Politics

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The sacred Constitution?

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At the start of each Congress, the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are sworn into office. Each member swears or affirms an oath to support the Constitution, per Article 6 of said Constitution (“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned … shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.”) Since 1789, members have taken this oath. The current oath has been in use since the 1860s and goes like this:


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Coercion, informed consent and organ donation

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Last week, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour announced he would grant two sisters an early release from prison. Gladys and Jamie Scott had both served 16 years of their life sentences for armed robbery. Because life sentences are unusually long for armed robbery, their cause had been advocated by civil rights groups.


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Tragic new year for Egyptian Christians

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I went to church on New Year’s Eve, as many do. In the Lutheran church, we mark the eve of the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord. Many black Protestant congregations have Watch Night services, commemorating the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Many other Christians simply mark the new year. It’s so easy to take for granted the peace and ease with which we attended church in the United States.


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Strangers in a strange land

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NPR’s Morning Edition had a story this week about how Israel responds to African migrants. “In Israel, No Welcome Mat For African Migrants” was interesting, but I thought it had some flaws. You could begin with the headline, which in addition to stating that Israel is not friendly to African migrants, also seems to suggest that a welcome mat is the standard by which Israel’s immigration policy should be judged.


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Wikileaks on the religion beat

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It’s been a while since we discussed anything related to Wikileaks. A few weeks ago we looked at a story that discussed the morality of the Wikileaks model. When this got going, I wondered if any of the documents that would come to light would include religion news.


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