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In a Web-only interview with the Rev. Joel Hunter (pictured), Newsweek‘s Eve Conant introduces a new 44-page study, “Come Let Us Reason Together,” that tries to define common ground for evangelicals and progressives. Such projects are not new. Perhaps the best-known previous effort was called the Common Ground Network for Life and Choice.
Here is a story with legs, in red pews and zip codes. And, while this little piece ends with the magic words “The Associated Press contributed to this report,” I cannot find any other references to it in Google News. Honestly, I wonder why. Yes, I realize that this is probably written straight off a press released from a U.S. congressman’s office.
As interesting as celebrity scandals are, celebrity mea culpas are close behind. After Patrick Kennedy, Mel Gibson, Mark Foley and Ted Haggard ran off to rehab as part of their public repentance (and I’m sure at least two of them legitimately needed it), some began to wonder if we’d ever see an apology not tied to a substance abuse claim.
For those who closely watch the state of religion and American politics, there is going to be a fascinating press briefing this week at (surprise) the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. There has been some early coverage (click here for a Washington Times report), but we will not know the fine details until the end of the week.
In the latest Time, Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy provide an informative and lively report on the media-averse Council for National Policy and its threat to go all Ross Perot on the Republican Party if it dares to nominate the pro-choice (but also pro-constructionist) Rudy Giuliani.
Every time President Bush speaks of his Christian faith, the mainstream media get all roiled up. Here’s how a 2003 story in The Christian Science Monitor began:
Paul Elie’s latest essay for The Atlantic, a 6,400-word report on the variety of political thinkers who cite the late Reinhold Niebuhr as their hero, starts off strong but spends too much time waist-deep in the big muddy of debates about the Iraq War.
Remember four years ago when St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke roiled various groups by saying he would deny Democratic Sen. John Kerry communion if he presented himself for it? Four years later the most prominent Roman Catholic running for the highest office in the land is a Republican and, shockingly, Burke has the same position on communion as he did before.
