Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
The War Against Women, Take Two
posted on May 11, 2012In the May/June issue of Moment magazine, columnist Letty Cottin Pogrebin writes about her unplanned pregnancy in 1959 at the age of 19, when she contemplated suicide rather than carry the baby to term. Ultimately, she chose to have an abortion, illegal at the time. She writes, “Memories of that terrible time have returned during this election season,” along with “recent efforts to impose government control over women’s health and reproductive decisions.”
President Obama Endorses Same-Sex Marriage, Religious Leaders Respond
posted on May 11, 2012Daniel Burke of Religion News Service provides a Storify list of responses from religious leaders in light of President Obama’s same-sex marriage endorsement, in which he cited his Christian faith.
Mitt Romney’s Prep School Classmates Recall Pranks, But Also Troubling Incidents
posted on May 11, 2012In Thursday’s much-talked about article, The Washington Post’s Jason Horowitz documented Romney’s teenage years at the Cranbrook School, including an incident when Romney allegedly bullied a classmate who was gay. “In a subsequent interview Thursday morning with Fox News Channel, Romney said he didn’t remember the incident but apologized for pranks he helped orchestrate that he said ‘might have gone too far,’” Horowitz writes. Post editors are also conducting a reader poll, asking, “Is Mitt Romney’s high school bio relevant to his 2012 campaign?”
Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal
posted on May 10, 2012Yesterday afternoon, during an interview with ABC News, President Obama declared, “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” The announcement came the day after North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment defining marriage “as between one man and one woman.” The President explained that he had reached this decision in large measure because of the teachings of his Christian faith. “The thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the golden rule—you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated,” he said. “And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids, and that’s what motivates me as president.”
Wycliffe Responds to Criticism of Bible Translations for Muslim Readers
posted on May 10, 2012Wycliffe Bible translators has responded to criticism of its Bible translation intended for Muslim readers by asking the World Evangelical Alliance to evaluate the translation for theological accuracy. According to Wycliffe president and CEO Bob Creson, the impetus for the investigation arises from the potentially misleading characterization of central Biblical events, including the Immaculate Conception, and even the concept of the Christian God. As Creson explains, “There is sometimes a misunderstanding [in Islamic culture] when you translate directly or use common terms [such as] ‘Son of God’ that God the Father actually had a sexual relationship with Mary to produce his Son, Jesus.”
Mormons Buy Property at Site of Missouri Massacre
posted on May 10, 2012Salt Lake Tribune’s Peggy Fletcher Stack reports that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has recently purchased the property at the site of the Haun’s Mill Massacre, where an anti-Mormon mob killed sixteen early converts to Joseph Smith Jr.’s young religious movement. The seller of this property is the second-largest church of the Mormon movement, the Community of Christ.
Decade-Long Fight Over Mojave Cross Ends With Land Swap
posted on May 10, 2012Out in the Mojave desert there is a small, white cross that has stood at the center of controversy for the last decade. Now a tentative land-swap agreement will end the legal, and political, fight. Erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), the World War I memorial cross is situated on public lands, namely the Mojave National Preserve, to the consternation of some separation of church and state advocates. Christianity Today’s Morgan Feddes reports that “the plan gives the acre of land where the cross has been located to two veterans’ groups in exchange for five acres of private property in the Mojave National Preserve.”
AP-GfK Poll: Afghan War Support Drops to New Low
posted on May 10, 2012A new poll released Wednesday shows that Americans support for the war in Afghanistan is at an all-time low. AP-GfK poll indicates that “only 27 percent of Americans say they back the war effort, and 66 percent oppose the war.”
Hamilton Has Superb Game, Green’s Was Better
posted on May 10, 2012At Tablet, Marc Tracy reminds those baseball fans jumping on the Josh Hamilton band-wagon to not get ahead of themselves. Hamilton’s four homerun game on Wednesday night was spectacular. But the most productive offensive baseball performance of all-time? Nope. That accolade still belongs to the greatest Jewish ballplayer of recent memory, Shawn Green, who “almost exactly a decade ago—May 23, 2002—when the then-Los Angeles Dodger went six-for-six with four homers, a double, and a single: 19 total bases.” That’s one more than Hamilton’s 18. But who’s counting.
Obama’s Gay Marriage Support Riles Religious Conservatives
posted on May 10, 2012CNN’s Belief Blog editor, Dan Gilgoff, writes that while Obama has answered definitively whether he supports same-sex marriage, the president’s decision to go public with his evolved position raises more political questions than it answers about which party will benefit come November from this news. Gilgoff writes that the announcement “outraged conservative Christian leaders, who vowed to use it as an organizing tool in the 2012 elections, but the move is also activating the liberal base.”