Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
What if Catholic Church = Penn State?
posted on July 16, 2012At Religion News Service, Mark Silk describes an “alternative universe” in which the Catholic Church responded to its own sex abuse scandal the way Penn State has, by “turn[ing] to a distinguished law enforcement official–say, a former head of the FBI–to conduct an independent investigation.” “The pain and humiliation are great, not only for the perpetrators but for the many who held the now disgraced officials in the highest regard,” writes Silk. “But the larger institution, the institution that is far greater than the sum of the sinful individuals in charge of it at any given time, comes out with its moral credibility restored.”
Picture Is Worth a Thousand Slurs? Magazine Cover Riles Mormons
posted on July 13, 2012At The Salt Lake Tribune, Peggy Fletcher Stack reports on some Mormons’ reaction to the recent cover of Business Week, which accompanies the magazine’s cover story on the LDS Church’s finances and wealth. Stack describes the cover this way: “It features an illustration of Jesus with his hands on the heads of LDS founder Joseph Smith and his assistant, Oliver Cowdery, and a quote bubble which reads: ‘And thou shalt build a shopping mall, own stock in Burger King and open a Polynesian theme park in Hawaii that shall be largely exempt from the frustrations of tax…’ Another bubble has Smith responding, ‘Hallelujah.'” Anthropologist and Mormon, Daymon Smith, who is quoted in the article, has written, “[the cover] undermines the quality of … [the] article, and gives the whole thing the appearance of some … homemade evangelical broadside.”
House Members Seek to Repeal Administration’s ‘Religious Freedom Tax’
posted on July 13, 2012Two U.S. representatives “have introduced a bill to stop the federal government from taxing religious employers that decline to cover contraception and abortion-causing drugs in their health plans,” reports Catholic News Agency’s Benjamin Mann. In the future, the Affordable Care Act will allow the IRS to “collect $100 per day for each employee of an organization that fails to cover services such as contraception and sterilization without a co-pay.” Republican congresswoman from Tennessee, Diane Black, one of the sponsors of the bill, says, “The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on Obamacare leaves intact a serious assault on our religious freedom.”
Most Muslims Want Democracy, Personal Freedoms, and Islam in Political Life
posted on July 13, 2012A new study by the Pew Research Center found that a majority of Muslims in the Middle East “embrace specific features of a democratic system, such as competitive elections and free speech.” The study also found that a “substantial number in key Muslim countries want a large role for Islam in political life.”
Reaction Mixed to Episcopal Church’s Approval of Same-Sex Rite
posted on July 13, 2012The decision by the Episcopal Church at its general convention in Indianapolis on Tuesday to approve a liturgy for blessing same-sex couples has drawn mixed reaction, Daniel Burke reports for Religion News Service. While the liturgy received wide support at the convention, the Diocese of South Carolina’s canon theologian, Rev. Kendall Harmon, has stated, “By making this decision, the Episcopal Church moves further away from Jesus Christ and his teaching.” The rite also drew criticism from gay rights activists, some calling it a “separate and unequal” policy, since the new rite is not defined as a “marriage.”
Why Israel Won’t Bomb Iran
posted on July 13, 2012At Tablet, Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman write, “it can be said with confidence that there will be no Israeli military strike on Iran before America’s Election Day this year.” One reason Raviv and Melman cite is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “taste for covert action,” instead of open warfare. Raviv and Melman conclude, “it is far more likely that an American president, either Obama or Romney, will be the one to order attacks aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities after the election.”
Members of Congress: Call Your Pastors and Rabbis
posted on July 13, 2012At The New Republic, Amy Sullivan writes on the roles religious and governmental organizations play in poverty alleviation programs. Citing Mississippi State University historian, Alison Collis Greene’s article here at Religion and Politics, Sullivan notes that religious congregations do not have the funds to provide services at the same level as the federal government. Sullivan writes, “Congregational membership levels are down in almost every religious tradition. And as a result, their resource pools have shrunk,” leading to fewer contributions to social programs administered by church and other religious communities.
Mormonism and the Cult of Name-Calling
posted on July 13, 2012At The Washington Post, D.T. Bell and Ryan Bell, co-founders of Mormon American, analyze how some political pundits have recently used the word “cult” to describe Mormonism. Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast has written, “the question of the cultish qualities of Mormonism [is] worth exploring.” Bell and Bell suggest that what constitutes a cult “is more often a matter of politics than of theology or psychology.” They conclude, “Ultimately, calling a religion a cult is a cowardly act, because the vagueness of the word provides plausible deniability to any who use it.”
German Circumcision Ruling Raises Outcry
posted on July 13, 2012In response to a “controversial court ruling in Cologne that effectively prohibits most circumcisions in that city,” German Jews and Muslims have joined together in protest, reports A.J. Goldmann for The Jewish Daily Forward. Goldmann writes that the court’s decision has resulted in the uncommon union between the two religious communities, as both consider circumcision “a fundamental religious rite for membership in the community.” Serkan Tören, the Free Democratic Party’s integration expert, warns that “a ban on circumcision would be the clearest signal to the Muslims in our country that they aren’t part of Germany, that they aren’t even welcome.”
Read at The Jewish Daily Forward
Melinda Gates Launches Family Planning Summit
posted on July 12, 2012Melinda Gates, the philanthropist and co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is hosting an international summit on family planning this week in London, reports Elizabeth Tenety for The Washington Post. Gates, who attended Catholic schools as a child, hopes to move the discussion regarding reproductive rights beyond the current showdown between the American Catholic bishops and the Obama administration. “There is no controversy in empowering women to decide if and when to have a child,” Gates recently stated.