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.
Paul Ryan’s Religion Problem 
By Sarah Amandolare — Salon
From Catholic and Protestant bishops to the 40-religion advocacy group People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO), representatives of various faiths have shown disdain for Ryan’s 2013 House Republican budget, which passed on March 29.
Ryan’s Medicare plan would be tricky to pull off
By Associated Press
The Republican-backed shift to private insurance plans could saddle future retirees with thousands of dollars a year in additional bills. That would leave the children of the baby boom generation with far less protection from medical expenses than their parents and grandparents have had in retirement.
Romney-Ryan Economic Plans Would Increase Unemployment, Deepen Recession
By Ari Berman — The Nation
Ryan’s 2011 budget plan proposes what the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities calls “the most severe and wrenching budget cuts in US history—two-thirds of which would come from programs for people of low or moderate incomes” (Medicaid, Pell grants, food stamps and low-income housing).
Is the ‘culture-warrior’ model for archbishops the right one?
By National Catholic Reporter, Editorial
NCR does not believe the church should “back down.” The church’s involvement in the public square is vital. The church’s voice has been raised consistently on behalf of the poor and the marginalized, the undocumented and the unborn. The question is whether the “culture-warrior” model of the new trio of archbishops is the right model for such involvement.
What War on Religion?
By Tiffany Stanley — Religion & Politics, Opinion
If we could declare a moratorium on the phrase “war on religion” in all but the most apt circumstances, we would. We urge other media outlets, the president, and Mr. Romney to do the same.
Obama campaign unveils its ‘Catholics for Obama’ 2012 team
By David Gibson — Religion News Service
So far, however, the hierarchy’s efforts do not seem to have swayed Catholics, who often agree with the bishops on some issues but still tend to support Obama over Romney. And in October, just before the election, Obama is set to appear with Romney at a high-profile charity dinner hosted by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan — a platform some conservatives fear could give Obama a boost with Catholics. That has led to unusual criticism of Dolan from the right.
Black pastor: gay marriage wedge issue
By Bob Allen — Associated Baptist Press
African-American Baptist leaders are working together to counter attempts by outsiders to use gay marriage as a wedge issue to divide black voters, a Baptist minister and NAACP leader said in a radio interview Aug. 11.
Report Highlights Islam’s Global Diversity
By Chris Lisee — Religion News Service
“There isn’t one single Muslim world. There are many Muslims around the world that share beliefs, but there are differences as well,” said James Bell, director of international survey research at the Pew Forum.
Pastors foresee raceless church
By Jeff Brumley — Associated Baptist Press
Park Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta is considered by some a hopeful sign that Sunday may soon no longer be the most segregated time in America.
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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.
Paul Ryan’s budget logic is quandary for some Catholics
By Kathleen Hennessey and Lisa Mascaro — Los Angeles Times
…it is the Ryan budget — with its steep cuts to food stamps, healthcare for children and the disabled, and social programs, while sparing the Pentagon — that has put him at odds with some in his church.
Paul Ryan isn’t a deficit hawk. He’s a conservative reformer.
By Ezra Klein — Washington Post, Wonkblog
He is not primarily interested in reducing the deficit or cutting federal spending…Rather, the common thread throughout his career is his desire to remake the basic architecture of the the federal government.
Paul Ryan: Champion of Dissent
By Michael Sean Winters — National Catholic Reporter, Distinctly Catholic
Despite Ryan’s reputation as a serious intellectual, it is difficult to see how deep his intellect actually runs if he can so uncritically praise such a hateful human philosophy as Rand’s.
The Romney-Ryan Plan for America
By New York Times, Editorial
As House Budget Committee chairman, Mr. Ryan drew a blueprint for a government that would be absent when people needed it the most. Medicaid, food stamps, and other vital programs would be offloaded to the states, but the states would not be given the resources to run them. The federal government simply would not be there to help the unemployed who need job training, or struggling students who seek college educations.
Nuns Reject Vatican Takeover But Seek Dialogue on Differences
By David Gibson — Religion News Service
American nuns facing a Vatican takeover of their leadership organization on Aug. 10 rejected Rome’s plans to recast the group in a more conservative mold, but declined — for now — to respond with an ultimatum that could have created an unprecedented schism between the sisters and the hierarchy.
Vatican assessment discussed behind closed doors at LCWR assembly
By Carol Zimmermann — Catholic News Service
References to how the sisters were discerning their next steps were clear in the daily prayer sessions where the sisters were continually reminded that they were at a crossroads and should let go of fears and preconceived ideas and trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Talk About Poverty (#TAP): Peter Edelman’s Questions for Obama and Romney
By Greg Kaufmann — The Nation
…in a July 29 op-ed for the New York Times, Edelman takes on the popular myth first coined by Ronald Reagan, “We fought a war on poverty and poverty won.” Not so, Edelman argues. He notes work by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities demonstrating that without Social Security, food stamps, the earned-income tax credit, and the rest of the safety net, “poverty would be nearly double what it is now.”
Brewer advisers form health pact to push to expand Medicaid
By Mary K. Reinhart and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez — Arizona Republic
Two key advisers to Gov. Jan Brewer are attempting to create a coalition of hospitals, insurance plans, providers and other players to push Arizona to expand Medicaid under federal health-care reform.
Deferred deportation program starts soon; advocates say issues remain
By Patricia Zapor — Catholic News Service
Potential applicants for the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals may be anxious to submit applications as soon as the system opens Aug. 15, but as the date approached, many issues remain unsettled.
State Voting Suppression Schemes and How They’re Being Challenged
By Aura Bogado — The Nation, Voting Rights Watch 2012
This week marks the forty-seventh anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. A lot has changed since then.
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This week Faith and Public Life joined 177 other organizations, including faith groups, in releasing a statement that calls upon leaders and everyday Americans to “address xenophobia, racism, and anti-religious hate” in the wake of the deadly shooting at a Milwaukee-area Sikh temple. Though the shooter’s motives still aren’t entirely clear, authorities have identified the man as a member of a white-power hate group.
The statement recounts the history of “bias and violence” that Sikh communities have been subjected to since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. It points out that Sikhs are not the only ones targeted for their appearance or faith—Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities also suffer from a culture of bigotry.
If our core values of pluralism, equality, and inclusion are to be preserved, tragedies like the one in Wisconsin must be denounced at every turn. But we must also condemn those smaller, everyday tragedies that haunt the lives of religious minorities. “The essence of our country,” the statement concludes, “…is E Pluribus unum: out of many comes a strong, unified one.”
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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.
Franciscan Friars Join Nuns’ Call On Romney To Spend Day With The Poor
By Travis Waldron — Think Progress
Yesterday, a group of Catholic nuns called on Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to spend a day with them to learn about the plight of America’s poorest citizens. Now, another religious group has made a similar call.
Do the American Nuns Have a Future?
By David Gibson — Religion News Service
“As a relatively new and relatively young sister, I am frequently asked what I think the future of religious life will look like,” Gordon said. “And each time I respond that I really don’t know. But I think it will look a lot like the view from the top of Victoria Falls. It looks like standing at the edge.”
Romney Faces Pressure From Right to Put Ryan on Ticket
By Michael D. Shear and Trip Gabriel — New York Times
That Mr. Romney has not yet named his vice-presidential nominee has created an opening for social and economic conservatives to pressure him publicly, and they have taken the opportunity to make an aggressive case for Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin.
AdWatch: Latest Romney TV ad accuses Obama using health care law to ‘declare war’ on religion
By Associated Press
This latest ad by Romney’s campaign and the Republican National Committee is the former Massachusetts’ governor’s most direct bid yet for religious voters.
Sikhs host vigil for Wisconsin temple victims across from White House
By Anna-Lysa Gayle — CNN, Belief Blog
A couple hundred people from various religious backgrounds gathered across from the White House on Wednesday night for a vigil honoring the victims of Sunday’s attack…Similar vigils are happening across the country this week.
Obama to celebrate Islamic holy month at White House by hosting Ramadan dinner
By Associated Press
The meal to be served in the State Dining Room will be the fourth iftar that Obama has hosted. It continues the tradition of hosting iftars that began annually under President Bill Clinton and was continued by President George W. Bush.
Conservatives and Climate Change: The Devastating Irony
By Scott Stenholm — Huffington Post
More rural, conservative areas of the country are expected to see the most immediate effects of climate change in the near future in the form of continued drought and other forms of extreme weather like heightened flooding and tornado outbreaks with increased viciousness.
Rights for Domestic Workers
By New York Times, Editorial
We hope California and other states will be willing to do what the federal government has not — which is to set basic standards to guarantee domestic workers decent working conditions and pay.
Caravan across US calls attention to human impact of Mexico’s drug war
By David Agren — Catholic News Service
The caravan incorporates more than 200 groups — many of them Catholic — in an attempt to draw attention not only to the human impact of Mexico’s drug war, but also to U.S. drug policies and the American role in combating crime and insecurity in Mexico.
State With Highest Teen Pregnancy Rate Slowly Moving Away From Abstinence-Only
By Tara Culp-Ressler — Think Progress
…a growing number are abandoning the failed approach and opting for small steps toward a more honest conversation about sexual health.
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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.
Gaffney Ally Calls His ‘Obama’s A Muslim’ Theory ‘Nutty’
By Ben Armbruster — Think Progress
The duo didn’t offer any new evidence on this supposed Muslim Brotherhood plot, but McCarthy awkwardly got caught denouncing his partner Gaffney’s claims — with Gaffney standing right next to him — that Obama “may still be a Muslim” as “nutty.”
Nuns, at Juncture, Meet to Weigh Their Reply to the Vatican
By Laurie Goodstein — New York Times
The showdown between the Vatican and the nuns has provoked confusion and dismay among many American Catholics, who know nuns as teachers, nurses, social workers and parish administrators who have made sacrifices to serve the church.
Nuns want Romney on the bus
By Steve Benen — MSNBC, Maddow Blog
First, the Nuns on the Bus launched an extraordinary tour, lambasting the House Republican Budget plan crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for the way in which it mistreats the poor. Now the Nuns on the Bus have a few thoughts for the Republicans’ presidential hopeful.
“Please Let It Be Ryan”
By Michael Sean Winters — National Catholic Reporter, Distinctly Catholic
If Romney chooses Ryan [as his running mate], he is choosing, not offering words of support for, his budget plans. And the USCCB has already stated clearly that the Ryan budget fails its three part definition of a moral budget…
Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand
By Daniel Treiman — Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Capital J
If Ryan ends up as Romney’s pick, one can expect liberals to take aim at him over his past praise for Rand, as indeed they already have. Some left-leaning Christians went after Ryan last year…
Combating Islamophobic violence
By Glenn Greenwald — Salon
All of this reveals a broader truth: Islamophobia in the United States is pervasive and intense, and worse, is as ignored and tolerated as it is destructive. The greatest harm from these incidents is not to the property they damage. It’s the climate of fear that is created for Muslims living in the United States.
A new generation of Sikh Americans step up
By Valarie Kaur — Washington Post
With the support and blessing of our elders, we are using 21st century tools to organize, educate, and serve. In the wake of this particular tragedy, you can find us organizing vigils, working with law enforcement, using social media and speaking on the airwaves.
The Most Influential Evangelist You’ve Never Heard Of
By Barbara Bradley Hagerty — NPR
David Barton is not a historian. He has a bachelor’s degree in Christian education from Oral Roberts University and runs a company called WallBuilders in Aledo, Texas. But his vision of a religion-infused America is wildly popular with churches, schools and the GOP, and that makes him a power.
Obama: Romney ‘more suited to the 1950s’ on women’s health
By Kathleen Hennessey — Los Angeles Times
President Obama on Wednesday cast Republican Mitt Romney as a throwback to the 1950s on issues related to women’s health in a speech aimed at winning women’s votes in a key battleground.
VIDEO: Contraception Coverage Issue Continues To Smolder On Capitol Hill
By Kaiser Health News
Jackie Judd and KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey discuss the continuing dispute over the health law provision mandating free-to-consumers contraception coverage, as the focus broadens from Congress to the courts as well.
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