Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
An Anti-Semite for Congress?
posted on June 15, 2012New York City councilman Charles Barron is set to run in the Democratic primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District on June 26. At Tablet, Michael C. Moynihan writes that Barron “is obsessively hostile to Israel—a country whose founding he rejects as historical crime.” A group of Jewish Democrats gave a press conference in response to Barron’s candidacy. Councilman David Greenfield said, “People are not familiar that there’s an individual who’s running, who we all know very well, who is an anti-Semite, who’s a hate-monger and who’s a bigot.”
Strangers in a Strange Land
posted on June 14, 2012At The New Inquiry, Xarissa Holdaway reflects on her Mormon upbringing and the treatment Romney receives for their shared religion. She writes, “While the GOP would like to define Mitt Romney’s stiff, unemotional aspect as merely the affect of a man with a head for capital and sound fiscal management, the left has done its level best to find some other reason for his weirdness, and they look in the same places that the right did when trying to undermine Barack Obama: his personal story.”
Mark Regnerus’s Gay-Parenting Study Starts a Political War
posted on June 14, 2012The Daily Beast’s David Sessions writes on the controversy over Mark Regnerus’ New Family Structures Study, which “purports to show that those who have parents in same-sex relationships face negative long-term consequences.” While chronicling Regnerus’ background and past work, Sessions outlines the criticisms of the current study, from its suspect methodology to its funding from socially conservative organizations. “He may be wrong and even working with an agenda, but gay-marriage supporters don’t have to paint Regnerus a hateful ideologue to mount convincing critiques of his work,” Sessions writes. “And where science is concerned, they can remain confident: just as before this research was published, there remains no evidence that children in stable gay families will be worse off than others. One slanted study is unlikely to change that.”
Southern Baptists Set to Elect 1st Black President for Convention with Roots in Slavery
posted on June 14, 2012Next week, the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. may become the first African American president of the Southern Baptist Convention when the denomination’s delegates vote in New Orleans , the Associated Press reports. The denomination was founded in 1845 “out of a pre-Civil War split with northern Baptists over slavery and for much of the last century had a reputation for supporting segregation.” According to the article, Luter turned an inner-city church of 50 members into a church with the largest weekly attendance among Southern Baptist congregations in Louisiana.
Christians on Right Urge Reform on Migrants
posted on June 14, 2012The New York Times‘ Trip Gabriel reports that at a Capitol Hill news conference, Focus on the Family’s senior vice president, Tom Minnery, announced that 150 evangelical leaders have endorsed an overhaul of the nation’s immigration policy. Groups like the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Association of Evangelicals are joining with Focus on the Family to, in Minnery’s words, invite illegal immigrants to “come out of the shadows.” Gabriel writes that the evangelicals’ announcement occurs in the context of the presidential election: “The call by the groups represents a recognition that in one bedrock element of the conservative movement—evangelical Christians—the demography of their followers is changing, becoming more Hispanic.”
City Urges Requiring Consent for Jewish Rite
posted on June 14, 2012On Tuesday, health officials in New York City proposed that parents should be required to sign a consent wavier before participating in an Orthodox Jewish circumcision ritual, reports Sharon Otterman at The New York Times. The Centers for Disease Control reported “11 newborn babies in New York contracted the herpes simplex virus after the ritual,” and at least two infants died during the last decade due to complications from the ritual.
North Dakota Primary: State Rejects Property Tax Repeal, Religious Freedom Proposal
posted on June 14, 2012The Huffington Post’s John Celock reports that North Dakota voters rejected a proposal to institute a new religious freedom law during Tuesday’s primary election. The law would have protected “religious groups from government mandates, including contraception insurance requirements.” “Opponents said the wording of the proposal could lead to people being able to say that child abuse, domestic violence, marriage to children and animal abuse were religious practices,” Celock writes. “Proponents dismissed those arguments and also said the measure would not cause Sharia law to be implemented.”
Religious Leaders Ask HHS to Broaden Birth Control Exemption
posted on June 14, 2012A coalition of 149 religious leaders led by conservative Protestants petitioned the Obama administration, urging the expansion of the “exemption that allows churches and some religious organizations to avoid a controversial new mandate that all health care insurers provide free contraception coverage,” David Gibson reports for Religion News Service. The group sent a letter on Monday to Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius arguing the language in the mandate creates a “two-class system” when defining religious organizations.
Human Rights Advocate says Washington Post Distorted Her Views on Islam
posted on June 14, 2012Catholic News Agency’s Benjamin Mann reports that Nina Shea, a commissioner for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), objects to her portrayal in a recent Washington Post article. She claims “the Washington Post presented her as a ‘religious bigot’ by falsely crediting her with an inflammatory statement on Islam.” Post writer Michelle Boorstein reported Monday that Safiya Ghori-Ahmad is suing the USCIRF for alleged discrimination against her because she is a Muslim. Of the article, Shea states, “This is a classic case of yellow journalism. The lawsuit does not quote me writing those words. Those were Ms. Ghori-Ahmad’s words in the complaint characterizing statements that she alleges I wrote.”
Analysis: Dispute with U.S. Nuns Began Decades Ago
posted on June 13, 2012Writing for the Associated Press, Rachel Zoll traces the origins of the current dispute between American Catholic nuns and the Vatican back to the 1960s. Understandably, the Vatican’s recent rebuke of the nuns for allegedly straying from authentic Catholic doctrine has garnered headlines. Yet, Zoll writes, “[Pope] Benedict has been trying to restore Catholic traditions he believes were lost 50 years ago in the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council,” which ushered in a period when “many religious sisters shed their habits and traditional roles as they sought to more fully engage the modern world.”