Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the weeks leading up to national elections have become fraught for American Muslims.

2008 is no different.

In 2006, a movie called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against The West” made the rounds and made American Muslims nervous. “Obsession” was recently distributed to an estimated 28 million people via 70 American newspapers, primarily in states crucial to next month’s presidential election.

In 2006, we reported that “Obsession”,

…was made by Honest Reporting, “a grass - roots movement dedicated to ensuring that Israel receives fair media coverage,” according to its website. Honest Reporting is an arm of Aish HaTorah, an orthodox Jewish education network based in Jerusalem.

Now, the same company is screening its new movie, “The Third Jihad,” in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas and Utah. According to its website, the movie includes interviews with:

Rudy Giuliani, Clinton CIA Director Jim Woolsey, NYC Police Commissioner…

Omaha, Nebraska

Summer, 1993

Humanae Vitae Conference

We gathered in Omaha, that summer of 1993, to celebrate 25 years of Humanae Vitae. There were 1,500 of us from 29 countries, a veritable small village of doctors, historians, nurses, nursing mothers, priests, scientists, nuns, young married couples, single people, bishops, Lutherans, a cardinal, politicians, philosophers, theologians, publishers — even an ex-abortionist.

One evening, after a day of talks and small-group sessions, we were bussed to an off-site auditorium, one large enough to hold us all.

The lights dimmed, the murmuring ceased, and the tall theater curtain parted just enough to reveal 16-year old Gianna Jessen, center-stage, beautiful in a long black velvet gown. And Gianna started to sing.

Gianna, with the voice of an angel, had us in the palm of her hand.

When she was finished, when the thunderous applause was done, the curtain closed.

We never saw her halting steps as she left the stage.

We would not have…

Nancy Pelosi has gotten into hot water for misrepresenting Catholic Church teaching against abortion. Appearing on Meet the Press last Sunday, she said:

“I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time,” she said.

“And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.

And Senator - St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know,” she said…..

In a release issued Monday night, Washington, D.C.,  Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl said Pelosi’s comments on “Meet the Press” on Sunday “were incorrect.”

“We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops. Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for the record.”

He cited…

This week the Democratic party made clear its total support of abortion on demand.

Gone is the “safe, legal and rare” rhetoric of the past few years and in is this:

“The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, clearly ultra liberal on the abortion issue — look at his Senate record — is surely pleased.

Less clear is whether the conflicted electorate will be.

And now, as of three days ago, we have new charges from the National Right to Life organization about candidate Obama’s  abortion obfuscation as well as his well known abortion extremism.

NRL accuses Barack Obama of being a whole lot less than truthful when he defends his opposition — three times as an Illinois state senator — to…

Calling all Civil Religion readers:

Self-described atheist Jack Orchard, St. Louis author of Extra Hands, has written an engrossing account of his battle against Lou Gehrig’s disease — formally amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

I’d first heard about Extra Hands while listening to KFUO-FM last autumn when Jack’s dad, Bob Orchard, introduced the book to the radio audience and described his son’s life and his recent medical travails. (Click onto the Bob Orchard link above and scroll down to Dec. 13, ‘07 to hear the interview.)

As engrossing as Bob’s description was, I did nothing then beyond checking to see if Amazon sold the book and promising myself to look into it.

Then a few weeks ago, a neighbor who knew of my interest gave me a copy. Once I began I couldn’t put the book down.

So I e-mailed Jack to tell him how much I enjoyed his writing — so fluid, insightful, funny and poignant.

Not bad for someone with ALS.…

(1) Pope Benedict XVI has been giving weekly talks on the early Church, including his June 25 discussion of St. Maximus the Confessor. Born in Palestine around 580, Maximus defied an imperial ruling — and incurred punishment — to insist that Jesus was both human and divine.

Maximus should be an example to contemporary Christians, the Pope said, and we, too, must not accept every thought proffered in the modern world:

“Tolerance that does not know how to distinguish between good and evil would become chaotic and self-destructive. Dialogue that does not know what to dialogue about becomes mere empty chatter.”

(2) Mark Shea, columnist for the National Catholic Register, wrote a thoughtful 6/1-7/08 column on Fake Courage, Real Cowardice. You will perhaps recognize the examples he provides, some from TV and some from right around the corner. Here’s an example:

Item: At the kickoff for the 40 Days for Life in Seattle, a number…

I have enjoyed reading the comments that have been made to my last post — Latter-day Saints examine racial history. I especially enjoyed the expressions of faith in the grace of God.

To clarify, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is built on the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe in a restored, not reformed gospel. We believe in living prophets and apostles and our doctrines are derived from an open cannon of continuing revelation from God. Our roots are in Christian teachings, but our doctrine is distinct relative to other Christian traditions because of our open cannon. If there are errors in our practice, those errors are of man.

Our open cannon makes us open for correction or clarifying revelations. It makes our church vibrant and responsive to challenges in our times. We often refer to the church as a “living church”.

We rejoiced in the clarifying revelation in 1978 that extended the…

I fell in love with country music in the late 1970’s, long before I came to North America. I am still in love with the themes, the feelings and the stories in it. Unfortunately, and like everything else in our lives these days, politics got into it, and for some it has become a sloganeering venue. I still listen to country music though, and I simply switch to other stations when I get one of those sloganeering songs.

Several months ago I wrote a post for my personal blog about a song by a Muslim country music singer / songwriter. The music was beautiful, like many of his songs, but also the words were very moving. It got so popular because of the video accompanying it.

The video is based on a selection of the responses from American Muslims as a part of a project on what…

Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s troubles vis a vis Reverend Jeremiah Wright have brought to mind a conversation with a favorite server at Schneithorst Kaffee Haus a couple of years ago. Susan had just read Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life and she was inspired to return to church, but which one.?

“The Lutheran church,” said her mother. “You’re German.”

So there you have it: religion as a means of shoring up one’s cultural identity. Good idea? In the short term, perhaps, but in the long term?

One of the most successful stories is, or was, Anglicanism. English national identity certainly benefited from the break from Roman Catholicism, or so it seemed at first. Now, centuries later, having finally backed off of colonialism and imperialism, Anglican England is far less religious than heretofore — hmmm — and full of “redundant” churches, so many that the weekly magazine CountryLife (March 20, 2008) held a contest to find “churches that…

Here is a short video clip from pastor John Piper that has impacted my life greatly since first hearing this message in 2000. It goes against self-seeking materialism and vain pursuits by challenging us to live radically for the gospel - a Christ-centered life. The message is also found in a book that followed-up on this message. If you want a copy, let me know and I’ll send you one.

Note: I find that if you keep your mouse moving, the video keeps rolling along better.