Entries for April 2009

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

A just released Pew poll on the Obama/Notre Dame controversy finds that about half of Roman Catholics support the university's invitation to the president, while only 25 percent oppose it. Among white, weekly attending Catholics, however—among whom Obama did much better than expected last November—about half oppose Notre Dame's invite, while just a third support it.

This poll speaks to the importance of seeing Catholics, who constitute about a quarter of the country, as a population that is a part of multiple political constituencies, rather than as a single voting bloc.

Here are the complete numbers (note that half of Catholics haven't even heard about the controversy):

Here's the new anti-gay-marriage ad starring Carrie Prejean, Miss California. No word yet on where and when it will air.

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Check out this fascinating new graphic analysis from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

It shows that most white evangelicals and Roman Catholics, along with most frequent churchgoers, say it's OK to "sometimes" or "often" use torture on suspected terrorists. A slight majority of mainline Christians and religiously unaffiliated Americans, meanwhile, say torturing suspected terrorists could "rarely" or "never" be justified:

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

There was one big "faith and values" moment during last night's presidential press conference, provoked by Ed Henry's question on Obama's forthcoming Notre Dame appearance and the president's support for the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate most state-level abortion restrictions.

As I see it, the president sent six important messages in his response:

1. He avoided any mention of Notre Dame, trying to stay above the fray. Most Americans probably haven't heard about the controversy, so why boost the story's visibility by commenting on it?

2. He unequivocally acknowledged a moral/ethical dimension to the abortion issue: "I think abortion is a moral issue and an ethical issue."

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

The American right, particularly the religious right, has dramatically stepped up its support for Israel in recent years.

President George H. W. Bush criticized Israel for allowing settlers to build in the Palestinian territories, but you'd be hard pressed to find a statement from George W. Bush offering anything less than full-throated support for an action taken by the Jewish state.

In 2006, John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel to congeal the burgeoning Christian Zionist movement into a national organization.

One of the most memorable lines from last year's vice presidential debate was Sarah Palin's praise for Joe Biden's response to a question on Israel: "I'm so encouraged to know that we both love Israel, and I think that is a good thing to get to agree on, Senator Biden. I respect your position on that."

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

From all the coverage of the controversy surrounding Barack Obama's appearance next month at Notre Dame, you might think the Vatican sees the president as public enemy No. 1. But an article on the front page of today's Vatican newspaper under the headline "The 100 days that did not shake the world" gives Obama props on embryonic stem cell research and applauds the Democrats' abortion reduction effort.

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

When Miss California appeared Friday night on CNN (above), she insisted she wasn't a poster girl for the movement against gay marriage—just a beauty pageant contestant answering a tough question.