Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Trump Defends Modi, Refuses to Weigh in on Citizenship Law
posted on February 25, 2020NBC Washington’s Jonathan Lemire and Jill Colvin report that Trump would not comment on India’s new citizenship law that excludes Muslims from its shortened naturalization process. They write, “The law is raising fears the country is inching nearer to a religious citizenship test.” During his visit to the country, Trump said, “I don’t want to discuss that. I want to leave that to India.” The law, supported by prime minister Narendra Modi, has incited protests over its discrimination against Muslims, and several people have been killed as a result of the violence.
Jean Vanier, Once Seen as a Nobel or Sainthood Candidate, Now Accused of Abusive Sexual Relationships
posted on February 25, 2020The Washington Post’s Julie Zauzmer reports that L’Arche International founder Jean Vanier “had coercive sexual relationships with six women,” according to a report released by L’Arche, an organization that supports adults with intellectual disabilities. A lay Catholic, Vanier died last May and was previously thought to be on track to become a Catholic saint. Michael Higgins, professor at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and author of a biography on Vanier, said, “We need prominent figures of personal integrity. Jean Vanier was one of those figures, unbesmirched by scandal—all of that now has been profoundly compromised.”
A Nun’s Journey in the Amazon
posted on February 20, 2020The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Barber profiles Jean Bellini, a nun who moved from upstate New York to Brazil in 1976 at age 33. Bellini joined the Pastoral Land Commission (C.P.T.), a Catholic group that supports indigenous peoples in claiming land that has been taken from them or is being destroyed. Barber writes, “Jean Bellini is a nun who believes that God made us free, and that we’ve used our freedom poorly. We’ve used it to create colonialism, capitalism, and other systems that exploit the poor and reward the rich; we’ve used it to build a world in which some people have too much and others have nothing. Now, we’re in a fix.”
“Most Visible Jews” Fear Being Targets as Anti-Semitism Rises
posted on February 20, 2020The New York Times’s Liam Stack reports that Orthodox Jews are more at risk of hate crimes than the larger Jewish community because their religious clothing makes them easily identifiable as Jewish. Stack also reports that anti-Semitism is on the rise, and that “Jewish people were the victims in more than half of the 428 hate crimes in New York City last year.” Anti-Defamation League chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt said, “We know there are over one million Jews in New York City alone, and a couple hundred thousand of those are Orthodox. They are being singled out in disproportionate numbers to their percentage of the population.”
America May Be Nearing the End of the Roe Era
posted on February 13, 2020For The Atlantic, Garrett Epps writes about the abortion case, June Medical Services v. Russo, that will come up at the Supreme Court next month. The case is similar to the 2016 case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which dealt with a Texas law that “would have closed half of the clinics in Texas that offer abortion services,” Epps writes. The case was ruled unconstitutional, but in the wake of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s resignation, the court has been reshaped by the Trump administration’s appointments. Epps argues that June Medical Services v. Russo could end differently by further restricting abortion in conservative states.
Gospel of Matthew’s Message Rings Loudly for Some 2020 Dems
posted on February 13, 2020The Associated Press’s Elana Schor reports that Democratic candidates continue to utilize a popular Bible passage, Matthew 25, for their campaigns. Pete Buttigieg used the verses in a television ad in South Carolina, saying, “Whatever happened to, ‘I was hungry and you fed me? I was a stranger and you welcomed me?’” According to Schor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has also cited Matthew 25 “more than a half-dozen times in public forums since her campaign started, including last week at a New Hampshire town hall when she urged a more compassionate immigration policy.”
The #MeToo Case That Divided the Abortion-Rights Movement
posted on February 13, 2020For The Atlantic, Maggie Bullock profiles Candice Russell, an abortion-rights activist, and Willie Parker, a Christian Ob-Gyn and prominent abortion provider. In March of 2019, Russell wrote an article on the website Medium calling Parker a sexual predator and accusing him of rape. Parker has denied the allegations, saying the sex between he and Russell was consensual. Though groups like Planned Parenthood have supported Russell after her allegations, the accusations have complicated both the #MeToo and abortion-rights movements. “Its tentacles stretch much further, bringing into the open generational and, to an extent, racial divisions in our rapidly shifting views on sexual assault—the kinds of questions and doubts that are typically expressed only in private,” Bullock writes.
More U.S. Firms are Boosting Faith-Based Support for Employees
posted on February 13, 2020The Associated Press’s David Crary reports that many U.S. corporations are creating religious resource groups for employees. “Corporate American is at a tipping point toward giving religion similar attention to that given the other major diversity categories,” Brian Grim, founder and president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, said. Started in 2017 by Salesforce, Faithforce is one such religious resource group. Its founder Farah Siddiqui says, “We’re a very inclusive group. If someone has something interesting to share, we share it. There is no proselytizing.”
Mitt Romney Is a “Judas” to Many Republicans. But Not in Utah.
posted on February 13, 2020The New York Times’s Jeremy W. Peters reports that Republican Sen. Mitt Romney’s vote to convict Trump has not diminished much of his support in his home state. Though some have called for Romney’s actions to be censured by the Utah state government, the measure seems to be unpopular. “Utah is one of the rare places where the few Romney-style Republicans who remain are relatively safe from a challenge from their right, where speaking out against the president can be an act to admire, not an apostasy,” Peters writes.
Trump Appears to Jab at Romney and Pelosi at National Prayer Breakfast
posted on February 7, 2020The Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey report that President Trump’s speech at the National Prayer breakfast seemed to criticize Sen. Mitt Romney, who cited his faith while voting to impeach the president, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said she prays for the president even as she moved to impeach him. “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” Trump said. “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so.” The breakfast is an annual bipartisan event where the president speaks, usually giving a message of unity. Trump, however, “used his time as a campaign speech and to slam his opponents,” Boorstein and Pulliam Bailey write.