President Barack Obama delivers remarks on regulatory reform, Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Hey Mom.  Sometimes there’s a reason for falling asleep with the television on.  This morning I was awakened by the voice of Congressman-turned-Talk Show host, Joe Scarborough, sharing the news that White House Press Secretary Joe Gibbs awakened President Obama this morning to inform him that he had won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace.  That’s worth a little extra electricity.

What followed was a little more challenging.  ”Morning Joe” then began to discuss with Mika Brzezinski, Lawrence O’Donnell and Savannah Guthrie his views that the President hadn’t earned the award.  The dialogue mentioned the possibility of the prize being given to put political pressure on the POTUS as he makes decisions about troop levels in Afghanistan.  And early Associated Press reporting suggests the award being given to Obama as a “slap at President George W. Bush…

I have believed for several years now that the core value that most religions (and many ethical systems) share can be articulated in a simple word: compassion.  “Feeling with or sharing the feelings of another” is the pedantic, pedestrian definition.  Another way to say it might be that compassion is the ability to take the imagination and intellect that God gave us and use them to understand what it would be like to walk a mile in another person’s shoes–without having to actually change footwear.

Compassion is more than a feeling, though–it’s one of the few emotions we have, maybe the only one, that requires a certain level of interaction or exchange with another, if only conceptually.  Being able to look outside one’s own perspective, one’s own narrowly-defined self-interest and imagine the suffering or joy or desires of another person and be moved to action: that is compassion.  It’s all about…

The eyes of the world are on President Obama and his Middle East trip.  Many observers, myself included, find it a hopeful sign that he is being so intentional in reaching out to Muslims; it is too much of an understatement to say this is an emphasis that has been lacking in American foreign policy in recent years.  In fact, Obama has an enormous job in front of him if he truly hopes to repair the image of the United States and forge the “new beginning,” that he spoke of in his speech in Cairo today.

The speech, given at Cairo University, covered an impressive range of topics and was notable for its candor about the challenges that face us as a global community.  He did not avoid addressing the differences between the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat posed by Iran, the problem of Israeli settlements in the West Bank,…

Mary Ann Glendon

Mary Ann Glendon, U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican from 2007 to 2009, has just declined Notre Dame University’s prestigious Laetare Medal.  Her letter:

April 27, 2009
The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
University of Notre Dame

Dear Father Jenkins,

When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame’s most memorable commencement speeches. So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.

Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you…

Since President Obama is the world’s most powerful church “seeker” (he still hasn’t found a church home since his split with southside Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ), The New York Times provides an interesting overview of the pastors who now advise the President on pastoral and spiritual matters.

It is an intriguing group. They would all be considered what we would broadly define as evangelicals. But they defy stereotypes. They represent a wide spectrum in political beliefs and could hardly be called politically conservative, even though their theology certainly would be.

They represent what has historically been some of the hallmarks shared between American evangelicalism and the Black church: theologically conservative, politically progressive. By “history,” I mean the same strains of evangelical faith and action that propelled the anti-slavery and women’s enfranchisement movements, not its more recent incarnation in the “religious right.”

As the Times points out, though, they would certainly represent conservative views on…

The Rev. Franklin Graham

The Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told reporters in St. Louis Friday that he was afraid that elements of President Barack Obama’s version of the Faith-Based Initiative, announced by the White House Thursday, would “weaken the entire initiative.”

Graham was speaking specifically about one of the thorniest issues facing Obama’s new faith-based office, renamed the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships: whether the new administration will restrict religious groups that receive government funding from hiring only those who share their faith. During the presidential campaign, Obama said religious groups that receive federal money could not “discriminate…against the people you hire on the basis of their religion.”

At a lunch in downtown St. Louis Friday to announce a Christian rock and hip-hop festival to take place under the Arch this summer, the Post-Dispatch asked Graham about Obama’s version of the faith-based initiative,…

While we’re talking of things inaugural, I found this interesting from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: the religious affiliations of all 44 presidents of the United States.

The list is dominated by Protestants, and of those, Episcopalians and Presbyterians claim the highest numbers. President Obama is listed as a member of the United Church of Christ, but, as we all know, he’s actually currently in between churches.

So, we could put him on a list that includes a whole lot of us, religiously affiliated or not: seeker.

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

“The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.”

These were among the words that most moved me in President Barack Obama’s inaugural address.  His speech was filled with references to sacrifice, duty, and responsibility, and I found that focus extremely hopeful and inspiring.  While some of Obama’s detractors seem to hear in such statements a kind of muffled threat of socialism, I hear instead an echo of the Biblical imperatives to love one another and to care for the least of our brothers and sisters.

The beautiful benediction offered by the Rev. Joseph Lowery ended with the words: “Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen!”  Those are Biblical values, but they are American values as well, and they will serve our new president well as he navigates the many difficult decisions that lie ahead.

We cannot demand of other nations that which we are unwilling to do…

Photo from Episcopal Life, courtesy of HBO

The firestorm in the blogosphere about Bishop Gene Robinson’s invocation at the inaugural kickoff “We are One” concert just won’t quit. The most recent point of contention is why Bishop Robinson’s prayer was not broadcast on HBO–or even heard on NPR for that matter.

The latest news I can get my hands on indicates that the entire concert, including Bishop Robinson’s speech, will be played on those huge outdoor TV screens on Tuesday morning to entertain everyone who gathers in the Washington Mall before the Inauguration ceremony itself. If this is meant as an apology, I have a feeling it’s not going to satisfy anyone. Why invite the man if you’re not going to let him be heard? Could it really be a simple oversight or technical error, given the incredibly high-wattage, celebrity-filled, professionally-produced nature of this event? At the very least it seems to me a…

Photo of Bishop Robinson courtesy of the BBC

I received an email about this and went onto Episcopal Cafe to check it out, where I learned it’s all over the Internet. The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, will give the invocation at the opening event of the Inaugural Week activities on Sunday, January 18, at the Lincoln Memorial. Part of an email reportedly sent out by Bishop Robinson states:

It will be an enormous honor to offer prayers for the country and the new president, standing on the holy ground where the “I have a dream speech” was delivered by Dr. King, surrounded by the inspiring and reconciling words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It is also an indication of the new president’s commitment to being the President of ALL the people. I am humbled and overjoyed at this invitation, and it will be my great honor to be there…

With the election of Barack Obama, and the fact that, despite their vast political differences, faith remained as much a part of his candidacy as it did with our current president’s, some are suggesting that the “religious left” is resurging. An earlier post here by Pamela Dolan hinted at it.

Traditionally understood, we could define the “religious left” as mainline (”white bread”) and African-American Protestants, liberal Catholics, and Reform Jews. That’s an oversimplification but I think that’s how most people would have envisioned the demographic in its mid-twentieth century heyday.

Now the Pew Forum has released its findings on “how the faithful voted.”

I’m struck by the fact that, just like the general populace, this election seems to prefigure an entire shift in religious demographics. Rather than this being simply one dormant religious segment of public life reasserting itself, it is the continuation of subtle shifts in the entire public religious landscape. That might…

Reinhold Niebuhr

This week NPR’s Morning Edition has run back-to-back interviews with Newsweek editor Jon Meacham discussing the memoirs of Barack Obama and John McCain. The idea is to get beyond sound bites and offer an analysis of the major people and events that have shaped the two men, at least according to their own published work.

The fascinating conclusion is that this country’s two major-party presidential candidates have both been strongly influenced by the same theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr.

My initial question is about the way it seems that Niebuhr was seized upon as a hidden, explanatory link between the characters of Obama and McCain. Is this just another example of an almost obsessive fascination with the interplay of politics and religion during this election cycle? Or is something else going on here?

In one sense, there’s nothing surprising about finding references to Reinhold Niebuhr in the writings of both candidates. Niebuhr is generally regarded as one…

“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”
~Audrey Hepburn~

This election season has given rise to language that has been especially vitriol. And I am not taking about the conversation between the candidates, but between groups of neighbors, colleagues, church members, friends, family and acquaintances.

The presidential candidates during the most recent debate noted the heated climate, each candidate arguing whether their leadership in their respective parties has been enough to bring about civil dialogue amongst their supporters. 

Yesterday, while eating my bagel at The St. Louis Bread Company, I overheard the conversation between two men. I won’t say who they are supporting for U.S president — that is beside the point I am making here –  but they called those who were against their chosen candidate racist and hate mongers. Since the country is nearly divided on the issues and presidential candidates, I wondered if these men realized that they just wrote-off…

Photo courtesy of the Daily Yonder

When I was growing up I thought that all Irish Americans were Catholic and that all Irish Catholics were, as my father liked to call us, “good solid Democrats.”  Then, around the time I was in middle school, something strange happened.  My grandparents, who absolutely idolized JFK, RFK, and all things Kennedy, voted for Ronald Reagan.

It turns out that they were part of a trend, and that (as everyone knows) in the years since the Reagan Revolution the Catholic vote has turned steadily Republican, as churchgoing Catholics have become allied with Evangelicals and other more conservative Protestants to become a bloc known as “Values Voters.”  There has been much talk this election cycle about whether Values Voters are going to remain a cohesive group, or split into factions, or even swing Democrat.  The polling has been, at best, equivocal and unconvincing.  We hear about “emerging”…

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.”

…

Shirt picture courtesy of ObamaArtReport.com

I was intrigued by Anthony Bradley’s recent post “The Obama/McCain Messiah Complex.” A couple of things jumped out at me.  First, as with any broad-brush characterization, there’s clearly a mix of truth and generalities; the generalities wouldn’t stick without the hint of truth beneath them.  I’m thinking of how the late-night comedy hosts have had a good bit of fun with the “Messiah complex” that other people seem to have about Barack Obama, and it has indeed been funny.  Some of his followers (oops, I mean “supporters”) really do sound like they think he’s the Second Coming, and a little perspective is definitely in order.

But is there that much evidence that the candidates themselves have swallowed their own PR?  In my estimation, neither one appears to me to be a man who thinks that being the President of the United States is going to be an easy…

Senator Barack Obama (AP photo)

I was on the website for Sojourners magazine when I saw this article about an effigy of Barack Obama having been found hanging from a tree at George Fox University. The story has also been covered by The Oregonian and other news outlets.

Maybe it doesn’t matter that it happened at a Christian university, since we don’t know and might never know who did it. Maybe it was students there, maybe it was outsiders trying to stir up a ruckus. (*See note below.)

But surely the choice of an avowedly Christian campus as the setting for this despicable stunt was intentional, if only to add to the shock value.

I’ve already seen some comments that suggest this is no big deal, that people really need to chill out and recognize that there’s a big difference between hanging a cardboard cutout from a tree and harming a real live human being. But…

W-a-y back in 1993, when I was writing monthly Post-Dispatch op/eds at the invitation of Donna Korando, I started gathering material on anti-Catholicism. It wasn’t difficult, anti-Catholic bigotry was everywhere from Tony Alamo’s crude Chick comics to “soft” bigotry, thoughtless bigotry.

I was looking for soft bigotry and I knew something would drop into my lap. Within two days it did. One of my favorite Wall Street Journal columnists wrote about computers and for some reason threw in a snide comment about papal encyclicals.

So I phoned him.

He was on vacation, but was intrigued by my recorded message, so returned the call. We chatted pleasantly and I told him I was going to write about soft bigotry and then asked him if he had read the encyclical he had mentioned in his column. He hadn’t.

I asked him what encyclicals he had read. He said he hadn’t read any.

Then, out of the blue, he threatened me.

I took…

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…