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Sarah Palin's Surprising Line on Sex
Tweet Share on Facebook November 17, 2009 Comment (6)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
On Oprah Winfrey's show yesterday, Sarah Palin said her daughter Bristol had one message for other young women about her experience as a teen mom:
Her only public mission right now is to remind her sisters and to remind other young women, her peers, that there are consequences to unprotected sex.
It's pretty surprising to see Palin promote that message because it implies that young women should practice safe sex, which is at odds with the message of conservative Christian groups that constitute Palin's strongest base of institutional support. Group like Focus on the Family teach that safe sex is an oxymoron and that Christians should delay sex until marriage.
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Poll: Democrats Now More Supportive Than Republicans of Faith-Based Initiatives
Tweet Share on Facebook November 16, 2009 Comment (1)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
The bombshell from the new Pew survey on government faith-based initiatives: Democrats are now more supportive than Republicans of houses of worship getting government money for social services, a turnabout from 2001, when George W. Bush launched the White House faith-based office.
A large majority of Americans continue to support faith-based programs, the new Pew Research Center survey shows, though support has slid from 75 percent in 2001 to 69 percent now.
Other key findings from Pew:
- Three quarters oppose George W. Bush's policy—yet to be reversed by the Obama administration—of allowing faith-based organizations receiving federal funds to hire only like-minded believers.
- Just more than half of Americans, 52 percent, oppose permitting Muslim mosques to apply for government dollars, up from 46 percent in 2001.
- Slightly less than half of Americans, 48 percent, support permitting Mormon churches to apply for government funds.
- There's been a marked increase in the percentage of Americans who say religious groups are best poised to feed the homeless. Check out this graph:
- Most Americans don't know President Obama's position on government faith-based initiatives, nor did they know Bush's. Twenty-seven percent know that Obama supports faith-based funding; 36 percent knew that Bush backed it.
- About 1 in 10 Americans (9 percent) reports seeking help from a religious group during the recession.
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Quote of the Week: Obama Urges Freedom of Worship in China
Tweet Share on Facebook November 16, 2009 Comment (2)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
"We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation, but we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation. These freedoms of expression and worship—of access to information and political participation—we believe are universal rights. They should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China, or any nation."
—President Barack Obama in Shanghai, China, today
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Rick Warren Comes to Washington
Tweet Share on Facebook November 16, 2009 Comment (12)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
When the Rev. Rick Warren walked into a conference room perched above Washington's K Street last Friday to address a group of journalists, I was surprised to see him warmly embrace a New York Times reporter. Warren literally hugged the guy. I could just imagine the Weekly Standard headline: "Country's Top Evangelical Embraces Scourge of the Right."
Then Warren spied Sally Quinn, the Washington Post journalist and famed hostess, and hugged her, too. For a folksy Baptist preacher known for his extensive Hawaiian shirt collection, I thought, this guy sure knows his way around Washington's power circles.
Having never met Warren—I've interviewed him by phone—I approached him, introduced myself, and extended a hand. He wrapped me in his arms like I was his nephew.
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Today's Picture: Feds Move to Seize an Islamic School
Tweet Share on Facebook November 13, 2009 Comment (6)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
(AP Photo / Stephen Chernin)Students arrive at the Razi School in Queens, N.Y., part of a mosque that the federal government is seizing as part of a suit against the Alavi Foundation, an alleged Iranian front group. The government is moving to seize four mosques owned by Alavi. But their tenants are not being charged, and the mosques may continue to operate as houses of worship.
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Quote of the Week: Rick Warren on Talking to Politicians
Tweet Share on Facebook November 13, 2009 Comment (5)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
"I don't talk policy ever with politicians. Never. Never. Let me say it again: never. But I do care about orphans. And the one issue that I've talked to them about is, it's just important policy to help the sick and help orphans."
—The Rev. Rick Warren, talking to journalists in Washington today. I'll have more on the meeting Monday.
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Sarah Palin's Battles With McCain Campaign—a Culture War?
Tweet Share on Facebook November 13, 2009 Comment (3)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
According to the Associated Press's early look at Sarah Palin's forthcoming Going Rogue, the "closest Palin comes to naming names occurs in the passages about chief McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt."
The Palin/Schmidt rift clearly embodies the cultural clash between John McCain and his veep pick. Schmidt wanted Palin to brush up on policy and to defer to McCain's people on media strategy. Palin wanted to go rogue: to open up to reporters and show voters her true Wasilla colors.
But the Palin/Schmidt tensions also appear to embody the broader culture wars.
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Today's Picture: The Pope's Wednesday Audience
Tweet Share on Facebook November 12, 2009 Comment (7)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
(AP Photo / Gregorio Borgia)
The image of Pope Benedict XVI appears on a giant video screen at the Vatican during his weekly general audience yesterday. On Tuesday, the Vatican wrapped up a five-day conference on the possibility of alien life, part of Benedict's effort to reconcile faith and reason.
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The Vatican's E.T. Conference: Is the Pope More Pro-Science Than He Gets Credit For?
Tweet Share on Facebook November 12, 2009 Comment (9)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Four hundred years after it put Galileo under house arrest for arguing that the sun, not the Earth, is the center of the universe, the Roman Catholic Church this week sponsored a conference on the search for extraterrestrial life. At a time when the relationship between Christianity and science has been widely portrayed as an adversarial one (think Bill Maher's Religulous or the recent God & Country debate on Darwin's Origin of Species) the conference reminds us that leading authorities from both camps—like the pope and the worlds' top astronomers—believe the two need not be in conflict.
And for all the attention Pope Benedict XVI has received for his outspoken traditionalism and social conservatism—he recently said that condom distribution in Africa could "aggravate" the continent's AIDS epidemic—the E.T. event is a reminder that Benedict is also trying to modernize the church by reconciling faith and reason. Earlier this year, he convened a conference to celebrate the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
With a recent poll finding that just 4 in 10 Americans believe in evolution, one might be tempted to ask who's more antiscience: the Vatican or the average American?
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At Fort Hood, Obama Uses Divine Judgment as Interfaith Outreach
Tweet Share on Facebook November 11, 2009 Comment (18)By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
In his speech at yesterday's Fort Hood memorial service, President Obama raised the specter of divine judgment on the alleged shooter in last week's massacre, saying he "will be met with justice—in this world and the next." Sounds very George W. Bush, no?
Viewed in context, though, the line fits a pattern concerning Obama's public approach to Muslim issues, which his Fort Hood speech touched on insofar as he addressed the alleged Muslim gunman. In such situations, Obama's habit has been to extend a hand to Muslims while asserting his own Christian identity.
That's what the president did in a videotaped Ramadan message to the Muslim world in September. "Fasting is a concept shared by many faiths, including my own Christian faith," he said, "as a way to bring people closer to God, and to those among us who cannot take their next meal for granted."
In his May speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, Obama made a rare reference to Muslim members of his extended family but preceded it by reminding everyone of his own faith: "I'm a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims."
Yesterday at Fort Hood, Obama never mentioned the word Muslim—or Christian. But he was nonetheless following the established pattern, extending a hand to Muslims ("no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts") while asserting his own Christian worldview: "The killer will be met with justice—in this world, and the next."
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