Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Wedding Bells
posted on May 15, 2012In The New Yorker, Margaret Talbot juxtaposes the current debate on same-sex marriage with the debates in the 1960s and 1970s against interracial marriage, showing how the national fervor over the two issues is strikingly similar. By appealing to data on younger citizens’ views, Talbot argues that “marriage equality is a historical inevitability,” because “the divide is a matter not of life stages but of generations.” Looking to the past, Talbot sees how “one day, not long from now, it will be hard to remember what worried people so much about gay and lesbian couples committing themselves to marriage.”
After Obama’s Decision on Marriage, a Call to Pastors
posted on May 15, 2012At The New York Times, Peter Baker and Rachel J. Swarns report that within hours of announcing his support for same-sex marriage, “the president and his team embarked on a quiet campaign to contain the possible damage among religious leaders and voters.” They set up a call with African-American ministers and Obama had prayer sessions and conversations with the pastors he regularly depends on for spiritual guidance.
The Constitution Doesn’t Settle the Marriage Debate
posted on May 15, 2012Princeton’s Robert P. George recently gave an oral argument in one of the cases debating the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Cozen O’Connor, P.C. v. Tobits. First Things reprints George’s argument, in which he says it is the people and their elected representatives, not the courts or Constitution, who must decide the issue. He concludes: “It is up to the democratic process, not the courts purporting to act in the name of the Constitution, to make the moral judgment that marriage should be retained as a conjugal partnership, or to make the competing moral judgments that would redefine marriage, whether to accommodate polygamous, polyamorous, or same sex partnerships.”
No More “Enemy Turf”
posted on May 15, 2012Not accepting defeat, politicians today are no longer ceding voting groups because they belong to “enemy turf,” according to Ed Kilgore, writing for Washington Monthly. “Reducing the margin of defeat on ‘hostile ground’ is often achievable simply by paying attention and not willfully repelling voters,” he writes, while also reminding Democrats they can court religious and military voters. When it comes to elections, “a vote’s a vote whether it comes from a segment of the electorate that progressives are ‘winning’ or ‘losing’.”
Inside Turkey’s Secretive, Islamic Gulen School Movement
posted on May 15, 2012At The Atlantic, Justin Vela writes about Turkey’s Gulen movement, “founded by a charismatic Islamic theologian, Fetullah Gülen.” Vela focuses on the movement’s global network of schools, which aim … to create a ‘golden generation’ of educated Muslims.”
Priest to Profit: How the Mormon Church Teaches Priesthood Holders to Lead
posted on May 15, 2012In The Washington Post, Matthew Bowman breaks down the Mormon priesthood structure to show how “it is dedicated simultaneously to ecclesiastical authority and also to democratic expression of that authority.” By teaching Mormon youths to “both respect authority and to value democratic participation in leadership,” the Mormon priesthood trains future leaders.
Critics of Sharia Law Push Michigan Foreign Laws Bill
posted on May 15, 2012In Michigan, advocates are pushing bills to outlaw foreign laws, which ostensibly are meant to forbid the implementation of Sharia Law in the state. “Several groups have expressed concern,” according to the Associated Press, “including the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter, and Arab social and civil rights organizations in the Detroit area, which has one of the largest and oldest continuous populations of Arabs and Muslims in the country.”
Andrew Sullivan on Barack Obama: The First Gay President
posted on May 14, 2012In Newsweek’s latest cover story, Andrew Sullivan tackles Obama’s same-sex marriage decision, arguing that Obama’s experience as a biracial man growing up in a white family mirrors that of many in the LGBT community. Sullivan also writes of his own reaction to Obama’s announcement: “But I didn’t expect it. Like many others, I braced myself for disappointment. And yet when I watched the interview, the tears came flooding down. … To have the president of the United States affirm my humanity—and the humanity of all gay Americans—was, unexpectedly, a watershed. He shifted the mainstream in one interview.”
Unions that Divide: Churches Split over Gay Marriage
posted on May 14, 2012Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times writes on the varied reactions of churches on Obama’s support for marriage equality. She notes it’s complicated, as there are churches and ministers within the same denomination who disagree, with some supporting gay marriage, and others opposing. “[I]n the clash over homosexuality, the battle lines do not simply pit ministers against secular advocates for gay rights,” she writes. “Religion is on both sides in this conflict.”
Evangelicals Unhappy with GOP’s Gay Marriage Strategy
posted on May 14, 2012Pema Levy of Talking Points Memo reports that evangelicals and social conservatives want Republicans to “to make the fight against same-sex marriage an election-year priority,” but “the GOP establishment is resisting.”