Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Covering Up
posted on June 27, 2012At Foreign Policy, Ahmed Al Omran criticizes Morah al-Faiz, Saudi Arabia’s highest-ranking female official, for being inconsistent on her whether or not she wears a niqab, “a black covering that hides the face except for a small slit for the eyes.” Despite claiming that she wears a niqab, photos show her at times only wearing a headscarf, like when she met the Saudi Ambassador to the United States or Britain’s Undersecretary of State. “The problem is that she is doing one thing and telling a mass audience the other,” Omran writes, “leaving Saudis to guess at the reasons for her sartorial choices.”
Not a Real Christian!
posted on June 27, 2012At Washington Monthly, Ed Kilgore examines a pair of Gallup polls, which found that “44% of Americans say they don’t know the president’s religion” and that 33% don’t know Romney’s religion. When looking at how Republicans responded to questions about Obama, he writes,“[T]he percentage who says they’re not certain rises to 47%, with less than a fourth identifying Obama as a ‘Christian’ or ‘Protestant,’ not that much more than the 18% who say he’s Muslim.” Reflecting on the polls’ implications, he suggests “that future presidential candidates who aren’t identified with conservative brands of Christianity are assumed to have no religion or some other religion.”
Israel Was ‘Key’ Issue in Caterpillar Dump
posted on June 27, 2012MSCI, a corporate rating agency, dropped Caterpillar Inc. from a list of “socially responsible companies” in February, reports Naomi Zeveloff for The Jewish Daily Forward. The decision stems from the “the Israeli army’s use of Caterpillar Inc. bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes.”
Sandusky’s Pastor Addresses Conviction from Pulpit
posted on June 27, 2012The Sunday after Jerry Sandusky’s conviction on child abuse charges, his pastor Ed Zeiders spoke to his congregation about the case, CNN’s Dana Garrett reports. He called on his congregation to “pray for all of those who are victims and for all of those who are predators.” Garrett writes that Zeiders “has maintained his pastoral relationship with the Sanduskys throughout the trial, and that he was in the courtroom last Monday when the defense began its case.”
BJU Alumni form Gay Support Group for Students
posted on June 27, 2012David Diachenko, a Bob Jones University graduate and former faculty member, recently created an organization to support the LGBT community at the university. The group, called BJUnity, marched in the gay pride parade in New York City last weekend “for the visibility it provides for a group that’s just getting off the ground.” In response to the creation of the organization, the university released a statement saying, “Since the Scripture says clearly that homosexuality is a sin, BJU policies forbid homosexuality,” while at the same time recognizing the group’s right to exist.
Wisconsin Catholic Bishop Contradicts USCCB to Support Paul Ryan
posted on June 27, 2012Faith In Public Life’s Nick Sementelli writes that Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, once again praised Rep. Paul Ryan, despite the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ criticism of the congressman. In an interview, Morlino applauded Ryan for his “prudential judgment about how best to serve the long-term needs of the poor.” Sementelli argues that Ryan is “the GOP Congressman beleaguered by persistent Catholic criticism of his radical budget proposal and his poor theological justifications for it.”
At War with America
posted on June 27, 2012In The Los Angeles Times, Michael Carey reports on the Alaska Peacemaker Militia, a paramilitary group led by Schaeffer Cox, a Baptist minister’s son. Recently, he and two cohorts were convicted of illegal possession of firearms and conspiracy to kill federal agents. During his defense, Cox “cited Mohandas Gandhi, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela as role models.” Carey concludes, “It takes a toxic diet of anger, frustration, ideology, belief and denial to do what the Alaska Peacemaker Militia did.”
Supreme Court Strengthens Citizens United Decision with Montana Ruling
posted on June 26, 2012The Los Angeles Times’ Matea Gold reports on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling against a Montana law that barred corporations from making “independent political expenditures,” reaffirming the 2010 Citizens United decision. In the dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, “Montana’s experience … casts grave doubts on the Court’s supposition that independent expenditures do not corrupt or appear to do so.” Here at Religion and Politics, Diana Eck reviews the history of Montana, her home state, and its struggle with corporate money and power in politics.
Supreme Court Allows Immigration Checks
posted on June 26, 2012The Wall Street Journal’s Jess Bravin reports on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday on Arizona’s controversial immigration law. The court struck down the section of the law that “made it a crime for illegal immigrants to seek work and that authorized warrantless arrests of people suspected by state and local police of committing deportable offenses.” But the ruling also upheld “the law’s directive that state and local police check the immigration status of people they stop when they suspect them of lacking authorization to be in the U.S.”
Read at The Wall Street Journal
Egypt’s New President Morsi Moves into Mubarak’s Old Office, Starts Work on Forming Government
posted on June 26, 2012On Monday, Mohammed Morsi, recently elected as the first Islamist president of Egypt, moved into his new office. The Associated Press reports that he “started work on forming a government even before he had a clear picture of what he could do after the ruling military stripped most of the major powers from his post,” and “[n]ow he faces a daunting struggle for power.”