The Pew Forum features Yuval Levin and Todd Gitlin exploring the idea that there is always a cultural war behind US politics. Although with slightly different descriptions of the “war” both see it as longstanding and foundational in the US.
Many American voters have received a copy of a DVD titled “Obsession” in the mail in the past few weeks. But there’s no clear answer to who is behind the making of the 2006 movie about radical Islam or who has paid for its distribution.
Somewhere in my attic there is a fading copy of a campus newspaper from 1967—my first year as a law professor at the University of Mississippi. The headline, as I recall, says “Negro to Address Ole Miss Class.” In the space of my own adulthood, a world in which a guest lecture by a black man was a front-page news story has morphed into a world in which a person of color will be speaking on the Rebel campus tonight as a candidate for president of the United States.
Top faith surrogates will hit the trail for Obama. Some of those high profile figures include Former Indiana Congressman and pro-life Democrat Tim Roemer, Catholic legal scholar Doug Kmiec, and author Donald Miller.
A constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in California has lost support during the past two months and now trails by a 17-point margin. Just 38 percent of likely voters back Proposition 8 while 55 percent say they will vote against the Nov. 4 ballot measure, according to a new Field Poll. In July, the measure trailed by nine points.
Read what Bishop Martyn Minns of the Church of Nigeria had to say at the Value Voters Summit last week. The speech was covered in World Magazine, which is edited by Marvin Olasky.
As Barack Obama and John McCain move into the final two months of this longest of elections, white evangelical or “born again” Christian voters are being fought over more fiercely than at any time in modern history. Both parties employ evangelical outreach specialists. Both are spending a lot of time courting evangelical leaders. And both are holding meetings with “values voters” to try to reassure them.
While Barack Obama has struggled to capture Jewish votes, it turns out that one of his wife’s cousins is the country’s most prominent black rabbi.
Earlier this year, the newswires ran amok with report after report that McCain was no longer an Episcopalian, but a Baptist. But that splits more hairs than some are comfortable with. In the meantime, Palin is so closely tied with Pentecostalism that some question how nondenominationally evangelical she is.
Every elected president has referred to God, providence, or a “higher power,” in an inaugural address. Whether this says more about the president’s personal faith or the expectations of the audience, such statements show the close connection between American politics and the public expression of religious belief.