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There is great power in prayer. It can change the hearts of people. Over time it can bring monumental changes in society. Two events in recent history testify to this enormous power of prayer. The prayers of Mahatma Gandhi to rid the Indian subcontinent of the scourge of colonialism were answered. So were the prayers of Nelson Mandela to bring a peaceful end to Apartheid in South Africa. So we don’t have to even look very far back in history to realize the powerful effect of prayer. It may take time, half a generation or a bit more, but prayer can bring change. Not so with abortion in this country.

One important thing is the prayers have to be sincere and the person’s life should reflect the change they are seeking. Gandhi ji said: “Be the revolution you seek to see in the world”. That is, start practicing what you are…

President Barack Obama (Getty)

The Rev. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame (Notre Dame)

Dozens of St. Louis Catholics will travel in a convoy of buses, cars and vans to South Bend, Ind. on May 16 to take part in campus protests against University of Notre Dame officials’ decision to award President Barack Obama - who supports abortion rights - with an honorary degree.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that since the first century…

…the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.

For some American Catholics, the idea that the nation’s premier Catholic institution of higher learning will honor a politician who has supported legislation “contrary to the moral law,” is infuriating.

“The minute I heard about this, I knew I had to…

http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html

This question was posed on a blog a few months ago with the following note:blight n. - Something that impairs growth, withers hopes and ambitions, or impedes progress and prosperity.
The question is simple - to paraphrase Bertrand Russell, is religion the dragon that needs slaying in order to facilitate the societal progress that will benefit all of humanity?

As support for this question, the blogger cited a study from a few years ago. The Study in the Journal of Religion and Society has a very academic sounding title “Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies”. It compares a variety of social factors with the level of church attendance and belief in God across most western democracies. Figure 8 above is from this article. What the study finds is disturbing. Here are excerpts from the study.

Benjamin Franklin stated that “religion will be a powerful…

Barry Blitt, for The New York Times

Martin Marty, frequent commenter on things publicly religious, wrote this week of “the decline of the culture wars.” His Sightings column was citing Frank Rich’s New York Times op-ed on the same subject.

This isn’t the first time people have tried to bring a stalemate to the “culture wars.” But I was reminded of the subject at President Obama’s press conference this week, in an exchange between President Obama and John Ward of the Washington Times. Ward asked the President about stem-cell research (from the Washington Post transcript):

QUESTION: In your remarks on stem cell research earlier this month, you talked about a majority consensus in determining whether or not this is the right thing to do, to federally fund embryonic stem cell research.

I’m just wondering, though, how much you personally wrestled with the morality or ethics of federally funding this kind of research, especially given the fact that science…

Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has issued a statement rebuking Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, for a video Terry presented Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington.

The video is of an interview [part 1 & part 2] Terry conducted with Burke, now the head of the Vatican’s supreme court, earlier this month in Rome during which the archbishop said that President Barack Obama’s concept of hope was “very disturbing.” But in his statement today, Burke didn’t apologize for his remarks about American politics. Instead, he apologized to his brother bishops.

Michael Sean Winters of America magazine was at the press conference with Terry Wednesday. He writes that Burke’s failure to defend his brother bishops during the interview in the face of Terry’s, Burke “was the Vatican equivalent of throwing them under the bus.”

Here is the text of Burke’s statement:

ROME, Italy - In response to the…

http://blog.wired.com/photos

One of my favorite sayings if from the Book of James. Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by my deeds. What it means to me is that there is a religion that we profess and there is a religion that we practice. Too often the two are not the same.

The contradiction between the strong belief and getting an abortion (in some cases it is the father who is strong anti-abortion but getting an abortion for his daughter. Also 4 out of 5 abortions are performed on unmarried women, which seems to place a large responsibility on the absent male partner contributing to the decision) is hardly surprising. Most of us exhibit small and greater contradictions between what we believe and our actions. Still the study by Joyce Arthur “The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion” makes for illuminating read. Here are a couple of…

A friend sent this along - a commercial that has been playing on some outlets on Black Entertainment Television:

Boston Legal, courtesy of ABC.

Given my crushing pessimism about how the topic of abortion is handled in public discourse, one of the last places I have ever considered looking for ambiguity and complexity turned out to be a surprising source of both: a network TV drama. Boston Legal to be exact. I recently watched an episode that ran two weeks ago (on Nov. 10); it focused on issues surrounding abortion, including parental notification laws and loopholes, how we talk about abortion in public and think about it in private, and even what a turnoff the subject matter was likely to be to viewers. I was impressed.

If you’re not a fan of this very quirky show, I’m not necessarily suggesting you rush to the ABC website and watch it. But if you happened to miss it, and you like your TV dramedy with a certain Hollywood-style social conscience and a dash of…

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, applauds during the conference's semi-annual meeting Monday, Nov. 10, 2008 in Baltimore. (AP Photo/ Steve Ruark)

The nation’s Catholic bishops released their statement on their concerns about abortion under a Democratic White House U.S. and Congress.

The statement was written by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago after intense private and public sessions with 270 bishops Tuesday at the group’s annual fall meeting in Baltimore.

Much of the statement, dated Wednesday, focuses on the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation that would make the abortion protections created by Roe v. Wade into federal law. Opponents say that act would overturn some abortion restrictions allowed by the court under Roe.

President-elect Barack Obama said on the campaign trail that he would sign FOCA if elected. George said Tuesday that there had been “discussions around” a meeting between the bishops and Obama.

George’s statement reads, in part:

In the last…

credit: Life Issues Institute

My Lutheran dermatologist greeted me warmly last week:”How’s the blog going?” he asked.  I told him how enjoyable it is and how much I am learning about other religions.

He wanted to talk about politics, religious belief and abortion. He told me about the immense number of patients he used to see during his med school days, women patients who were using abortion as birth control. “This month I’m pregnant again” was a phrase he heard too often.

And he told me about his wife being given an extra test during “our second pregnancy”. When the test result came in, his wife told the ob/gyn that he needn’t give any additional tests: “Whatever the results are, I won’t be having an abortion,” she said.

According to my dermatologist, the specialist “went ballistic.”

What a world we live in.

Cardinal Edward Egan, the Roman Catholic cardinal of New York, must be thinking the…

http://www.thoughttheater.com/upload/2006/07

Abortion is an issue that continues to deeply divide our nation.

To give a bit of the Islamic perspective on abortion today in many Muslim nations abortion laws are more restrictive than what the religion allows, although things are changing. Over 800 years ago a number of Muslim Scholars gave legal positions that abortion is undesirable but permissible within the first 120 days of pregnancy. After 120 days the only reason a abortion should be allowed is if continuing the pregnancy would endanger the mother’s life.

Personally, when I learn’t of these legal positions, what I found most remarkable was that they were reached over 800 years ago! It seems to me that, Abortion is always a bad choice and it has been a choice for over 800 years (otherwise why did they come up with those opinions then) and, legal or not, it will always be a choice.

The founding fathers of our…

Here is a must-read article by Princeton University professor Robert George.

This is how it opens:

“Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States.  He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate.  Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.

Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals—even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals—who aggressively promote Obama’s candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.

What is going on here?

I have examined the arguments advanced by Obama’s self-identified pro-life supporters, and they are spectacularly weak.  It is nearly unfathomable to me that those advancing them can honestly believe what they are saying.  But before proving my claims about Obama’s abortion extremism, let me explain why I have described Obama as “pro-abortion” rather than “pro-choice.”

…

Christianity Today has a side-by-side comparison of the Republican National Convention platform (draft version at this point) and Democratic National Convention platform, specifically on issues like abortion, faith-based programs, family and marriage, religious liberty, etc. 

You can find it here.

The full DNC platform is here.

The full RNC platform (draft, August 25) is here.

In comparing them, there certainly is a difference between the two.

If you didn’t have a chance to watch the two-hour Saddleback Church/Rick Warren questioning of presidential candidates Obama and McCain, you can find the transcript here.

The chattering class had plenty to say about the evening, including the following:

McCain and Obama Face Questions About Faith - Associated Press

McCain Shines at Saddleback Forum - Michael Gerson, Washington Post

The Importance of Saddleback Church - Alan Wolfe, The New Republic

McCain, Obama at Saddleback Church - Carrie Budoff Brown, The Politico

John McCain, Barack Obama Display Abortion Divide at Evangelical Forum : LifeSite News

Are We Now Officially a Christian Nation? - Joan Walsh, Salon

McCain’s Back in the Saddleback - Chuck Todd, NBC News

McCain’s Depth & Experience Stood Out - Byron York, National Review

Obama’s Purpose-Driven Gamble - Mike Madden, Salon

Kristol: Showdown at Saddleback

Sullivan: McCain’s ‘Cross’ Story 

Podhoretz: Obama on Thomas 

Of special note are a couple of claims:

The New York Times reports that McCain was traveling by car to the broadcast and could easily have heard…

There are religion blogs and then there are religion blogs.

The Civil Religion blog is civil, the writing is good and the posts are frequent.

(1) When we were discussing the set-up of this blog, religion reporter Tim Townsend suggested we look at the Washington Post religion blog, On Faith, to see what a religion blog looks like. I found it confusingly laid out and not appealing and said so to Tim. Today I have another reason to stay away. Look at this from the Dallas Morning News blog:

“Sally Quinn, the Washington socialite and journalist, attended Tim Russert’s funeral.

Russert was Catholic. Quinn isn’t. In fact, as far as I can tell, she isn’t demonstrably religious at all, despite being one of the founders of the On Faith blog published by Newsweek and The Washington Post.

She decided to receive Communion at Russert’s funeral Mass.

In some churches, this would be no big deal. In the Catholic Church,…

The Ethical Society, and our national federation, the American Ethical Union, has long supported abortion as being an often difficult but spiritual and ethical choice. Our highest value is the worth and dignity of every person, and since pregnant women are clearly people, while pregnancies are not clearly people (witness all the arguments and differences of opinion on when human life begins), our official stance (individual members, of course, have freedom of opinion) is that to force a woman against her will to carry a pregnancy she does not want threatens her physical, psychological, and spiritual health, and therefore it violates rather than affirms her worth and dignity.

The Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is an organization that brings together representative voices for the millions of clergy and lay people from every major religion and denomination (and many minor ones) who support women’s and men’s sexual health and reproductive rights. MoRCRC’s…