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Robert George Answers Doug Kmiec's Questions on Life Issues
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (33)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Doug Kmiec recently asked Robby George—and you, dear reader—to respond to his questions on the beginning of life in preparation for a possible public debate between the two Catholic conservatives on embryonic stem cell research. I just got answers from George.
Grab a beverage and get comfortable. George's answers are by no means brief. But they present the antiabortion case in eloquent, often philosophical terms that draw deeply on modern science:
Q. Assume we need a relatively clear answer to the question "When does life begin?" in order to avoid ethical arbitrariness and to show proper respect for the dignity of the human person. The Supreme Court, of course, has selected viability, but this is objectionable to many since it does not seem to be anything but an arbitrary point designed as a jurisprudential compromise. Since either fertilization or implantation is a bright line, is there a basis to decide between the two that is not dependent upon faith?
A: No informed person believes that the life of a human being begins at the point of "viability." That point shifts backward with developments in technology and is, as Professor Kmiec suggests, arbitrary. More to the point, plainly the developing human is alive before viability. A "non-viable" fetus is defined as a fetus that will die if removed from the womb. Any entity that is capable of dying is a living being. Its life has already begun. -
Atheists Crash Poll on White House Prayers
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (36)Yesterday, the Friendly Atheist blog posted this U.S. News poll about the Obama White House's new tradition of opening the president's rallies with a prayer. The blog urged readers to take the poll and attempt to reverse the results, which had 66 percent of participants supporting the White House prayers and 34 percent opposed.
Mission accomplished. Today, the poll results show support for the White House prayers has dipped to around 12 percent and that opposition has risen to nearly 90 percent.
Where do you stand on White House prayers?
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This Morning's White House Call on Abortion Reduction: After-Action Report
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (8)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
This morning's White House conference call kicking off its abortion-reduction initiative focused largely on asking participants to submit information about abortion-reduction programs that have already worked at the local level. Led by President Obama's chief domestic policy adviser, Melody Barnes, the White House announced that it would sponsor a series of meetings in coming months in search of common ground on abortion reduction. The meetings would include both supporters and opponents of abortion rights.
"Barnes said that the White House was not going to try to change anybody's mind on abortion and that she knew people had long-held convictions on various sides of the debate," one participant on the call, an abortion-rights foe, tells me. "But she said her assignment from the president was to seek common ground to prevent unintended pregnancies, including teen pregnancy; to reduce the need for abortions; and to support families for whom economic concerns were an issue. They also talked about promoting adoption."
No word from the White House on how many people joined the 15-minute call. Participants were in listen-only mode.
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Obama Faith Advisory Council to Meet for First Time Next Week
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (3)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
The White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will convene in Washington for its first in-person meeting next Monday and Tuesday, according to a handful of sources. If all goes according to plan, the White House will use the occasion to announce 10 additional members of the council. A detailed agenda hasn't been released, but the council is expected to be divided into task forces in the areas that Mark Silk has reported:
the role of community organizations in economic recovery; fatherhood and healthy families; reducing the "need for abortions"; and international interreligious dialogue. There is also expected to be a task force relating to energy and climate change, and (yes) one that will take up the thorny legal ground rules under which the Obama faith-based programming will operate.
These task forces have already been powwowing by phone—there are a handful of formal and informal calls among council members every week—and will each be instructed to reach out to other religious leaders to develop policy recommendations. This outreach will be an important way for the White House to reach deep into various religious constituencies. Obama aides themselves are in direct contact with a much more limited universe.
More when I get it.
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White House Call Tomorrow on Abortion Reduction Includes Conservatives and Abortion-Rights Advocates
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2009 Comment (74)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
I've learned that the White House will kick off its much-discussed plan to reduce abortions tomorrow morning with a conference call to religious leaders and abortion-rights advocates that will feature key White House aides. The call reflects the White House plan to bring faith-based groups, including conservative ones, together with pro-abortion rights organizations to reduce demand for abortion. Until now, those two camps have frequently been at loggerheads.
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, tasked with reducing demand for abortion, had been waiting for the launch of the White House Council on Women and Girls to start in earnest on its abortion reduction strategy. The Women and Girls Council was formally rolled out a few weeks ago.
Aides on the call include Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes, Council on Women and Girls Executive Director Tina Tchen, and Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Executive Director Joshua DuBois. The agenda will include using teen pregnancy prevention and assistance to pregnant women to reduce abortion.
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Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land Praises Obama Family Values
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2009 Comment (58)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
I spoke today with Richard Land, public policy chief of the Southern Baptist Convention—the nation's largest evangelical denomination—and was struck by his praise of President Obama for living out "family values":
Not enough religious conservatives are saying this: It's terribly important that [Obama] gives every indication of being a moral man who is demonstrably fond of his wife and children. I think that's important in a president, be it a Democrat or a Republican. That's why I said I couldn't vote for Giuliani or Gingrich. I think [Obama's] making a real difference in this country in his example as a model father and husband.
So much of George W. Bush's bond with evangelicals was about a personal, faith-based connection that transcended politics. Could the same thing happen with Obama and family-values voters?
On a related note: This doesn't auger well for Newt's new effort to organize religious conservatives.
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Profile: The Rev. Jim Wallis, From Outcast to Insider
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2009 Comment (9)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Do you really need to read another profile of Jim Wallis, the most overexposed progressive religious figure of recent years?
Yes, actually. Here's why: Wallis has gone from religious and political outcast—rejected by fellow evangelical leaders who thought he was too liberal and by the Democratic Party, which had little use for evangelicals—to consummate insider, talking to the White House a few times a week while getting more love from religious conservatives like Michael Gerson.
My Wallis profile captures him in this heady new moment. Here's the top:
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More Political Converts to Catholicism (Besides Newt)
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2009 Comment (6)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
More politically active Catholic converts—besides Newt—as per your comments:
- Randall Terry
- Rep. Walter Jones
- Dick Morris (according to press reports)
- Alfred Regnery (the conservative publisher, converted by the same priest who converted Sam Brownback, Bob Novak, and Larry Kudlow)
Correction: Paul Weyrich was Catholic but wasn't a convert, as I asserted in my previous post. He was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and as an adult joined the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome.
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Family Research Council Supports Tony Dungy on Obama Faith Council
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2009 Comment (3)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
I tweeted this morning about the absence of conservative religious groups coming to the defense of the Obama administration for inviting former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, a socially conservative evangelical, onto its faith advisory council. (Yesterday, People for the American Way and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State both denounced the invitation.) Now a conservative group has come to Obama's side. The Family Research Council just sent out this release:
FRC DEFENDS TONY DUNGY'S SELECTION TO OBAMA'S FAITH-BASED COUNCIL
Washington D.C. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement in response to President Obama's invitation to Tony Dungy, former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, to join the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
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Religious Progressives and the Religious Left Battle to Define the Movement
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2009 Comment (4)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
I've got a new story up on usnews.com about the fight among left-of-center religionistas to define the agenda for the burgeoning "religious progressive" movement, with more centrist groups like Faith in Public Life on one side and proud religious leftists like Pastor Dan over at Street Prophets on the other. Here's the gist:
It's hard to remember a time in the past three decades when there was so much faith-based activity on the political left. Groups like Catholics United and Faith in Public Life didn't even exist before the 2004 election, when Democrats got walloped by so-called values voters.