Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Bill O’Reilly’s Humpty Dumpty Trick
posted on December 5, 2012At Real Clear Religion, Jeffery Weiss examines Bill O’Reilly’s statements on his show that Christianity is not a religion, but a philosophy. O’Reilly uses this interpretation to disprove the claim that public Christmas holiday displays are violations of the First Amendment. Weiss quotes Darrell Bock, a Christian scholar, to refute this point. “If Christianity is not a religion, since it believes in the worship of God, then no faith is,” Bock said. “Even though the faith has philosophical elements, it is not another exercise in the humanities; it is a religious faith. There is nothing to gain in this reclassification.”
Obama as Lord and Savior
posted on December 5, 2012At Religion Dispatches, Edward Blum discusses the depiction of Barack Obama as a Christ-like figure. One painting by Michael D’Antuono on display in a Boston community college shows the president “with a crown of thorns and arms stretched out to look as if he is on a cross.” Blum notes the painting “has riled the right wing punditry,” but points out “this is not the first piece of art to depict Obama as a Christ figure; nor is this the first piece of American art to depict a black man as Jesus. ”
Is the Church Suppressing God’s Will?
posted on December 5, 2012After the editorial board of the National Catholic Reporter endorsed the ordination of women as Catholic priests, Elizabeth Scalia criticizes the move at First Things. She writes, “The editorial board makes an oddly Protestant (dare I say it, Evangelical) argument; it rejects the authority of tradition … in favor of trending thought.”
Rubio and the Age-of-Earth Question
posted on December 4, 2012At The Wall Street Journal, Washington University in St. Louis Professor S. Joshua Swamidass writes that Senator Marco Rubio’s recent statements regarding the age of the earth are “an opportunity for both Republicans and evangelicals to establish a more coherent policy on evolution, creation and science.”
Read at The Wall Street Journal
France, Britain, Sweden, Spain Summon Ambassasdors from Israel
posted on December 4, 2012Four European nations summoned their Israeli ambassadors home in an effort to denounce Israel’s latest settlement push outside of Jerusalem, report Amy Tiebel and Lori Hinnant of Salon. “We’ve been expecting this kind of behavior for a long time,” Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said. “For this to come from France and England is very beneficial to us. We highly appreciate it and we are hoping the U.S. will follow their lead.”
Would You Rather Go to Church or Prison?
posted on December 4, 2012At Slate, Ryan McCartney writes on a controversial sentencing made by an Oklahoma judge. After a teenage drunk driver killed a passenger in an accident, he pled guilty to first degree manslaughter. But, as McCartney writes, the judge ordered that the youth “won’t be serving any time in jail, provided, that is, he goes to church every Sunday for the next 10 years,” as a condition of his deferred sentence and probation.
A Place for Religion
posted on December 4, 2012At The New York Times, Roger Cohen writes about the contrasting relationship between government and religion in the Middle East and in the United States. “It is striking that it is precisely America’s evangelical right that is most ready … to equate a veiled woman with Islamic fanaticism, to see the threat of Shariah law everywhere, and to dismiss the Arab Spring as no more than the onset of chaos in which jihadist extremists will thrive,” Cohen writes. “Even as they pull God into a more prominent role in U.S. political life … they deplore a political Islam they seem determined to caricature as a monolithic enemy. God, it seems, may be a legitimate authority in the Bible Belt, but not in Babylon.”
After Gay Marriage Successes, Activists Look to Build on New Faith Outreach Techniques
posted on December 4, 2012In past campaigns regarding same-sex marriage, it often seemed as though a person of faith was unlikely to support same-sex marriage, reports Dan Merica of CNN. However, as same-sex marriage triumphed in four states on Election Day, “Faith became part of the solution and not just the problem in all four states”, said Sharon Groves, director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign. “We will never do a campaign moving forward where engaging people of faith will not be central part of that work.”
Secession Theology Runs Deeps in American Religious, Political History
posted on December 4, 2012At the Huffington Post, G. Jeffrey Macdonald writes about the history of secession movements in the United States. Since Barack Obama won re-election, 750,000 Americans have petitioned the White House to allow them to secede. “Those leading the charge are framing it, observers say, in terms that suggest a deep-seated religious impulse for purity-through-separation is flaring up once again,” Macdonald writer.
Muslim Scholar Wins Prestigious Grawemeyer Award
posted on December 4, 2012For the first time ever, a Muslim woman has won the University of Louisville’s prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion, reports Omar Sacirbey of Religion News Service. Leila Ahmed will receive the award for her book, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America.