Tag: Politics

Brian McLaren – who will be at Lambeth July 19-24 – is quoted in this CNN story on Obama’s move to mobilize Christians on the

Stephen Waldman from BeliefNet notes that the second part of the Pew Study released earlier this week contains statistics that address “the three big religion-and-politics questions of 2008”: Do Democrats still suffer from a God Gap? Which way will Catholics break in the election? And, can Obama do well among evangelicals?

Earlier this week, the Campaign to End Torture released released a declaration signed by a wide variety of former military leaders, religious leaders and former government officials, that called on President Bush to issue an Executive Order that would clearly ban torture.

Tongues wagging on the blogosphere hinted that Obama was going to break from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, whose former pastor has made headlines for his controversial sermons. Today, we have confirmation that he has resigned his 20-year membership at the church.

Bishop Gene Robinson has taken plenty of flak during the past five years, but according to what he says in a new video post on the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly blog–probably an extra take from last week’s feature on him–he’s gotten the most grief for endorsing a candidate during the primary season earlier this year.

We conclude that the right to marry, …. guarantees same-sex couples the same substantive constitutional rights as opposite-sex couples to choose one’s life partner and enter with that person into a committed, officially recognized, and protected family relationship that enjoys all of the constitutionally based incidents of marriage.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani apparently caused quite a ruckus last month by taking communion at a papal mass held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Seems he and Cardinal Edward Egan had a “tacit understanding” that Giuliani wouldn’t take mass because of his support of abortion rights, according to an RNS story picked up at the Pew Forum. When it happened, Reuters ran the story that it was his divorced-and-remarried status that barred him from receiving communion, and tabloids ran rather amok with the report. But Egan seems to be taking the matter very seriously, citing Giuliani’s support of abortion rights.

It is an injustice, a legacy of the racist threads of this nation’s history, but prominent African-Americans are regularly called upon to explain or repudiate what other black Americans have to say, while white public figures are rarely, if ever, handed that burden. Senator John McCain has continued to embrace a prominent white supporter, Pastor John Hagee, whose bigotry matches that of Mr. Wright.