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.
U.S. nuns meet to decide how to respond to Vatican rebuke 
By Mary Wisniewski — Reuters
“Catholic sisters face a defining moment and want to remain true to their broad social justice mission in a time when the church is increasingly conservative and narrowly focused on issues like same-sex marriage,” Gehring said.
Dolan Criticized for Inviting Obama to Al Smith Dinner
By David Gibson — Religion News Service
Obama’s acceptance of the cardinal’s invitation was first reported on July 26 by a National Catholic Reporter blogger, Tom Gallagher, who also reported that Romney would attend. But conservative anxiety about the possibility that Dolan would invite Obama has been building for months, and the invitation could herald a difficult stretch for Dolan.
Faith communities reach out to Sikh victims
By Sharif Durhams — Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Condolences regarding Sunday’s mass shooting at the Oak Creek Sikh temple continue to pour in from members of other faith communities.
Being Sikh in America
By Amardeep Singh — New York Times
At times, living in the United States has seemed like an amazing privilege for my family…And yet a senseless event such as this one reminds one how awfully precarious the American dream can be.
The Difference Between Muslims and Sikhs…Misses the Point
By Paul Brandeis Raushenbush — Huffington Post
Yes, Sikhs are not Muslims and Sikhs are not Hindus, but jumping to clarify difference leaves the unfortunate, if unintentional, perception that there is something wrong with those “others.”
Joplin Mosque Razed in Fire; 2nd Blaze This Summer
By Maria Sudekum — Associated Press
Michael Kaste, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Kansas City office, said Monday that the agency is taking the investigation into the fire at the Islamic Society of Joplin very seriously.
Koch Brothers, GOP Mega Donors, Help Bankroll Religious Conservative’s 2012 Efforts
By Peter H. Stone — Huffington Post
The message is likely to be amplified by other religious conservatives. The $10 million that Reed’s Georgia-based Faith and Freedom Coalition now expects to spend is double what the group raised in 2010.
Romney should not be afraid to highlight his faith
By Michael Gerson — Washington Post, Opinion
It is constitutionally improper for a president (or prospective president) to be sectarian. But it is constitutionally appropriate — and politically advisable for Romney — to tell his whole story, which is uninteresting without his faith.
Missouri to vote on prayer amendment
By Tim Townsend — Religion News Service
Missourians will vote on Tuesday (Aug. 7) on a proposed amendment to the state constitution that supporters say would protect residents’ right to pray in public, and if a recent poll is any indication, it could pass by a mammoth margin.
Townsend, other Md. Catholics to push same-sex marriage
By John Wagner — Washington Post
The group leading Maryland’s same-sex marriage campaign is highlighting Catholic supporters, including former lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D).
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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.
Interfaith groups offer support to Sikh community
By Annysa Johnson — Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Representatives of Milwaukee’s interfaith community issued statements condemning the mass shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek Sunday and offered their support and prayers for the community.
A community mourns a senseless act of violence
By Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Editorial
Out of Sunday’s tragedy, perhaps, can be born a better sense of this community’s richness, its faith and its people.
Trust Act seeks to end trivial immigrant arrests
By Samuel Rodriguez — San Diego Union-Tribune, Opinion
…I am constantly confronted with families that have been torn apart when a parent is deported, often times after minor contact with police. The long-term consequences for the children are devastating.
Rabbis aim to inject more morality into business
By Lauren Markoe — Religion News Service
In an age when the phrase “business ethics” can seem like an oxymoron, a group of rabbis has designed a course to use age-old Jewish teachings to help infuse some morality into economics — from the household budget to the stock market.
This Week in Poverty: ‘Respect the Worker’
By Greg Kaufmann — The Nation
“If we had a medical appointment, we were afraid to take it. If we wanted to set up an interview with a social worker for help, we couldn’t do it because we didn’t want to lose our jobs,” said Maria. “If I did make an appointment they would question what it was about. I always had to bring some kind of proof of what I was doing.” By November 2011, the Palermo workers had had enough.
Education ‘today’s civil-rights issue’
By Bob Allen — Associated Baptist Press
Statistics says half of the 8 million students in urban America will never graduate from high school. The 50 percent who do are on average academically four years behind their suburban peers, and just one in 10 will graduate from college.
Shariah Controversy
By Kim Lawton — Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
There’s been a contentious shariah debate across the country. In 2010, voters in Oklahoma passed an initiative to ban state courts from considering shariah. But a court challenge has so far prevented it from taking effect. Activists are now supporting bills that don’t explicitly mention shariah, but instead ban courts from considering any foreign law. Four states have now enacted such laws, and similar bills have been taken up in more than 20 other states.
AIDS remains an epidemic in US, especially in minority communities
By Paul Jeffrey — Catholic News Service
Miranda explained that the response of HIV workers in the faith community has been challenged by cutbacks in institutional funding as well as a shift in focus among church leaders from social action to orthodoxy. Yet Miranda has found that encouraging exceptions exist, pointing to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops…
Minors getting life sentences
By Suevon Lee — ProPublica
But Epps’s brother is unlikely going anywhere soon. A few weeks after the ruling, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad announced he would commute the life without parole sentences of 38 juvenile offenders, and make them eligible for parole after 60 years. David Epps would be in his mid-seventies when he could first be released.
Florida Amendment Could Remove Restrictions On Funding Religious Schools
By Casey Michel — Talking Points Memo
Amendment 8 would overwrite the Blaine Amendment, named after a 19th-century Speaker of the House James Blaine, who attempted to pass a federal amendment blocking the use of funds for “sectarian” schools.
Muslim Women Olympians: ‘This Is Legacy’
By Cathleen Falsani — Sojourners, God’s Politics
These women are vanguards, shattering stereotypes, subverting cultural-religious mores, and creating a legacy that will benefit female Olympians of all creeds for years to come.
Mormon a Mormon, Mano a Mano
By Joanna Brooks — Religion Dispatches
Within Mormonism, there are class divides, and status divides, and regional differences, and cultural differences between converts like Reid and elite multi-generational ethnic Mormons like Romney. But rarely have these differences been so heatedly on display.
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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.
Christian Leaders Blast GOP Tax Bill
By Chris Lisee — Religion News Service
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has also urged Congress to extend tax credits for the poor.
Republican Budget is an Immoral Document
By Jim Wallis — Sojourners, God’s Politics
In all of our decisions, the poor and vulnerable — the ones Jesus called “the least of these” — should be protected, especially by people of faith, regardless of their party affiliations and political philosophies. It’s time to cut through all the political clutter, ideology, and self-interest.
Health-care lessons from Colorado?
By E.J. Montini — Arizona Republic, Opinion
According to published reports, three of the five hospitals treating those wounded in the Colorado theater shooting have pledged to reduce or eliminate the victims’ medical bills. Not only that, but millions have been donated to defray the costs…It’s a little different for people who have the bad luck simply to get sick.
After Aurora
By America Magazine, Editorial
Until society’s preference for the unlimited exercise of individual rights over those of the common good is tempered, our nation will remain hostage to the gun lobby. And our politicians will be reduced to offering victims condolences rather than solutions to gun violence. Is this the society we want?
‘Different than other cultures’
By Bill Leonard — Associated Baptist Press, Opinion
Do congregations across the theological and denominational spectrum need to train “911 response teams” to care for families and communities crushed by continuing, often unexpected, firearm violence?…This essential, not incidental, ministry is demanded here and now because firearm-related dangers, whether in mass murders or “domestic disturbances,” will not go away. Indeed, given the realities of our violence-plagued society, every one of us needs a course called Candlelight Vigil 101.
Los Angeles gets innovative on jobs
By Harold Meyerson — Washington Post, Opinion
In a nation wracked by joblessness and poverty, this kind of set-aside — much like the vast construction project in which it is situated — is exactly what America needs.
I Have Photo ID, Therefore I Am
By Brentin Mock — The Nation, Voting Rights Watch
Stones’ inability to get an ID comes through no fault of her own. She just doesn’t exist, according to Virginia. All we know of her reality, is what’s shared in court. At this point, that’s the ID cards in her possession: a check-cashing ID, a food stamp card, her Medicare card and a library card.
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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.
Faith leaders oppose GOP tax plan
By Bob Allen — Associated Baptist Press
More than 60 Christian leaders and theologians…signed an open letter Aug. 1 criticizing a proposal backed by House Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, while allowing enhancements to middle-class tax credits added in 2009 by President Obama to expire.
Any Way You Slice It, Romney’s Tax Plan Is Regressive
By Ed Kilgore — Washington Monthly
If wealth is a measurement of “success,” and if success is a measurement of “virtue,” then regressive policies become a moral imperative, and that’s pretty much the unstated overriding goal of today’s conservative movement and GOP.
A Budget Crisis Averted, for Now
By New York Times, Editorial
Members of Congress used to be embarrassed when they could not perform their basic job of passing spending bills and instead had to finance the government with a series of short-term resolutions. But such patchwork has now become commonplace, and it is a sign of Washington’s profound dysfunction that the short-term agreement reached on Tuesday came as a relief to both sides.
Catholics Share Bishops’ Concerns about Religious Liberty
By Pew Forum on Religion & Public LIfe
Yet the bishops’ protests…have not drawn much more interest among Catholics than among the general public. And there are no significant differences in the presidential vote preferences between Catholic voters who have heard about the bishops’ protests and those who have not.
WWII vet Sen. Inouye: Obama’s birth-control mandate is no Pearl Harbor
By Elise Viebeck — The Hill
The Senate’s most senior member called out a Republican congressman for comparing the federal birth-control mandate to the events of Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, 2001.
Pelosi, Dems push Homeland Security for clarity on LGBT deportations
By Mike Lillis — The Hill
Without specific, written guidance, there remains the very real risk agency officers, agents, and attorneys making decisions about individual cases would overlook LGBT family ties, particularly the ties of immigrants to their U.S. citizen same-sex partners or spouses, and thereby, decline to exercise prosecutorial discretion, Pelosi, Nadler and 82 other Democrats wrote…
Tennessee Candidates Engage in Anti-Islam Contest
By Reuters
An argument over who is more opposed to the Islamic faith and the construction of a mosque near Nashville has become an unlikely issue in a nasty Tennessee Republican congressional primary to be decided on Thursday.
Detained DREAMer Tells His Story From Behind Bars
By Marco Saavedra — Sojourners, God’s Politics
Despite being a DREAMer, the border patrol office I approached looking for a missing friend didn’t think twice about detaining me. Little did they know they were doing exactly what we wanted, bringing us to this detention center filled with low-priority detainees. No one deserves to be locked up like they are inside of this facility.
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