Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Larry Wilmore on Race, Politics, and Mormonism
posted on August 27, 2012Slate’s David Haglund interviews Larry Wilmore about his fascination with Mormons. “I think Romney’s Mormonism is as unique to this election as Obama’s blackness was in the last election,” explains Wilmore, The Daily Show’s “senior black correspondent.” “We’ve never had a Mormon candidate before. It’s a pretty big deal. And a lot of people don’t know about Mormonism—I certainly didn’t know a lot of the details.”
Romney Invites NY Catholic Cardinal Dolan to Offer Benediction After Acceptance Speech
posted on August 24, 2012New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan will “give the benediction at the Republican National Convention on the night Mitt Romney accepts the presidential nomination,” The Associated Press reports. Dolan “is one of more than 40 Catholic groups suing President Barack Obama” over the HHS mandate. Joseph Zwilling, Dolan’s spokesman, says, “It’s not an endorsement. It’s as a priest going to pray.”
Anti-Abortion Movement Stands by ‘No Exceptions’ Orthodoxy amid Controversy
posted on August 24, 2012After Rep. Todd Akin’s controversial remarks about “legitimate rape,” many Republicans remain firm in their stance of “no exceptions” for abortion, reports CNN’s Dan Gilgoff. After Akin’s comments, “many anti-abortion activists have stuck by their stance against abortion rights in the case of rape.” Ralph Reed, leader of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, says that any advocacy for exceptions has “been mostly for political viability and expediency.”
NBC’s ‘Rock Center’ Devotes Full Hour of Prime-Time Television to Mormonism
posted on August 24, 2012On Thursday, NBC’s “Rock Center with Brains Williams” devoted “a full hour to the subject of what it means to be ‘Mormon in America,’” Jeff Benedict reports for Deseret News. The show’s producer Rome Hartman says Americans are experiencing a “Mormon moment.” NBC correspondent Harry Smith says, “America could very well elect its first Mormon president. Many of us know quite little about the Mormon faith.”
The Future of Religious Minorities in the Muslim World
posted on August 24, 2012Writing for The Huffington Post, Imam Mohamed Magid comments on religious freedom in the Muslim world, “where religious freedom is far less supported by the government and far less cherished as a societal value.” Magid, the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), writes that in Nigeria “extremist groups continue to twist religion to justify widespread killing and the destruction of sacred spaces and public property.”
Court: Texas Can Cut Off Planned Parenthood Funds
posted on August 24, 2012On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled “that Texas can cut off funding for Planned Parenthood,” The Associated Press reports. The ruling upheld “a new law that bans state money from going to organizations tied to abortion providers.” Governor Rick Perry says the ruling is “a win for Texas women, our rule of law and our state’s priority to protect life.”
When Is Government Web Censorship Justified? An Indian Horror Story
posted on August 24, 2012India censors the Internet “in the name of public safety,” writes Max Fisher for The Atlantic. Due to ethnic and religious violence, the “Indian government might be right to fear that technology.” The Internet can “magnify ancient communal tensions in a ways that costs lives and, perhaps even worse, might destabilize the delicate social balance within the world’s second-largest country,” Fisher writes.
Lone Jewish Governor Touting Obama to Swing State Jews
posted on August 24, 2012At The Jewish Daily Forward, Nathan Guttman profiles Delaware governor Jack Markell, “the only sitting Jewish governor in the United States.” According to Guttman, “Markell is now part of a select group of elected officials tasked with bringing the Obama message to Jewish voters in swing states.” Markell says, “If you dig in and look at what the president has done domestically and what he has done concerning Israel, you have a very strong story to tell.”
Read at The Jewish Daily Forward
Ramadan in Murfreesboro
posted on August 24, 2012The New York Times published an editorial marking the end of Ramadan. This is a particularly “joyous” occasion for the Muslims who worship at the newly completed mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. “[A]fter a two-year assault of bigotry, persistent court challenges, arson and a bomb threat at the construction site … [h]undreds of worshipers were finally able to occupy their new suburban mosque this month.” The editors write, “With patience and dignity, the Islamic Americans of Murfreesboro learned the hard way the endless American lesson that constitutional rights don’t come guaranteed.”
Signs of Divine Intervention for Republicans?
posted on August 23, 2012The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank makes a list of recent Republican gaffs, suggesting that God might have “forsaken the Republican Party.” According to Milbank, “[I]nstead of being swept into office by the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression, Republicans are in danger of losing an election that is theirs to lose … And congressional Republicans are providing all kinds of reasons for Americans to doubt their readiness to assume power.”