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10 Top Religion and Politics Stories
Tweet Share on Facebook December 29, 2009 Comment (13)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
This is my last post at God & Country, and in the spirit of the season, I'd like to close out with a year-end list. I launched this blog a little more than a year ago, when I had some doubts about there being enough religion and politics news in a nonelection year to sustain it. More than 600 posts later, those doubts have faded.
Here's my list of favorite, most full of impact, and most newsworthy 10 posts of the year. Thanks for reading!
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Catholic Bishops Still Opposed to Senate Health Reform Bill
Tweet Share on Facebook December 23, 2009 Comment (19)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
The Catholic bishops fired off another letter to the U.S. Senate last night urging opposition to the Democratic healthcare bill poised to pass tomorrow. Despite abortion funding restrictions that have provoked the ire of the leading abortion-rights groups, the bishops say the Senate bill still allows federal funding of abortion coverage and make clear they'll accept nothing less than the House healthcare bill's sweeping ban on federal abortion funding.
Here's the top of the letter, which also cites concerns about coverage for immigrants and about affordability:
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Explaining the Catholic Bishops' Influence
Tweet Share on Facebook December 22, 2009 Comment (20)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
With the Senate poised to pass its healthcare bill Thursday morning, abortion may be the biggest sticking point in the coming attempt to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the legislation. Both have abortion funding restrictions that the abortion rights lobby says it won't accept and that a powerful bloc of moderate Democrats says are necessary to securing their support for the final bill. More than any other religious body, it's the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops that have informed those senators' abortion positions.
What explains the bishops' power? My most recent God & Country column from U.S. News Weekly explains. Here's the meat:
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Crib Sheet: Who's Opposing Senate's Healthcare Abortion Compromise--and Why
Tweet Share on Facebook December 21, 2009 Comment (14)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
The Democrats' Senate abortion compromise won over the party's last healthcare holdout, Nebraska's Ben Nelson, this weekend but is drawing lots of fire from both sides of the abortion issue—even though it paved the way for the Senate vote to end debate on the bill early this morning. The new abortion language includes steps to segregate federal funds from abortion coverage through separate accounts that would pool private premiums to pay for abortions; an explicit option for individual states to bar healthcare plans participating in their health insurance exchange from offering abortion coverage; protections for conscience rights; new tax credits for adoption, and new federal assistance for pregnant women.
Here's a weekend roundup of statements from all sides of the abortion wars vowing opposition to the new language:
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New Antiabortion Ads Target Bob Casey on Healthcare Bill
Tweet Share on Facebook December 17, 2009 Comment (14)With Sen. Bob Casey attempting to strike a compromise on abortion funding in the healthcare bill that will win support from pro-abortion rights Democrats and from antiabortion Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, antiabortion groups are turning up the heat on the Pennsylvania Democrat. Those groups want Casey to jettison his compromise effort and vow opposition to the healthcare bill unless it includes the House bill's strict ban on abortion coverage in federally-subsidized health insurance plans.
The Susan B. Anthony list and CatholicVoteAction.org released TV ads today in Pennsylvania pressuring Casey to get behind the Stupak abortion ban.
Here's the ad from Susan B. Anthony List:
View CatholicVoteAction.org's ad here.
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Catholics United: Wrong to Call Us Pro-Abortion Rights
Tweet Share on Facebook December 16, 2009 Comment (13)After posting yesterday on conservative Roman Catholic Deal Hudson's charge that Catholic organizations that are supportive of abortion rights are "fake Catholic groups," I got a note from Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. Korzen said that his group does not consider itself to be pro-abortion rights. Catholics United was one of the organizations that Hudson attacked for supporting a healthcare reform bill even if it lacks a strict ban on federal funds for abortion coverage.
Here's Korzen's explanation of where his group stands on abortion and his response to Hudson:
Abortion is legal in the United States, and there's not much either Catholics United or Deal Hudson can do to change that. What we can do is find ways to unite Americans around common ground approaches to abortion, something Hudson and company have consistently opposed doing. Ensuring that pregnant women and children have insurance coverage should be a no-brainer for Catholics. In short, I wouldn't call us pro-abortion rights or anti-abortion rights. We're pro-common ground.
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Top Ten Religion Stories of 2009
Tweet Share on Facebook December 16, 2009 Comment (86)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
The Religion Newswriters Association surveyed more than 100 religion journalists to devise a list of 2009's top 10 religion stories. Six of them are God & Country-style faith-in-domestic-politics stories. In 2000, only three of the RNA's top ten religion stories fell into that category.
I'm guessing that the spike has to do with the increasing politization of American religion, the expanding role of faith in politics and policy, the advances and attempted advances of the gay rights movement, the shrinking number of dedicated religion reporters (hence less focus on pure religion stories), the shrinking number of U.S. foreign correspondents (hence less focus on overseas religion stories), and the media's growing interest in politico-religious controversies.
What are your theories?
Here's the list of stories in the order selected by members of the Religion Newswriters Association:
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Notable Alums of Oral Roberts University, Whose Founder has Died
Tweet Share on Facebook December 15, 2009 Comment (5)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Evangelist Oral Roberts has died at age 91. Roberts was a charismatic Christian best known for his namesake university in Tulsa, Okla. Roberts's publicist has released a helpful bio emphasizing his role as a pioneering televangelist and miracle promoter: "In 1954, Oral Roberts revolutionized evangelism by bringing television cameras into services, providing what he liked to call a 'front-row seat to miracle' for millions of viewers."
Today, Roberts is best know for the university he founded in 1963 (and which was hit by a serious financial scandal in 2007). Here's a quick list of notable ORU alums. Are there others I've missed?
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republican
Kenneth Copeland, evangelist
Kathie Lee Gifford (attended), television host
Ted Haggard, fallen evangelical leader
Joel Osteen (attended), megachurch pastor/bestselling author -
White House Fatherhood Town Hall Features Eric Holder and Allan Houston
Tweet Share on Facebook December 15, 2009 Comment (6)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Since the Obama White House launched its series of town hall meetings on responsible fatherhood last Father's Day weekend, lots of celebrity dads have taken high-profile stumbles. Think Tiger Woods (father of two), Mark Sanford (father of four), David Letterman (father of one). It will be interesting to see if any of those names come up tonight at the Obama administration's town hall on responsible fatherhood in Atlanta.
The event, jointly sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and the Department of Justice, will feature Attorney General Eric Holder, retired NBA star Allan Houston, other administration aides, and local dads. This is the administration's fourth such event, including the Father's Day kickoff at the White House. The other two were in Chicago and Manchester, N.H.
It's worth noting that Houston, who has five kids, ties a straight line from faith to fatherhood. The first line of his website bio: "As a man of faith and strong family values, Allan Houston lives his life with a determination to utilize his success as a professional athlete to help others while continuing to grow a variety of entrepreneurial interests."
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Are Pro-Abortion-Rights Catholic Groups Fake?
Tweet Share on Facebook December 15, 2009 Comment (102)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Deal Hudson, a prominent conservative Roman Catholic activist—he used to spearhead Catholic outreach for the Republican National Committee and for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns—wrote a column yesterday headlined "Fake Catholic Groups Working Overtime for Healthcare Bill."
The groups Hudson refers to are Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Both got off the ground after the 2004 election, aiming to provide a progressive, Democratic Party-allied alternative Catholic voice to conservative Catholic groups and to some outspokenly conservative bishops. Those interests had helped George W. Bush win the Catholic vote in '04 despite facing a Catholic Democratic opponent.
