Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Why the Slow Response Time in Benghazi?
posted on October 15, 2012Commentary’s Max Boot questions the Obama administration’s slow response to produce an accurate assessment of the security failures that led to the attacks on the U.S. consolate in Libya, and, if warranted, to respond with appropriate force. “Admittedly action between now and the election will inevitably be criticized in some quarters as a ‘wag the dog’ scenario,” writes Boot. “[B]ut, just as they did with the 1998 strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan (which occurred in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky scandal), Republicans are likely to support any military action against terrorists.”
The Catholic Left’s Unfair Attack on Paul Ryan
posted on October 15, 2012First Things’ Robert P. George argues that the group of Catholic scholars, who last week issued a document critical of Paul Ryan’s understanding of Catholicism, has mischaracterized the Republican nominee for Vice President’s position on Catholic social teachings. “Instead of a careful, nuanced analysis of Ryan’s thought in light of that teaching,” writes George, “the statement offers a set of Democratic Party talking points festooned with quotations from St. Thomas Aquinas and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.”
Ryan v. Biden, the Catholic ‘Thrilla in Manila’
posted on October 12, 2012Melinda Henneberger of The Washington Post examines the religious lives of vice president candidates, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. Henneberger argues that Biden and Ryan represent a division in the American Catholic approach to politics. Henneberger writes, “[They] also almost perfectly embody the split in the American church as well as in American politics, with Biden representing the old-school, union-tied, Vatican II generation of Kennedy-loving Catholics whose focus is social justice and who are comfortable with questioning … Ryan, meanwhile, upholds the younger, more conservative, John Paul II-era, anti-abortion-focused Catholicism of the sonogram generation.”
Congressman Draws Fire for Calling Evolution, Big Bang ‘Lies from the Pit of Hell’
posted on October 12, 2012In a recent speech at a church event in Georgia, Congressman Paul Broun claimed, “[a]ll that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell,” reports Dan Gigloff for CNN. Broun, who serves on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, also stated, “I hold the holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that.”
As the IDF Becomes More Religious, the Rights of Female Soldiers Suffer
posted on October 12, 2012Maryles Sztokman of Slate reports that the future role of female soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces may be curtailed as more ultra-Orthodox men join Israel’s armed forces. This concern is part of the larger national debate over the Tal Law, a military exemption for ultra-Orthodox men in Israel, which expired in August. “The expiration of the Tal Law is timed disastrously for Israeli women, who are trying their hardest to get ahead in a man’s world as that man’s world becomes more and more a religious man’s world,” writes Sztokman.
Emory Confronts Legacy of Bias Against Jews
posted on October 12, 2012Samuel G. Freedman of The New York Times reports on Emory University’s recent admission that their dental school engaged in systematic anti-Semitism between 1948-1961. Freedman writes that the admission at Emory “is part of a larger inquiry and atonement for anti-Semitic practices at elite universities for much of the 20th century.” In a statement, Gary S. Hauk, Emory’s vice president, declared, “We need to be fearless in confronting our past as individuals and an institution. There are often things we regret about our past, but there is the possibility of making amends and of building on the acknowledgment of those things.”
Mainline Churches vs. Israel
posted on October 12, 2012At The National Review, Elliot Abrams analyzes a letter that leaders of some of America’s largest mainline denominations sent to members of Congress this past July. In the letter, leaders from the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, and the United Church of Christ (UCC), among others, expressed “grave concern about the deteriorating conditions in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories which threaten to lead the region further away from the realization of a just peace.” Abrams finds many factual errors in the letter, and also looks at its broader implications: “[The] letter will affect cooperation between the signatory organizations and the Jewish community, as the reactions of major American Jewish organizations already demonstrate. And it will affect the willingness of the United States to come to the defense of beleaguered Christian communities in the Middle East, for some of the Christian groups that might be expressing concern and solidarity and demanding action are instead spending their time denouncing Israel.”
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Evangelical Left
posted on October 12, 2012For The Houston Chronicle, Reverend Marty Troyer reviews David Swartz’s new book, Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism, which chronicles “the rise, decline, and legacy of the evangelical left.” In an age when the evangelical right dominates, Troyer finds that Swartz’s book tells “the story of what it looks like to merge progressive politics with deep personal piety; the story of ‘holistic concern for both evangelism and social action.’”
Why Jim Daly and Daniel Weiss Are Wrong About Christian Engagement in Politics
posted on October 12, 2012At The Christian Post Tony Beam critiques the head of Focus on the Family, Jim Daly’s new book, Living a Life that Reflects God’s Heart. Beam examines what Daly has identified as six myths about Christian cultural engagement, including the myth that Christians “must be load, vocal and visible” to create cultural change. Beam writes, “Jim Daly is right when he says we can engage the culture in a ‘winsome way’ but we must remember that cultural engagement will mean conflict.”
Pennsylvania Losing Swing-State Status
posted on October 12, 2012At The Jewish Daily Forward, Lisa Hostein chronicles the dynamics of the Jewish vote in Pennsylvania. While neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney’s campaign considers them to be a swing-vote in the upcoming election, Hostein finds that Pennsylvania’s Jews remain politically active: “Until the votes are cast, Pennsylvania’s Jews will keep swinging, even if they’re doing it out of the national limelight.”
Read at The Jewish Daily Forward