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So I’m out here in beautiful Denver covering the Democratic Convention (I also came for my sister-in-law’s awesome naturalization ceremony last week!) and it’s been a blast. The spectacle is amazing, the crowds are enthusiastic, the alcohol is flowing (even in the morning!), the protesters are fun to watch. It’s everything I could have hoped for in a convention.
Give credit to Ben Smith and Jeffrey Resner of The Politico. The reporters unearthed a 1990 Harvard Law Review article written by none other than its president, Barack Obama. The story provides an interesting early glimpse into Obama’s thinking about abortion and fetal rights, as the authors explain:
The “God gap” has to be one of the biggest religion stories of the year. It seems we can’t go more than a few days without an additional story about Democratic outreach efforts to religious voters.
One of the things that annoys me about journalists’ lack of institutional memory is the way religious activism in politics is constantly being rediscovered. Over and over. Year after year.
With the real estate on airwaves and newsprint getting harder to come by, most religion stories that get published or broadcast deal with politics or major social drama. But some of my favorite stories are the slice-of-life depictions of congregational life. Unlike the impression you may get from the media, it isn’t all about fighting over doctrinal issues . . . there are other fights, too!
Yesterday I noted the importance of the abortion issue to evangelicals at the Saddleback Forum. It’s also important to Catholics and other religious advocates of pro-life policies — not that you have to be religious to be pro-life, of course.
I do not know where I will be when the actual Saddleback shindig takes place tonight (I am on the road), but here’s a few of the latest details about what is supposed to unfold — via the Los Angeles Times (naturally). Click here for a Times blog item with lots of other gossip and stuff, in the hours before the forum.
Another Lambeth Conference has come and gone and, as you may have noticed, there wasn’t much happening in the way of news. That is, of course, the real news. The archbishop of Canterbury and his staff managed to hold a global meeting of most of the Anglican bishops without anything really bad happening in front of the mainstream press.
