Casey Schoeneberger, Faith in Public Life’s Media Relations Assistant, came to FPL from NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby’s Associate Program after studying economics at Saint Joseph’s University. She blogs about tax and budget issues on Bold Faith Type.
The FPL News Reel is a daily round-up of the top faith and politics stories in the news. You can sign up for the email version of the News Reel here, subscribe to the RSS feed here, and follow it on twitter at @FPLNewsreel
How Obama Set a Contraception Trap for the Right By Andrew Sullivan — Newsweek, Opinion
This could be the moment when the culture-war tide finally turns and the social wedge issues long deployed so effectively by the Republican right begin to come back and bite them.
Medicaid reforms need not undermine vital services By David Saperstein and William Daroff — Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Opinion
Leading Jewish organizations have made it a priority to fight to protect the services and benefits that individuals with disabilities and their families receive under the Medicaid program.
Racial reconciliation 2012 By David Gushee — Associated Baptist Press
The racially divided Protestant South of so many centuries, in which we sang many of the same hymns and worshipped the same Jesus in segregated churches, is experimenting here with an unprecedented (re)union.
Fear of Deportation Kept L.A. School’s Parents From Reporting Sex Abuse By Jorge Rivas — Colorlines
Two teachers have been charged with multiple counts of lewd conduct against several students at Miramonte Elementary—a school in South Los Angeles who’s student body is made up of 98% Latinos and 2% black students. Lawyers say at least three alleged victims have not been interviewed by law enforcement because their parents fear deportation.
Education Justice By Bob Faw — PBS, Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly
What we’re doing here we’re doing within a Christian context. We believe in God’s word as revealed in Scripture, and that faith informs how you think about students. It informs your efficacy. It informs your belief that every child can learn.
The Red Balloon of Social Justice: Wisconsin One Year Later By Phil Haslanger — Sojourners, God’s Politics
It was on Valentine’s Day just a year ago that a few hundred University of Wisconsin-Madison students carried heart-shaped balloons and “valentines” for Gov. Scott Walker that said, “Please don’t break our hearts.”
Washington Becomes Seventh State to Legalize Gay Marriage By Tracy Simmons — Religion News Service
Opponents, however, are determined to overturn the measure by collecting enough signatures to send it to the ballot box. If they collect more than 120,000 names…the law will be put on hold until the November election.
Speaking out for same-sex marriage law, black minister stands apart By Miranda S. Spivack — Washington Post
[Rev. Delman] Coates… testified with Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley during a contentious hearing in Annapolis in support of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Coates is among few African American preachers in Maryland who support the bill…
The FPL News Reel is a daily round-up of the top faith and politics stories in the news. You can sign up for the email version of the News Reel here, subscribe to the RSS feed here, and follow it on twitter at @FPLNewsreel
Both Catholic Health Assn and Planned Parenthood Say They’re Pleased With Contraception Rule Announcement By Jake Tapper — ABC News
Though they’re on opposite sides of the birth control and abortion debate, both Sister Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, issued statements Friday morning applauding the compromise…
Evangelicals added weight to Catholic outcry over Obama contraception rule By Eric Marrapodi — CNN, Belief Blog
…in pushing the White House to change the rule, Catholics were joined by a politically formidable religious group that’s OK with contraception but increasingly sensitive about what they say is a government bent on secularizing the public square: evangelical Christians.
Anatomy of a Mortgage Deal By Harold Meyerson — American Prospect, Opinion
It’s far from perfect, but a new settlement between homeowners and banks empowers attorneys general to prosecute lenders.
Mortgage Settlement Reached: A Beginning, Not an End By George Zornick — The Nation
In short: the biggest battles have yet to be fought. And that’s a significant victory, considering the initial deal was supposedly going to let the banks off the hook on just about everything.
Money and Morals By Paul Krugman — New York Times, Opinion
Lately inequality has re-entered the national conversation…So you knew what was going to happen next. Suddenly, conservatives are telling us that it’s not really about money; it’s about morals.
Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say By Sabrina Tavernise — New York Times
Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education’s leveling effects.
Backlash against Kris Kobach on immigration is growing By Mary Sanchez — Kansas City Star, Opinion
“Backlash built this week against the Kansas secretary of state for gallivanting state-to-state, drumming up support for laws bent on driving illegal immigrants out….No, Kobach’s supporters are barking back now. The legislators and taxpayers who bought into his schemes to make the lives of illegal immigrants so hellish that they “self-deport.”
Occupy Our Faith By Carol Howard Merritt — Christian Century
Why will the movements persist even after the tent poles have been folded up? Because the problems that the Occupiers lifted up are real and they ought to grab people of faith.
As warden, she oversaw executions; now she fights to stop them By Jacqueline Gilvard Landry — National Catholic Reporter
Woodford became executive director of Death Penalty Focus in April 2011. The nonprofit is part of the SAFE California campaign, but its mission extends beyond California to abolish the death penalty nationally.
The FPL News Reel is a daily round-up of the top faith and politics stories in the news. You can sign up for the email version of the News Reel here, subscribe to the RSS feed here, and follow it on twitter at @FPLNewsreel
Proof that Romney really doesn’t care about the poor By Andrew Leonard — Salon
David Cay Johnston, tax reporter extraordinaire, takes a close look at Romney’s tax proposals and discovers something…: Romney really doesn’t care about the poor. Romney’s plan, writes Johnston, “would raise taxes on the poorest 125 million Americans while tilting tax cuts further toward the rich.”
Did Santorum Win Big Or Win Squat? What’s A Nation To Believe? By Ron Elving — NPR
Not only was the Missouri vote a “beauty contest,” binding no delegates, but the turnout there was less than 6 percent of the voting-age population — a paltry number for a statewide primary. Moreover, Missouri’s results were a bit askew because Gingrich did not get on the ballot.
Why White House sees political opportunity in the contraception battle By Sarah Kliff — Washington Post, Wonkblog
…the White House sees… a chance to widen the reproductive health debate beyond abortion to issues like contraceptives, winning over key demographics of independent voters in the process.
The Contraception Coverage Debate Isn’t Just About the Bishops By Amy Sullivan — Atlantic, Opinion
[Obama] and his administration committed an unforced error with this policy decision, but he can and should correct it. Admitting that the administration’s initial solution was insufficient isn’t weak. It’s doing right by the brave Catholics who made his health reform law — and this contraception coverage mandate — possible in the first place.
Welcoming the Stranger: Immigration and G92 By Matthew Soerens — God’s Politics Blog
Whether what is happening in Alabama as a result of this law — and, as the program reveals, a great deal is happening, even if most of us outside of the state aren’t paying attention — was the intention of the bill’s authors and supporters is not entirely clear. What is clear, from a Christian perspective, is that the effects are devastating.
Report calls Muslim terrorism a ‘minuscule threat’ By Omar Sacirbey — Religion News Service
The threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism is “tiny” and often exaggerated by government officials, a leading anti-terrorism expert said in a report released Wednesday (Feb. 8).
Group of religious leaders urge legislators to keep Voter ID off ballot By Rose French — Minnesota Star-Tribune, Acts of Faith
Leaders from different faiths groups gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday to voice their opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment that would require voters to have a photo ID.
Clergy Launch Campaign For Student Loan Forgiveness, Aim To Qualify For ‘Public Service’ Rule By Jaweed Kaleem — Huffington Post
In the small world of seminary training and professional religious jobs, the news that the public service loan forgiveness provision is not an option for religious workers has thrown a wrench in the plans of young pastors, rabbis, imams and other members a profession already known for low pay, long hours and high stress.
10 Things You Should Know About Religion in the 2012 Elections By Sally Steenland — Center for American Progress
Despite the headline-grabbing appeal of the sensational and the strange, a number of important religious issues and trends have been under-the-radar, misinterpreted, or invisible in the 2012 campaign. Here are 10 things to know about religion that are likely to influence elections this year.
Lost amongst the GOP presidential primary and caucus races this week, Republicans in the House of Representatives quietly began proposing legislation intended to implement Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) radical budget reforms.
Despite offering these budget proposals in a new calendar year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out that the legislation simply revives last year’s attempt by Rep. Ryan’s to fundamentally alter the role of government:
The House may soon consider two bills (H.R. 3576 and H.R. 3580) that would limit federal spending to levels similar to those in the House-passed budget resolution, authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI)…These two bills would require large cuts in federal spending that would likely fall disproportionately on low-income people. They would exacerbate economic downturns by preventing the federal government’s “automatic stabilizers” — programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps — from expanding as they are designed to do to help support a weak economy. They would effectively require that all deficit reduction come from program cuts and none from revenues, thereby precluding balanced deficit-reduction packages.
In addition to undermining safety-nets like food stamps and unemployment insurance, Ryan’s new Medicare Plan (and bipartisanship work with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) ) still fails to adequately protect senior citizens and radically shifts rising healthcare costs into the hands of low-income seniors. Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo explains these radical changes:
The Ryan plan would cut Medicare in two major ways. It would gradually raise the age at which people become eligible for Medicare from 65 to 67, even as it repeals the health reform law’s coverage expansions. This means that 65- and 66-year-olds would have neither Medicare nor access to health insurance exchanges in which they could buy coverage at an affordable price and receive subsidies to help them purchase coverage if their incomes are low. It would also replace Medicare’s guaranteed benefit with a premium support contribution, or voucher, that would grow only by the general inflation rate — much more slowly than health care costs have grown in recent decades.
There’s no doubt that in time, Paul Ryan’s “new” budget proposals will be exposed as yet another attempt to eliminate the social and economic safety net. Just as Rep. Ryan and Republicans were stopped from implementing these radical reforms last year, people of faith and advocacy experts will expose Ryan’s budget reforms for the true threat they are to America’s vulnerable people.
In early January, President Obama announced plans to decrease the military budget by $487 billion dollars over the next ten years. Although faith groups, such as the Friends Committee on National Legislation, continue to pressure the Pentagon for further cuts, the announcement is a welcome start to preventing military conflicts around the world. FCNL has lobbied policymakers and educated the public for decades about the fact that a ballooning military budget diverts critical funding from domestic priorities like schools, housing assistance, safety-net programs and future infrastructure investments.
In addition to the President’s proposal to trim the defense budget, automatic military spending cuts triggered by the failure of the Supercommittee’s deficit negotiation are on the way. But now, Congressional Republicans are introducing legislation to subvert that agreement, trying to shift the automatic cuts onto federal workers instead.
In spite of Congress’s irresponsible military spending and decision to backtrack on their 2011 agreement, young people across America have a different vision for their future. Just this month, the American Friends Service Committee and the National Priorities project released their 2nd Annual “If I had a Trillion Dollars” video contest. The trillion dollar question represents the yearly cost of the U.S military, and alternatively, the cost of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Respondents and future documentary filmmakers were asked to consider “What would [they] do with $1 trillion- for yourself, your family and community?”
To see last year’s winning entry and the budget priorities of young people across the country, check out this video:
Policymakers should heed the advice of these young filmmakers, re-evaluate their budget priorities and recommit to investing in the needs of the generations to come.
Note: Post updated to reflect FCNL’s continuing efforts to pressure the Pentagon and Congress to implement further military spending cuts.
