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.
Memo to Ryan: “Life Issues” Go Beyond Abortion
By Simone Campbell — Religion & Politics, Opinion
Today, we continue to question how a budget that deliberately harms people at the economic margins while further enriching the wealthiest can ever be defined as “pro-life” or in keeping with Catholic social teachings.
Catholic Group Prays for Paul Ryan’s ‘Conversion’
By Alicia Mundy — Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire
The group launched a website, PrayforPaulsChangeofHeart.org, that asks visitors to “Please pray for Paul Ryan, a devout Catholic, to have a change of heart on the federal budget.” It includes a special Rosary prayer to St. Paul, “the great convert,” to bring about a transformation in the anti-deficit Republican.
As the White Protestant Vote Recedes, the GOP Turns to ‘Voter Fraud’
By Allan J. Lichtman — Daily Beast
Republicans are not responding to a newly discovered crisis in voter impersonation at the polls, but to a partisan crisis brought on by their party’s declining base of white Protestant voters.
Analyst says Romney plays religion card
By Terry Goodrich — Associated Baptist Press
A new political ad by presidential candidate Mitt Romney accusing President Obama of “waging war on religion” is an opening salvo in religious rhetoric that likely will escalate as the November election approaches, says a Baylor University political expert and author.
Obama turns back the clock on Guantanamo
By Baher Azmy — Washington Post, Opinion
In other words, far from closing the prison camp as he promised, President Obama is steadily returning Guantanamo to the secretive and hopeless internment camp that he vilified as a candidate.
PHOTOS: Masses yearning to breathe free
By MSNBC, Maddow Blog
Hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants scrambled to get papers in order Wednesday as the U.S. started accepting applications to allow them to avoid deportation and get a work permit under a new government program.
Nuns group: We are not leaving the church
By Kevin Eckstrom — Religion News Service
A leader of the group of Catholic nuns who are facing a crackdown from the Vatican said Thursday (Aug. 16) that her members have no plans or desire to leave the church, or reconstitute their group beyond Vatican control.
Family Research Council accuses Southern Poverty Law Center of sparking shooter’s hatred
By Chris Lisee — Religion News Service
The SPLC’s Mark Potok called Perkins’ accusations “outrageous,” and said his group is committed to offering “legitimate and fact-based criticism.”
What the Right Gets Wrong About the FRC Shooting
By Adam Serwer — Mother Jones
Given his group’s years-long characterization of gays and lesbians as child-molesting sociopaths bent on abusing children, I doubt [Family Research Council President Tony] Perkins wants his silly standard for what constitutes a justification of violence to be applied to himself.
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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. .
Shooting at the Family Research Council Offices
By Tim King — Sojourners, God’s Politics
My heart is with the rest of the FRC staff. Their place of work will not feel safe after this. It will undoubtedly be difficult knowing there are those who would do violence against you because of your convictions.
Poll: Religious Groups Divided on Gun Control, But United Against Guns in Churches
By Lauren Markoe — Religion News Service
“Although the issue of gun control tends to divide Americans by party, gender, region and race, there is broad agreement among the public that there are some places where concealed weapons should be off limits,” said Daniel Cox, PRRI’s research director.
Young immigrants pack Navy Pier to seek protected status
By Antonio Olivo and Ellen Hirst — Chicago Tribune
The hosts of Dream Relief Day at Navy Pier on Wednesday expected a big turnout of people looking to take advantage of a new federal reprieve for students and young adults in the country illegally. But they were overwhelmed by the size of the crowd that showed up.
Executive order from Governor Jan Brewer blocks IDs, benefits for illegal immigrants
By ABC15.com
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday ordered state agencies to deny driver’s licenses and other public benefits to young illegal immigrants who obtain work authorizations under a new Obama administration policy.
Students face challenges, fears living without Social Security number
By Rose Ybarra — Catholic News Service
“When you don’t have papers, you live scared,” Aranet told The Valley Catholic, newspaper of the Brownsville Diocese. “You worry that if the police stop you, they’ll send you back. … My greatest fear is that they will stop us on the way to or from school.”
N.Y. Cardinal Timothy Dolan Defends Obama Invitation to Al Smith Dinner
By Chris Lisee — Religion News Service
Dolan said the dinner exemplifies the American value of free religious exercise, and called it an opportunity for civility and dialogue. He responded to critics by portraying Obama’s invitation as the lesser of two evils.
Paul Ryan, Joe Biden: A Tale of Two Catholics
By Daniel Burke — Religion News Service
Biden and Ryan both cite their faith as a formative influence, but neither is known as a standard-bearer for the Catholic hierarchy’s chief political causes: abortion and gay marriage. In fact, the two candidates are — politically at least — nearly polar opposites.
My Take: Christianity and Ayn Rand’s philosophy are 2 distinct religions
By Stephen Prothero — CNN, Belief Blog
Now that one of the Republican Party’s least ideological men (Mitt Romney) has christened one of the GOP’s most ideological men (Paul Ryan) as his running mate, Ayn Rand is back in the news.
Religious Progressives Cannot Sit Out This Election
By Rita Nakashima Brock — Huffington Post
Progressives have nothing like the funds that Citizens United has unleashed from the monied right wing. What we have are people hours, and it’s our willingness to work for candidates that is the best protection against a takeover of the country by the 1 percent at every level of our government.
What Jewish voters want — and what the candidates don’t offer
By Rebecca Vilkomerson — L.A. Times, Opinion
…the same Public Religion Research Institute poll cited above found that 46% of Jewish respondents said a commitment to social equality is the most important element of their Jewish identity. It may not be a significant force in the election of 2012, but it would be a mistake to discount this growing segment of the Jewish community.
Planning for Poverty: The SNAP Challenge
By Christian Piatt — Sojourners, God’s Politics
…families receive $4 a day per family member to cover food costs, so the SNAP challenge is pretty simple (in theory, at least): Live on the same amount with your family for a week. For a family of four like us, this means we’ll have $112 to spend on all groceries for the week.
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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.
Young immigrants can apply for Dream Act-like protections starting Wednesday
By Steve Hendrix — Washington Post
“This is single largest opportunity we’ve had since [the amnesty program of] 1986 to bring people out of the shadows and into documented status,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.).
The Difference a Century Makes: A Tale of Two Ryans
By Maria Mazzenga — Religion & Politics
Many of those protesting Paul Ryan’s budget measures cite the name of another Ryan in their arguments. In Catholic circles, the name Ryan in relation to the economy usually brings to mind another important figure: Monsignor John A. Ryan (1869-1945), arguably the most influential American Catholic social and economic thinker of the twentieth century.
Ryan’s abortion stance could widen gender gap in swing states
By Sam Baker — The Hill
Rep. Paul Ryan’s record on abortion and contraception could help widen a gender gap that is already hurting Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in several key states.
Some below poverty line don’t qualify for Medicaid
By Associated Press
Many working parents like Pico are below the federal poverty line but don’t qualify for Medicaid, a decades-old state-federal insurance program. That’s especially true in states where conservative governors say they’ll reject the Medicaid expansion under Obama’s health law.
Ryan hailed by Jewish GOPers, organizations see him as a face of budget confrontations
By Ron Kampeas — Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish groups see Ryan’s plan threatening Medicare and Medicaid, programs that are cornerstones of care for the Jewish elderly — a population growing faster than among most other religious and ethnic groups.
Pennsylvania Voter ID Decision: Judge Refuses To Grant Injunction To Halt Law
By Marc Levy — Associated Press
A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday refused to stop a tough new voter identification law from going into effect, which Democrats say will suppress votes among President Barack Obama’s supporters.
Overt Discrimination in Ohio
By New York Times, Editorial
In Ohio, as in other states, the Republican Party is establishing a reputation for putting short-term political gain ahead of the most fundamental democratic rights.
Unprosecuted Hate Crimes
By New York Times, Editorial
…too often bias-motivated violence is underreported to state and local police departments, even when states and cities have hate crime laws on the books. In many cases, such violence is prosecuted as conventional crime.
Missouri ‘Right to Pray’ Law Could Limit Teaching Evolution
By Krystnell A. Storr — Science
Those words give students the legal right to skip assignments related to evolution if the subject matter conflicts with their beliefs, Rosenau says. And that exemption could extend throughout their scholastic career, he adds, since evolution is not just taught in one lesson but remains a recurrent theme throughout science education.
PNBC addresses prisoner reentry
By Bob Allen — Associated Baptist Press
The Progressive National Baptist Convention has set out to raise $100,000 to establish its first national center to aid churches in helping individuals re-enter and reintegrate into communities after being released from prison.
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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 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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