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Links on R&P from around the web
Romney’s Veep Nominee: Would a Mormon-Catholic Ticket Turn Blue States Red?
posted on June 29, 2012At The Washington Post, Paul Goldman and Mark J. Rozell analyze the importance of Catholic voters in the upcoming presidential election. While noting that many of the potential Republican vice-president candidates are Catholic, Goldman and Rozell write, “Catholics are about one-fourth of the U.S. voting population and not a monolith.” Nonetheless, “forging a closer identity with Catholic voters in key states in the electoral college is a necessary formula for having any chance at defeating the president.”
UVA Board Unanimously Reinstates Teresa Sullivan as President
posted on June 28, 2012After being ousted from the post two weeks ago, Teresa Sullivan has been reinstated as the president of University of Virginia, Jenna Johnson, Anita Kumar and Daniel de Vise report for The Washington Post. On Tuesday, the University of Virginia governing board voted unanimously to reinstate Sullivan, who reportedly had been forced to resign over fears that she “was moving too slowly to address fiscal and academic challenges.” According to Johnson, Kumar and de Vise, “Thomas Jefferson’s university has lost wealthy donors, one Board of Visitors member and at least one star professor, computer scientist William Wulf, during the leadership crisis.”
Lightning Rod Sarsour Joins Ridge Community Board
posted on June 28, 2012Brooklyn Daily’s Will Bredderman reports that controversial Arab-American activist, Linda Sarsour, was recently appointed to a neighborhood advisory board in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Bredderman writes that Sarsour is “an outspoken critic of Israel whose relatives have been arrested for supporting the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas—which calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.” Sarsour’s appointment to the community board has not sat well with some Bay Bridge Jewish leaders. For her part, “Sarsour says she has no personal ties to Islamic fundamentalists or radical Muslim groups,” writes Bredderman.
Traditionalist Catholics Calls Vatican Offer ‘Clearly Unacceptable’
posted on June 28, 2012The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), a “breakaway traditionalist Catholic group,” rejected a recent attempt by the Vatican to reconcile the organization with Rome, Alessandro Speciale reports for Religion News Service. A recently leaked letter indicates that Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of SSPX, refused to sign the Vatican’s doctrinal document that “was supposed to lay the foundation for the group’s reconciliation with Rome.” Speciale writes that the doctrinal differences stem from SSPX rejecting “the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), including church acceptance of ecumenism and religious freedom, and its rejection of anti-Semitism.”
21 Charts That Explain American Values Today
posted on June 28, 2012At The Atlantic, Bob Cohn breaks down the results of The Atlantic/Aspen Institute American Values Survey. While the majority of “Americans say they are more tolerant and open-minded than their parents,” Cohn writes that the study also found that “69 percent believe the country’s values have deteriorated since the 1970s, and nearly half say values will further weaken over the next 10 years.”
Road Tripping Nuns Hit Middle America
posted on June 28, 2012After being publicly reprimanded by the Vatican for allowing “radical feminist themes” to circulate in their ranks, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious have embarked on a multi-state bus tour to highlight their social justice work, CNN’s Ted Rowlands reports. At a stop in Wisconsin, the nuns also lobbied against Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which would drastically reduce funding for social programs. According to Sister Simone Campbell, “Most of the programs that Congressman Ryan is proposing to cut in the House budget are the ones that are the most effective: Head Start, food stamps, all the really important budget items that work.”
New $1 Million ‘Jewish Nobel Prize’ Established
posted on June 28, 2012On Tuesday, the Genesis Philanthropy Group announced the establishment of the Genesis Prize, which will “be awarded to Jews who win global recognition for their professional achievements, including in the world of science and the arts,” JTA reports. Israel’s prime minister will award the so-called “Jewish Nobel Prize” annually at a ceremony to be held near Passover. Stan Polovets, Genesis’ CEO and co-founder, hopes the award will inspire young Jews to embrace “the idea of belonging to the Jewish People and strengthening their sense of Jewish identity.”
Mohamed Morsi to Pick Woman and Christian as Egypt’s Vice-Presidents
posted on June 28, 2012The Guardian’s Abdel-Rahman Hussein reports that the newly elected Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, will choose a woman and a Coptic Christian as his first appointees. The unnamed pair will serve as Egypt’s vice-presidents. According to Hussein, the move may be an attempt “to calm fears of what an Islamist president might mean for Egypt and the region at large … [and] an attempt at a show of unity, and a rule by consensus.”
Romney: “A Life Balanced between Fear and Greed”?
posted on June 28, 2012At Religion Dispatches, Joanna Brooks juxtaposes how the American media portrays Romney’s business record and his religion. With regards to Romney’s history in business, Brooks notes that the “stories seem to consolidate a picture of Romney as a man whose core motivations center around performing well for the institutional powers that underwrite his success and status.” But these stories don’t incorporate Romney’s Mormon faith into their analysis. Brooks asks, “Why does religion play an outsized role in the politics of gay marriage and contraception but apparently has no say when it comes to big-ticket items like national spending and economic policy?”
High Court Won’t Take Up San Diego Cross Dispute
posted on June 27, 2012The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case on whether or not “a 29-foot war memorial cross can remain on public land,” the Associated Press’ Mark Sherman and Julie Watson report. The appeals court ruled the San Diego cross is “an unconstitutional mixing of government and religion.” Allyson Ho, lead counsel for the defendants of the cross, said, “[W]e are hopeful we can find a solution that will allow this veterans memorial to remain where it has stood for over half a century.”