Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Oz Could Be the First Muslim U.S. Senator, But Some Muslim Americans Are Ambivalent
posted on November 8, 2022Liam Stack of The New York Times reports that many Pennsylvania Muslims are not supporting Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Pennsylvania Republican candidate for Senate, who has distanced himself from his Muslim faith on the campaign trail. Stack writes, “For many American Muslims, their concern is not over theological differences with Dr. Oz or his religious observance, but over his unwillingness to publicly embrace them while at the same time aligning with politicians who have been hostile toward their community.” Oz would be the first Muslim U.S. senator if elected.
Walker, Warnock Offer Clashing Religious Messages in Georgia
posted on November 8, 2022Bill Barros of the Associated Press reports that Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock, the two Senate candidates from Georgia, employ their faith in contrasting ways on the campaign trail. He writes, “Both men feature faith as part of their public identities in a state where religion has always been a dominant cultural influence. But they do it in distinct ways, jousting in moral terms on matters from abortion, race, and criminal justice to each other’s personal lives and behavior.” Warnock, the current pastor of Martin Luther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, embraces a social justice-oriented vision of Christianity. Walker, for his part, touts a socially conservative strain of Christianity that is centered around culture war issues.
In Existential Midterm Races, Christian Prophets Become GOP Surrogates
posted on November 8, 2022Michelle Boorstein of The Washington Post reports that Christian prophets are offering divinely inspired political predictions in support of Republican candidates in the run-up to the midterm elections. Some experts say the increase in political prophecies is due to a decrease of faith in existing institutions and the growth of charismatic Christianity. Matthew Sutton, a historian of American religion at Washington State University, said, “Prophecy gives comfort in the sense that it can tell us how the future will be. For these folks, it’s affirming a positive vision in which they always will triumph.”
In Run-Up to Midterms, Muslim Groups, Mosques Push for Voter Engagement
posted on November 8, 2022Alejandra Molina of Religion News Service reports that Muslim civic and religious organizations are encouraging increased voter participation from local Muslim communities across the country. Groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations have hosted candidate forums and created voter guides. Mohammed Missouri, the executive director of Jetpac, a nonprofit that works to increase Muslim representation in the U.S. government, said, “The Muslim community is recognizing more and more that, at the local level, you have a massive impact on your community.”
The American Renewal Project Wants to Mobilize Pastors for the Republican Party
posted on November 8, 2022Yonat Shimron of Religion News Service reports that the American Renewal Project is recruiting pastors to run for elected office. Shimron reports, “Driving the project is the Christian nationalist notion that America has strayed from its origins and needs to be restored to its Christian foundations.” The group hosts luncheons for pastors and their families across the country to sell them on the idea of taking their religious ideals and interpersonal skills from the pulpit to public office. Cameron McGill, a Baptist pastor who holds public office and participates in the group, said, “God has called us not just to build our church but to impact the culture.”
The Religious Left Has Found Its Mission
posted on November 8, 2022Christina Cauterucci of Slate writes, “Across the U.S., as state legislatures restrict reproductive health care in increasingly draconian ways, progressive faith communities are pushing back.” Some faith communities have offered transportation to abortion clinics in and out of state while others have raised funds for abortion access. A group of progressive clergy members has also organized to revive the Clergy Consultation Network, a pre-Roe organization of faith leaders that helped women get connected with abortion providers. Elaina Ramsey, the executive director of Faith Choice Ohio, said that “the firewall that we’re supposed to have in this country between church and state, we’re going to use that for our good, to be able to protect people.”
The Christian Home-Schooling World that Shaped Dan Cox
posted on November 3, 2022Peter Jamison of The Washington Post reports that Dan Cox, the Republican nominee for Governor of Maryland, has deep ties to the conservative Christian home-schooling movement. Cox’s father started Walkersville Christian Family Schools, which provides an alternative to secular public education. Cox and his children attended Walkersville Christian, and Cox has argued for expanding protections for home-schooling in the Maryland legislature. Jamison writes, “There is a central theme to which Cox reliably returns, and it was the same one that animated many of the supporters he spoke to at the fairgrounds: parents’ control over the upbringing and education of their children.”
Christian Nationalism Debates Exposes Clashing Views of Power
posted on November 3, 2022Daniel Silliman of Christianity Today reports that evangelicals are debating what Christian nationalism means in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections. He writes, “Some Republican candidates are claiming the name, a best-selling book on Amazon argues that all real Christians are Christian nationalists, and a growing number of professional and amateur political commentators are using it to explain American politics right now.” Evangelical historian John Fea, however, wrote in an email, “It always uses the past to advance a right-wing agenda. I see Christian nationalism as a contemporary political movement, but it ALWAYS draws upon the view that the founders created a Christian nation and we thus need to reclaim, renew, and maybe even restore that Christian founding.”
Black Faith Leaders in Georgia Speak Out Against Herschel Walker
posted on November 3, 2022Maya King of The New York Times reports, “While Georgia’s Black faith leaders walk the line between their religious and political convictions in the last few days before the midterms, some have turned sharply to amplifying their criticisms of the state’s Republican Senate candidate, Herschel Walker.” Black faith leaders have rebuked claims that their political speech violates a federal law that prohibits politicking from the pulpit, arguing that they are held to a different standard than their white evangelical counterparts. Cynthia Hale, an Atlanta-area pastor, said in a radio ad, “As Christians we are taught to forgive Herschel. But we are not commanded to vote for him.”
DHS Launches Panel on Religious Security as Hateful Incidents Rise
posted on November 3, 2022Tori Luecking of The Washington Post reports that the Department of Homeland Security’s Faith-Based Security Advisory Council met for the first time last month. The Biden administration created the council in July to increase safety in houses of worship. It is comprised of representatives from faith communities and law enforcement experts. Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and a council member, said, “My focus on this advisory committee is to get at the root of the problem. I don’t think we can spend our way out of white supremacy and gun violence, and antisemitism can’t get routed out with more security cameras.”