appeared to stumble into the kind of culture war skirmish that nearly shut down the government earlier this …
Articles of Faith: Did Austerity Politics Kill Compassionate Conservatism?
In the wake of the debt-ceiling debate, young voters might find it hard to believe that just ten years ago, “compassionate conservative” was a mantle worn with a straight face by many GOP leaders. In fact, you could argue that …
Articles of Faith: The Conservative Double Standard on Christian Terrorism
Ever since the murderous rampage in Norway last week, Bill O’Reilly and other American conservatives have sought to insist that the alleged Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik is not a Christian. “Breivik is not a …
Religious Leaders Storm the Hill
On Wednesday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to Speaker Boehner informing him of its opposition to his deficit reduction proposal and arguing that “future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons.” On Thursday, religious organizations went from polite protest …