Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Now Mitt Romney Wants You To Love Him
posted on October 8, 2012BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins chronicles Mitt Romney’s changing public persona following his successful debate performance last week. Coppins writes that Romney is making a greater effort to connect with voters on an emotional level. “At a sunset rally in St. Petersburg Friday night, Romney devoted a large chunk of his speech to relating three personal, heartstring-tugging tales of people who have passed away, including an old friend from graduate school, and a soldier in Afghanistan,” writes Coppins. “His most impactful story, though, was of a sick 14-year-old boy, David Oparowski, in his Mormon ward who asked ‘Brother Romney’ to help him write a ‘will’ before he died.”
Religious Vote Remains Election Factor, Obama, Romney Faith Advisers Say
posted on October 8, 2012The Huffington Post’s Jaweed Kaleem writes about the role religion will play, or not play, in this year’s presidential election. Mark DeMoss, an evangelical Christian who is heading Mitt Romney’s outreach to evangelicals, says, “[s]omehow when it becomes a presidential election, there are people who apply a different standard than they do when making another selection.” Yet DeMoss insists, “[t]he economy is the single issue that transcends every demographic, every coalition, every interest group.”
The Jumper Squad
posted on October 8, 2012For The New York Times, Wendy Ruderman profiles the New York City police unit tasked with talking down potential suicide victims from jumping off New York City bridges and buildings. “The roughly 300 officers in the unit are specially trained in suicide rescue, the delicate art of saving people from themselves; they know just what to say and, perhaps more important, what not to say,” writes Ruderman. Detective Marc Nell starts his conversations with potential jumpers by building a rapport. “Talk to me … Think of your family,” Nell says are typical conversation starters in the unit.
Why Am I Back in Church?
posted on October 5, 2012For The New York Times, Eric Nagourney investigates a recent Gallup poll that found that baby boomers are joining religious communities in greater numbers. Despite the recent uptick, Nagourney stresses the importance of this generation’s religious doubts. “The distrust in institutions like organized religion born in the 60s is not likely to be cast off entirely. So even as baby boomers return to the church, it is hard to imagine they will reach the same numbers as the generation before them,” Nagourney.
Tomb of Maya Queen K’abel Discovered in Guatemala
posted on October 5, 2012Jessica Daues of the Record reports that in Guatemala a team of archaeologists, led by Washington University in St. Louis Professor David Freidel, has “discovered the tomb of Lady K’abel, a seventh-century Maya Holy Snake Lord considered one of the great queens of Classic Maya civilization.” Daues writes that “discovery is significant not only because the tomb is that of a notable historical figure in Maya history, but also because the newly uncovered tomb is a rare situation in which Maya archaeological and historical records meet.”
Prophets or Partisans?
posted on October 5, 2012An editorial at The Jewish Daily Forward focuses on this coming weekend’s “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” “when hundreds of pastors are expected to openly violate the law of the land and preach politics from the pulpit.” The editors question the motives behind the event, as well as the intermingling of religious leaders and politics in the digital age: “The advent of new technology has enabled anyone, clergy included, to broadcast their support of a political candidate, take partisan stands in public, and promote fundraisers on Facebook.”
Read at The Jewish Daily Forward
The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor
posted on October 5, 2012Twenty-two years after the event, Michael Agresta of The Atlantic re-examines the public reaction to Sinead O’Connor’s destruction of a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. Agresta explains that O’Connor’s motives–to highlight sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church in Ireland–were completely misunderstood at the time. “O’Connor actually seems to believe that she was specially endowed by God with a powerful voice in order to restore integrity to a corrupted Church and put an end to the pervasive evil of child abuse,” writes Agresta.
Anti-Abortion Group Launches New Super-Pac
posted on October 5, 2012The Susan B. Anthony List has formed a new super-Pac called, Women Speak Out, reports Kate Sheppard for Mother Jones. The new super-PAC plans to spend $500,000 on ads in swing states to “counter new anti-Romney spots bankrolled by Planned Parenthood.” The Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser has stated, “We cannot sit back and allow the deep-pocketed abortion lobby led by Planned Parenthood and EMILY’s List claim to speak for all women.”
President Obama’s Campaign for Leviathan
posted on October 5, 2012For First Things, Patrick J. Deneen writes about the Obama Administration’s HHS mandate, which “requires many religious institutions to offer contraception through existing health care plans.” Deneen finds that the administration has overstepped its power by meddling in the actions of religious institutions. “This narrative seems plausible to many,” writes Deneen, “because we have been deeply shaped and trained to associate the word ‘liberty’ with the freedom of individuals ‘to pursue their own ends’—requiring, among other things, the liberation of recreational sex from any consequences—and not the rights, privileges, immunities and liberties of groups, societies, associations, even a corpus mysticum like the Church.”
Wole Soyinka: Religion Doesn’t Justify Mayhem
posted on October 5, 2012The Root reprints Nobel-prize winning writer Wole Soyinka’s recent speech to the U.N. The Nigerian-born Soyinka addresses the role of religious extremism has played in recent protests in Africa, as well as how religion might be used to foster peace. “[I]t is time that the world adopt a position that refuses to countenance religion as an acceptable justification for, excuse or extenuation of crimes against humanity,” says Soyinka.