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Links on R&P from around the web
Did America Just Dodge the Next Sarah Palin?
posted on November 14, 2012Joanna Brooks of Religion Dispatches blogs about Mia Love, who seemed a likely candidate to unseat six-term Congressman Jim Matheson, a Blue Dog Democrat. She received huge support from Republican “All-Stars” and as a black, Republican, Mormon woman she was able to put up a good fight against Matheson. However, despite her potential, Brooks believes, “Love’s own extreme and simplistic positions, including her move to defund Social Security, the Department of Education, federally-subsidized education grants and guaranteed loans, and even federal grants to local police forces,” led to her downfall.
After Huge Hispanic Vote, Plenty of Reason to Compromise on Immigration Reform
posted on November 13, 2012At The Washington Post, Lisa Miller reports on the overwhelming support from Hispanics that President Obama received on Election Day. As the GOP’s loss has been attributed to, in large measure, a lack of the Hispanic vote, both parties realize the necessity of immigration reform in order to attract support from Hispanics. Religious leaders of from both parties are leading the fight for reform. “Our ethical commandment to love the stranger overlaps with the need for both parties to continue to align themselves with the changing demographics of America,” says Rachel Laser, deputy director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Generational Shift in Black Christianity Comes to Harvard
posted on November 13, 2012At The New York Times, Samuel Freedman chronicles the progression of black Christian leaders from civil rights pioneers to younger leaders, many of whom were not alive during the civil rights movement. The Reverend Jonathan L. Walton, who was installed as the Pusey minster of the Memorial Church at Harvard on Sunday, says “we’re all standing on the shoulders and benefiting from the sacrifices of those who came before us. But it can’t be totally reducible to race. I’m also a Southern evangelical kid who’s been appointed to lead the spiritual community of an almost 400-year-old institution founded to train Puritan ministers.”
Radical Cleric, Alleged Terror Fundraiser Abu Qatada Wins Deportation Battle
posted on November 13, 2012At CNN Mallory Simon reports that Abu Qatada, whom the U.S. and the U.K. sought to have deported from the U.K. to face terrorist charges in Jordan, has won another legal battle blocking his deportation. While the British and American governments have accused him of raising money for terrorist organizations, court appeals have kept him in the U.K. “In January, the European Court of Human Rights blocked Britain from sending him to Jordan because of fears that evidence obtained by torture could be used against him at the trial planned by the Middle Eastern country.”
Returning Vets Need Time, Attention Say Church Leaders
posted on November 13, 2012Recently, there has been a push for clergy and churches to find more ways to assist newly returned veterans through mentoring and support, reports Adelle M. Banks at Religion News Service. “They’ve had battle buddies in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they come back to their communities almost as a stranger,” says Douglas Carver, the retired Army Chief of Chaplains. “Isolation is one of the key indicators where we’re seeing our troops take their lives because they may have 300 friends on Facebook but who do they have at 2 o’clock (a.m.) that they can call on?”
Adelson is Election’s Biggest Loser
posted on November 13, 2012At Tablet, Allison Hoffman discusses the failure of Republican Jews to sway elections last week, despite huge monetary support. The most visible example of this is the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who donated $70 million dollars to SuperPacs backing Mitt Romney. Although Obama’s record regarding Israel has not been a strong point, “some of the president’s most vocal Democratic critics … publicly recanted their doubts about his support for Israel and encouraged Jewish voters to support him. Whether they meant it, or are playing a long game that preserves their influence among Jewish voters,” writes Hoffman.
Atheists Claim Congressional Prayer Caucus Treats Them Like ‘Second Hand Citizens’
posted on November 13, 2012Stoyan Zaimov of The Christian Post reports that the American Humanist Association sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to refuse to join the Congressional Prayer Caucus, an organization whose stated purpose is to “use the legislative process … to assist the nation and its people in continuing to draw upon [prayer] and benefit from this essential source of our strength and well-being.” Yet American Humanist Association Executive Director Roy Speckhardt sees a different motive. “Members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus have repeatedly introduced and supported legislation that many secular Americans feel is unconstitutional and often favors Christianity above all other religions,” Speckhardt wrote.
80 Million Anglicans Can’t Be Wrong – Or Can They?
posted on November 13, 2012At Religion Dispatches Elizabeth Drescher draws a comparison between the Republican Party and the Church of England. As the Church of England chose a middle-aged white man, Justin Welby, as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Americans failed to elect the Republican Mitt Romney, a middle-aged white man as president. “If the GOP didn’t get the message before the election that the days of white hegemony are pretty much over, they certainly couldn’t miss it the Day After. Is there something the Church of England in particular and Mainline Protestantism might learn from Obama’s win on Tuesday with only 39 percent of the white vote?,” asks Drescher.
The Walking Dead Has Become a White Patriarchy
posted on November 13, 2012At Salon, Lorraine Berry reviews the new season of “The Walking Dead,” and finds something very familiar in this zombie-apocalypse television series. “I have been disappointed to discover that, while the writers occasionally take a moment to comment on the state of gender—and of race—in this new world, in the end they leave these issues to die and reconstitute a world in which white men rule.”
Controversial ‘Mojave Cross’ to Return to Calif. Desert
posted on November 12, 2012Adelle M. Banks reports for Religion News Service that following a 2010 Supreme Court decision, which allowed one acre of federal land to be transfered to private owners, “on Veterans Day, a controversial war memorial cross will be re-erected and rededicated on a rock in California’s Mojave National Preserve.” “When this all first happened, I prayed and asked God to protect the cross,” said Wanda Sandoz, the cross’s caretaker.