HomeArchive for July, 2009
If I could be like Ike…
Reverend Ike is dead at 74.
If the only Ike you’ve heard of is that bald guy from the ’50s — or, perhaps, a certain adopted baby who lives in South Park, Colorado — consider adding this new one to your memory bank. Based out of the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, Rev. Ike [...]
New York Premiere coming up – Thursday, Aug 6, 2009
We’re busy packing our bags for a visit to New York City to have our first major public screening of “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on Thursday, August 6, 2009. The screening is part of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Independents Night series.
Laura and Joe will both attend the screening [...]
Abortion schisms
Now that Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) has introduced a bill promoting contraception to reduce the need for abortion, he has been disowned by much of the pro-life movement. According to Cristina Page at the Huffington Post, not a single pro-life group in America supports contraception — and not a single such organization signed onto [...]
Common ground on abortion?
One of the big news items in the faith/politics world over the last week has been an abortion-related bill proposed by Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Tim Ryan (D-OH). The bill aims to help reduce the need for abortion by providing contraception, comprehensive sex ed, support for pregnant (and new) mothers, and an increase in [...]
Confessions of Tiller’s murderer
Scott Roeder, the man accused of shooting Dr. George Tiller, feels “relief and joy” that the doctor is dead, and expects to stay in prison a long time, according to an interview he gave the Kansas City Star. He showed no remorse in his testimony to the Star, calling the killing of abortion doctors “justifiable [...]
NY Times has more detail on Tiller and his murder
The New York Times today published a lengthy and detailed story about Dr. George Tiller’s career and reactions of Kansas Pro-Life activists to his murder. Its fascinating reading for anyone who hasn’t gotten enough of this strange and tragic story.
The most notable facet of Dr. Tiller’s story is that he performed the rarest and most [...]
Obama = Antichrist? Sutton responds.
The other day I posted a critique of Matthew Avery Sutton’s claim that “the vast majority of American evangelicals” are radical fundamentalists who are soon going to conclude that President Obama is the Antichrist. My critique came in the form of a question: Where’s the evidence? Although it’s fun and easy to pick on evangelicals, [...]
“A leaderless army”
The Seattle Times suggests the religious right has gone from 60 to zero in five years:
In 2004, conservative evangelical leaders in Washington state were in full political force.
In only a few short weeks, they gathered more than 20,000 people to Safeco Field to rally for traditional marriage, then several months later, celebrated President Bush’s re-election.
Five [...]
Obama’s fruitless evangelical outreach?
Over at Religion Dispatches, Matthew Avery Sutton argues that President Obama’s entreaties to evangelicals will inevitably fall flat because the conservative Christian movement is “obsessed with the apocalypse” and bound to think Obama is the Antichrist.
The vast majority of American evangelicals interpret the most obscure books of the Bible (Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation) in a [...]
Strange bedfellows
Liberal attorney David Boies and conservative attorney Ted Olson have joined forces to file a lawsuit opposing California’s ban on gay marriage. This unlikely tag team — featuring a pair of strange bedfellows indeed — is intended to illustrate a point: that the marriage issue does not conform to the familiar poles of liberalism and [...]
C Street: sinister or benign?
Is C Street a nefarious, shadowy group of power-hungry religious zealots? Or just a Bible study and support group?
This is the question that emerged a couple of years ago thanks to the work of journalist Jeff Sharlet. And it has now emerged again thanks to the dalliances and machinations of two high-profile C Street members: [...]