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.
The Rush to Abandon the Poor
By New York Times, Editorial
While some governors and lawmakers are searching for new revenue sources, others are using the downturn as an excuse to end a long tradition of states being the final backstop for society’s neediest.
If States Opt Out of Medicaid Expansion, Over 4 Million Women Could Remain Uninsured
By Bryce Covert — The Nation
…given that many women don’t meet [Medicaid's] categorical criteria, many don’t qualify, no matter how poor they are. Over 17 million women lived in poverty last year, compared to 12.6 million men.
Democrats Propose Plan to Sidestep Anti-Tax Pledge
By Jonathan Weisman — New York Times
Senate Democrats — holding firm against extending tax cuts for the rich — are proposing a novel way to circumvent the Republican pledge not to vote for any tax increase: Allow all the tax cuts to expire Jan. 1, then vote on a tax cut for the middle class shortly thereafter.
An American Nun Responds To Vatican Criticism
By NPR Staff — NPR
“I would say the mandate is more critical of positions we haven’t taken than those we have taken,” says Sister Pat Farrell, the president of the Leadership Conference. “As I read that document, the concern is the issues we tend to be more silent about when the bishops are speaking out very clearly about some things.”
An Overview of the Nuns on the Bus Tour
By Sally Steenland, Hannah Moser and Elana Leopold — Center for American Progress, Religion & Values
Awareness of their tour and the concerns they raised about the harm the Ryan budget cuts would inflict on struggling Americans extended to all 50 states, to believers and nonbelievers, to young and old, and virtually everyone in between.
New block is sought against SB 1070
By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services
ACLU attorney Dan Pochoda noted the high court did not specifically say the section on questioning those who are stopped is legal. In fact, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the ruling, said only that “it is not clear at this stage and on this record that the verification process would result in prolonged detention.”
GOP Spending Bill Aims To Defund Planned Parenthood, Up Abstinence-Only Funds
By Laura Bassett — Huffington Post
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) released a labor, health and education spending bill on Tuesday that would defund Planned Parenthood and Title X, block the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, allow any employer to deny women birth control coverage under the ACA for “moral reasons” and increase spending for abstinence-only education.
Judge tosses out contraception lawsuit filed by Nebraska, six other states
By Kevin O’Hanlon — Lincoln Journal Star
U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom of Lincoln dismissed the case Tuesday, saying the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the action challenging part of the Affordable Care Act.
Cruel and Unusual: Georgia Set to Execute Mentally Disabled Man
By Sandi Villarreal — Sojourners, God’s Politics
Despite protests not only from jurors who conivicted him but also from his victim’s family, Warren Hill, a 52-year-old mentally disabled man convicted of murder, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on July 23 in Jackson, Ga.
Muslim Americans Using Comedy to Break Down Stereotypes
By Rosa Ramirez — National Journal
Comedian Dean Obeidallah, a New Jersey native whose father is Palestinian and mother Sicilian, told a small recent gathering in Washington that humor is a way to openly talk about important subjects on politics, religion, and current affairs.
Group protests chaplain’s rebuke
By Bob Allen — Associated Baptist Press
The Forum on the Military Chaplaincy says the Southern Baptist Convention is reining in chaplains who don’t toe the line in opposition to last year’s repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Despite Protests, Boy Scouts Reaffirm Ban on Gays
By David Crary — Associated Press
The Scouts cited support from parents as a key reason for keeping the policy and expressed hope that the prolonged debate over it might now subside.
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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.
The Power of Anonymity
By New York Times, Editorial
Voters concerned about the big-money distortion of politics now know precisely who put the issue quietly to bed.
DISCLOSE Campaign Spending Act Blocked By Senate Republicans
By Paul Blumenthal — Huffington Post
Senate Republicans blocked a bill Monday evening to increase transparency in campaign spending by independent groups.
And what about non-liberal Christianity, Ross?
By Mark Silk — Religion News Service
If only they had stuck to the old time religion, they wouldn’t be shedding parishioners by the flockload. And yet, as RNS’ humble aggregator Dan Burke notes, old-time religion-stickers like the Southern Baptist Convention and Douthat’s own Catholic church have also been losing their sheep at a rapid pace. So what gives?
The Triumph of Hypothetical Evil Over Real Evil
By Aaron Taylor — Sojourners, God’s Politics
…maybe sometimes it’s better for good people to make sure that the evil they seek to thwart is a real evil and not a hypothetical one. Millions of Christians in Africa are praying for the negotiation of a robust international Arms Trade Treaty. Unlike rich, white American radio hosts, they know what real evil looks like…
Several TN county GOPs call for sanctions on Gov. Haslam
By Chas Sisk — Tennessean
Rank-and-file Republicans, including some in the party’s suburban Nashville stronghold, have condemned Gov. Bill Haslam for policies that include the hiring of gay individuals, Democrats and a Muslim-American lawyer.
Her Muslim Witch Hunt
By Alex Seitz-Wald — Salon
Michele Bachmann demands investigations into the Muslim Brotherhood’s “deep penetration” into the U.S. government.
Republican-led House panel keeps ‘activist’ EPA in its crosshairs
By Zack Colman — The Hill, E^2 Wire
Upton chastised President Obama and the EPA for using the Clean Air Act as a way to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
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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.
A challenge to conservatives
By E.J. Dionne Jr. — Washington Post, Opinion
It’s good that conservatives are finally taking seriously the problems of inequality and declining upward mobility. It’s unfortunate that they often evade the ways in which structural changes in the economy, combined with conservative policies, have made matters worse.
Five Obamacare Myths
By Bill Keller — New York Times, Opinion
On the subject of the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare, to reclaim the name critics have made into a slur — a number of fallacies seem to be congealing into accepted wisdom.
Individuals have a moral duty to buy health insurance, three bioethicists say
By Susan Perry — MinnPost
In a provocative commentary published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), three bioethicists argue that…the requirement that everybody who can afford it must purchase health insurance…is morally appropriate.
Will governor see human face of health care?
By E. J. Montini — Arizona Republic, Opinion
Politicians in a heated debate don’t always see sick people as living, breathing human beings, but as statistics. Dots on a page. Dots they fail to connect.
Sheriff Joe on Trial
By New York Times, Editorial
Five years after he started “crime suppression” sweeps that terrorized Latino neighborhoods across Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is finally having to explain himself. Not to TV crews in Phoenix or to fawning hosts on Fox News, but before a federal judge.
This Week in Poverty: Houston Janitors’ Strike Goes Citywide
By Greg Kaufmann — The Nation
The Houston janitors are currently paid an hourly wage of $8.35 and earn an average of $8,684 annually, despite cleaning the offices of some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world—Chevron, ExxonMobil, Wells Fargo, Shell Oil, JPMorgan Chase and others…
What DC Could Teach Capitol Hill
By Katrina vanden Heuvel — The Nation
…the sanity has spread to our nation’s capital (though not to Capitol Hill): on July 9, activists submitted over 30,000 signatures to put a much-needed campaign finance reform on the local ballot. The measure would ban any direct contributions from corporations to DC candidates.
Mormon church lashes back at magazine over portrayal of prophet and profits
By Daniel Burke — Religion News Service
The Mormon church is lashing back at a business magazine that parodied their prophet’s mission and portrayed the church as lucratively rich but miserly with charitable donations.
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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.
‘I Expect Better of the Congress:’ Rep. McGovern on SNAP Cuts
By James McGovern — Sojourners, God’s Politics
SNAP isn’t a culture of dependency; it’s a last resort for people who have no place to turn. To call it a “culture of dependency” implies that people are poor by choice and that they enjoy needing this help.
Republicans may delay House bill to cut food stamps
By Charles Abbott — Reuters
Republicans in the House of Representatives may set aside a bill providing for the biggest reduction in food stamps for the poor since 1996, averting a fight over cuts that critics assail as immoral during hard times, House leaders said on Thursday.
Massive Coalition Fights Congress Over Looming Domestic Cuts
By Brian Beutler — Talking Points Memo
3,000 organizations that benefit from non-defense discretionary spending…have aligned to push Congress to sort out not just the tax and defense issues, but across the board cuts that threaten medical research, border security and everything in between.
A Thousand Cuts: Austerity Measures Devastate Communities Around The World
By Jason Cherkis — Huffington Post
In early 2011, Elizabeth Miller, a bus driver for the Port Authority in Pittsburgh, received notice that she would be laid off in 60 days, the victim of austerity measures imposed by the government.
Nikki Haley Slashes Support for Violence Victims Just When They Need It Most
By Bryce Covert — The Nation
Beyond eliminating the state’s arts commission, [Haley] also managed to cut $453,680 in funding for the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (SCCADVASA). If her veto isn’t overridden, “rape crisis centers will lose 37% of their current state funding, which will drastically reduce their ability to respond to victims and provide prevention education”…
The wrong debate
By Steve Thorngate — Christian Century, Opinion
The main point is promoting dignity and fairness—by whatever means available. The fundamental issue isn’t public versus private; it’s about getting behind any and all approaches that effectively broaden opportunity and alleviate suffering. The means is never the end.
“Free stuff”? The message from Romney’s NAACP speech
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite — Washington Post, On Faith
“Affordable health care isn’t “free stuff” or a handout to the undeserving, it is a “moral responsibility” we have a society to one another, as Rev. Jennifer Butler said. Faith leaders from many religious perspectives worked hard for passage of the Affordable Care Act, and its constitutionality was called “a blessing” and “in line with our biblical and theological witness.”
Migrants applying for Obama program may face later risks
By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services
Arizonans who apply for the president’s deferred prosecution program for younger illegal immigrants could have the information they provide used to deport them later, some attorneys warned Thursday.
NAACP urges black churches to address AIDS epidemic
By Adelle M. Banks — Religion News Service
The NAACP recommends partnering with health organizations on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. The group compares the church’s need to address HIV to Jesus’ ministry healing the sick and advocating for the oppressed.
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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.
Members of Congress: Call Your Pastors and Rabbis
By Amy Sullivan — New Republic
Paul Ryan has sparred with Catholic bishops who oppose cuts to SNAP, quipping that “a preferential option for the poor does not mean a preferential option for big government.” Of course it doesn’t. But there are some—perhaps even many—cases in which religious congregations simply don’t have the capacity to provide services to the extent that government can.
House panel’s food aid cuts in farm bill called ‘unjustified and wrong’
By Catholic News Service
A proposed $16 billion cut in the nation’s Supplemental Nutritional and Assistance Program is “unjustified and wrong,” said a joint letter from the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ domestic and international justice committees, leaders of Catholic Relief Services and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.
GOP Govs & Medicaid
By Michael Sean Winters — National Catholic Reporter, Distinctly Catholic
…in today’s Tea Party-driven GOP, some governors have announced they will not allow their states to participate in the expansion of Medicaid…The USCCB, and local bishops, should step forward and combat this foolishness forcefully.
Why all govs will opt into ‘Obamacare’
By Jennifer Granholm — Politico, Opinion
For the tea party crowd, instead of this being a huge missed opportunity to provide health care to struggling people, turning down the federal money has become a badge of honor. So, weirdly, this argument, while appealing to most rational people, has no sway with tea partiers.
Repeal of Health Care Law Approved, Again, by House
By Robert Pear — New York Times
The House has voted more than 30 times to repeal part or all of the 2010 law or to choke off money needed for various provisions, including coverage of more than 30 million uninsured people.
How Not to Talk to the NAACP
By Joanna Brooks — Religion Dispatches, Opinion
…to Mitt Romney, it was more important to score a little footage of booing Black voters to fire up his conservative donors than it was to risk just a little bit of self-disclosure, or reflection, or humility.
Arms Trade Treaty, Second Amendment Compatible
By Galen Carey — Christian Post, Opinion
Those opposing an arms trade treaty on Second Amendment grounds should rethink their strategy. The best way to protect the legal right of law abiding citizens to bear arms is to support sensible regulation of international arms sales.
Arlington Diocese parishioners question need for fidelity oath
By Michelle Boorstein — Washington Post
Last month, Riley joined at least four other Sunday school teachers and resigned from her post at St. Ann’s parish after a letter arrived at her home requiring her — and all teachers in the Arlington Catholic Diocese — to submit “of will and intellect” to all of the teachings of church leaders.
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