This week, over 18,000 Faithful America members signed a petition asking USCCB President Cardinal Timothy Dolan to turn down an invitation to appear at the Values Voters Summit — the annual gathering of Religious Right figures and right-wing politicians. The signees were particularly concerned that in this election year, Dolan’s appearance would amount to an implicit endorsement of Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan at what essentially will be a Republican campaign event.
Today, the Archdiocese of New York confirmed to Bold Faith Type that Cardinal Dolan will not be attending the Summit. Archdiocese spokesman Joe Zwilling said the Cardinal’s office did not even receive an invitation as far as they could tell, but that His Eminence would not be going either way.
Unfortunately, Dolan appears to be turning down a pseudo-partisan electoral event for the real thing, agreeing to give the closing Benediction just after Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention next week.
Dolan’s office is attempting to qualify his appearance as “not an endorsement” but simply a “priest at prayer.” Unfortunately, at a time when the Cardinal has presided over a highly-politicized national campaign against the current administration, called VP candidate Paul Ryan a “great public servant” who he is “anxious to see…in action,” and walked back his own conference’s criticism of the Catholic congressman’s draconian budget plan, Dolan doesn’t need an official endorsement to send a loud and clear message.
This hyper-partisanship represents a real split from the recent approach of the Catholic Church in America, which has taken pains to stay above party politics. Past leaders have recognized that Catholics fall across the entire political spectrum and direct engagement with electoral efforts of any one party runs the risk of alienating millions of adherents who identify with the other.
Dolan’s decision to do exactly that, at a time when Americans and Catholics are more deeply politically polarized than ever, exemplifies just how far the American bishops have gone in uniting church hierarchy with Republican politics.
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After a six-year run bringing you the best faith and politics news every day, Faith in Public Life will be ending the daily news reel email on Friday, August 24th. Thanks for your loyal readership. If you want to stay up to date on all things faith and politics, you can follow our Twitter account @BoldFaithType, where we will be posting stories throughout the day.
Dolan to Give Benediction at Gathering of the G.O.P.
By Sharon Otterman — New York Times
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, will deliver the closing prayer at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., after Mitt Romney accepts the party’s presidential nomination next week.
Cardinal Dolan at the Values Voter Summit?
By Maureen Fiedler — National Catholic Reporter, Opinion
An appearance at this summit is tantamount to an endorsement of Republican candidates. In fact, it’s an endorsement of some of the most right-wing members of that party. Indeed, because of the confirmed appearance of Paul Ryan at the summit, observers might be led to think Dolan endorses the Romney-Ryan ticket.
Christians push for new immigration process as they support deferred status
By Noel Castellanos — Washington Post, On Faith
Unfortunately, within a week, Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman have all made moves to stop these opportunities for young people. This is why Christians are mobilizing again. In just a few days a petition targeted at Brewer, who was the first to take steps to limit the effectiveness of deferred action, has gained over 5,000 signatures from concerned Christians.
Middle class share of America’s income shrinking
By Associated Press
A study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center…describes this mid-tier group as suffering its “worst decade in modern history,” having fallen backward in income for the first time since the end of World War II.
New poll finds majority oppose making changes to Medicare
By Daniel Strauss — The Hill
The Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS poll released Thursday found that in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, a majority of voters would rather Medicare “continue as it is.” Fewer than a third offered support for Ryan’s budget proposal that recipients get federal subsidies to buy private insurance.
Report: Romney Economic Plan Hurts Red States, Helps Wealthy Urbanites, While Obama Boosts Rural Areas
By Ari Melber — The Nation
Take the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where the median price of a home is $1.3 million. There, 73% of residents do better under Romney’s plan than Obama’s…Yet in the heartland, the economic map skews just as strongly towards Obama. It is almost impossible, for example, to find any large areas of Ohio that don’t fare better under Obama’s plan.
Florida’s Menacing Moves to Restrict Voting
By Graciela C. Catasús — The Nation, Voting Rights Watch 2012
Florida’s actions appear to follow similar trends in other swing states, leading many to wonder if this is a tandem effort to suppress voting rights in states with sizeable Latino populations. Colorado and New Mexico are also cracking down on voter fraud—despite the fact that there is no evidence that it actually exists.
GOP embraces anti-Shariah
By Alex Seitz-Wald — Salon
In Tampa this week, GOP leaders adopted a plank to their platform supporting a ban on foreign law and aimed at Shariah, the Islamic religious law that many conservatives insist is secretly insinuating itself in the U.S.
NYPD: Muslims’ Conversations About Anti-Muslim Bias Justify Spying on Muslims
By Adam Serwer — Mother Jones
An improperly redacted court transcript reveals an NYPD official’s dubious rationale for spying on Muslims.
RNC Now Says Anti-Abortion Platform Doesn’t Necessarily Disavow Rape Exemptions
By Pema Levy — Talking Points Memo
Though RNC officials pushed back on the extreme characterization of their platform earlier in the week, the idea they they are not taking a stand one way or the other on rape and incest exceptions is relatively new.
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After a six-year run bringing you the best faith and politics news every day, Faith in Public Life will be ending the daily news reel email on Friday, August 24th. Thanks for your loyal readership. If you want to stay up to date on all things faith and politics, you can follow our Twitter account @BoldFaithType, where we will be posting stories throughout the day.
Obama And Romney Faith Interview: Candidates Speak Openly About Religion
By Cathedral Age
Washington National Cathedral’s magazine, Cathedral Age, asked President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney an identical set of questions about the presence of faith in their lives and the role of religion in America.
‘You’re On Your Own’: Obama Readies Education Offensive Attacking Ryan Budget
By Pema Levy and Evan McMorris-Santoro — Talking Points Memo
Paul Ryan’s addition to the Republican presidential ticket unleashed a new back-and-forth over the future of Medicare. But Democrats believe Ryan also gives them an opening to talk about another seminal issue tied to the congressman’s controversial budget: education.
In Exclusive Interview, Paul Ryan Distances Self From Todd Akin
By CBS Pittsburgh
Ryan, like Romney, distanced himself from Akin’s remarks, but in Congress, he joined Akin in opposing abortions even when a woman has been raped.
Akin Fiasco Gets Rove to Admit, Again, Why Crossroads Exists
By George Zornick — The Nation
Crossroads GPS ads are supposed to simply be educational—so why are they suddenly being pulled in Missouri?
GOP platform calls for more Arizona-style immigration laws
By Cameron Joseph — The Hill
The official party position now reads that “State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked,” and says the Department of Justice should immediately drop its lawsuits against controversial state immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah.
Latino evangelicals find political voice
By Joseph Treviño — Arizona Daily Star
Samuel Rodríguez, a pastor and the head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that claims 40,118 affiliated churches, said that in Arizona alone the group has managed to register 98,000 Latinos to vote.
Five Things Government Does Better Than You Do
By Monica Potts — American Prospect
There are many ways in which the government can make better decisions with our money than we can, and there are many ways that the Ryan budget would make society worse off by getting rid of government programs. Here are five.
NYPD: Muslim spying led to no leads, terror cases
By Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo — Associated Press
In more than six years of spying on Muslim neighborhoods, eavesdropping on conversations and cataloguing mosques, the New York Police Department’s secret Demographics Unit never generated a lead or triggered a terrorism investigation, the department acknowledged in court testimony unsealed late Monday.
Black Baptist says racism still a problem
By Bob Allen — Associated Baptist Press
While predominantly white denominations prefer to save face about their shortcomings on racial-justice issues, Shosanya said, much of the posturing about being “one in Christ” is often anemic “when the rubber hits the road,” especially when that requires the sharing or relinquishing of power.
Stopping the GOP assault on democracy
By Katrina vanden Heuvel — Washington Post, Opinion
Few people spending more money to influence fewer voters in fewer states: That’s what shrinking democracy looks like. The only thing growing is the price tag. This is more than an election-year issue — it’s an existential crisis.
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After a six-year run bringing you the best faith and politics news every day, Faith in Public Life will be ending the daily news reel email on Friday, August 24th. Thanks for your loyal readership. If you want to stay up to date on all things faith and politics, you can follow our Twitter account @BoldFaithType, where we will be posting stories throughout the day.
From Nunzilla to ‘You Go Girl’: A Tale of Sisters
By Katherine Marshall — Huffington Post, Opinion
With Paul Ryan now in the vice presidential spotlight, LCWR will not take a political stand. However, [Sr. Farrell] made clear that LCWR and its members will maintain their staunch support for the poor and programs that support them, and budgets will be an obvious focus.
The repugnant code behind Todd Akin’s words
By Washington Post, Editorial
Mr. Akin was utterly unconvincing in explaining that he “misspoke.” It is scary that someone so ill-informed could hold elective office or have a chance of becoming a senator.
Crucial Senate Race in Uproar
By Naftali Bendavid and Louise Radnofsky — Wall Street Journal
Republicans urged Rep. Todd Akin to quit the key Missouri Senate race after he said women’s bodies can avert pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape.”
What I built — with government help
By James C. Roumell — Washington Post, Opinion
I did work harder, and perhaps more imaginatively, than many colleagues. But does that mean I built it myself? Does it diminish my success to be grateful for the public investments that so clearly contributed to my success? Every successful person knows, and will admit if he is honest, that luck played a role in his good fortune.
The Promise-Keeper
By David Weigel — Slate
The point of all this: proving that the first “Medi-scare” battle of the election is ending and that Republicans have fought it to a draw. Ryan got his message down to a zinger, and repeated it all week. “We want this debate,” he said. “We need this debate. And we will win this debate.”
Ohio GOP Admits Early Voting Cutbacks Are Racially Motivated
By Ari Berman — The Nation
Why do Ohio Republicans suddenly feel so strongly about limiting early voting hours in Democratic counties? Franklin County (Columbus) GOP Chair Doug Preisse gave a surprisingly blunt answer to the Columbus Dispatch on Sunday: “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban—read African-American—voter-turnout machine.”
GOP prepares tough anti-abortion platform
By Peter Hamby — CNN
The Republican Party is once again set to enshrine into its official platform support for “a human life amendment” to the Constitution that would outlaw abortion without making explicit exemptions for rape or incest, according to draft language of the platform obtained exclusively by CNN late Monday.
Gov. Jan Brewer Tries to Stop the DREAM in Arizona
By Beau Underwood — Sojourners, God’s Politics
The faith community cannot be silent in the face of such despair. Gov. Brewer needs to hear from religious leaders disappointed in her actions in the hopes that such moral outrage might cause her to reverse course.
Farm Bill Blues
By Christian Century, Editorial
The farm bill is enormous in scope. It represents a mess of irrational, unhelpful policy; it’s also responsible for some essential programs. It needs to be reauthorized. Then it’s back to the longer-term work of building a food system that does right by farmers, eaters and the land.
Study: Less religious states give less to charity
By Jay Lindsay — Associated Press
The study released Monday by the Chronicle of Philanthropy found that residents in states where religious participation is higher than the rest of the nation, particularly in the South, gave the greatest percentage of their discretionary income to charity.
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In an amazingly honest op-ed last week, evangelical WORLD Magazine editor Marvin Olasky addressed the publication’s handling of the controversy surrounding David Barton’s discredited writings. Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies was recently pulled from the shelves by publisher Thomas Nelson after its rampant historical inaccuracies received widespread attention.
Historians have been calling attention to Barton’s shoddy, misleading work for years but have largely been ignored or dismissed as biased by conservative media. Outlets such as WORLD have only acknowledged these critiques because conservative Christian scholars have finally started echoing Barton’s longtime critics in the scholarly community.
Olasky’s op-ed addresses this inconsistency but does not apologize for it!
Left-wing historians for years have criticized Barton. We haven’t spotlighted those criticisms because we know the biases behind them. It’s different when Christian conservatives point out inaccuracies. The Bible tells us that “iron sharpens iron,” and that’s our goal in reporting this controversy.
To be clear, Olasky is admitting that he summarily dismissed legitimate criticisms of Barton’s work for ideological reasons, yet he defends that decision by maintaining the attack on these scholars as the “biased” ones.
Olasky’s preference for judging scholarly qualifications by ideology instead of accuracy is also evident in his continuing faith in Barton’s credibility.
David Barton should not be, nor does he want to be, defended as if he were inerrant: If his history writing does include some inaccuracies, I trust he’ll make corrections.
What Olasky fails to acknowledge here is that we’re not just dealing with minor blemishes; almost the entirety of Barton’s body of work is based on a sloppy, willfull distortion of history to suit his partisan political ends.
It’s certainly possible for a religious magazine with an ideological point of view to meet standards of journalistic integrity. But Olasky’s oblivious editorial misses the mark.
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