Social Issues

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What is a 'strict' Catholic stance?

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Not that anyone should be surprised, but a portion of the national community that makes up Notre Dame’s supporters, alumni, students and the parents of students, are none too thrilled with the fact that President Obama will be speaking at the institution’s graduation this spring and receiving an honorary degree. Their problem is that Obama’s official policies directly contradict Catholic teaching on the subject of the sanctity of human life.


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What's it all about, Alfie?

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I’ll ‘fess up, OK? I confess that I have been paying a bit of attention to the latest “What in the ^#@* has gone wrong with England story?” That would be the train wreck of coverage about young master Alfie Patten, the baby-faced (this word is included in almost every UK story) 13-year-old who has just become his land’s most famous baby father.


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"Religious right/left" right in Israel?

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How do you explain the religious complexities of a foreign culture not only to those who have a pretty deep understanding already, but to your most ignorant reader? And do various commonly used terms, like “religious right” and “religious left” mean the same thing “over there” (in this case, Israel) as they do over here? Not that we neccessarily even agree on what they mean over here.


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NPR's balancing act

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National Public Radio’s ombudsman reports on a controversy over its March 5 package on same-sex marriage. On that day (the day that the California Supreme Court heard arguments about rescinding the Prop. 8 vote) Morning Edition ran a 4.5-minute interview with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, one of the more prominent civic leaders in support of same-sex marriage. They balanced that story out with a piece on the targeting of Prop. 8 supporters.


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Trahison des clerks?

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The area of Pennsylvania where I live has a Quaker history which goes back at least three centuries. One of the legacies of that tradition is the “self-uniting” marriage license — for those who decide to get married with witnesses, but without an officiant.


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Death, God and faith in the news

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Death and dying are intricately tied to the subjects of God, religion and faith. The Los Angeles Times made this clear earlier this week in its detailed look at why some statistics show that cancer patients deemed terminally ill requested intensive, but useless medical treatment, such as breathing machines, at a much higher rate if their faith was a significant factor in the their medical decision.


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Explaining those denominational votes

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I wish the mainstream media would cover more denominational news. Or, should I say, more denominational but non-Episcopalian news. I also wish we’d see more balanced coverage of disagreements related to homosexuality.


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Flash! Vatican opposes birth control

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On the same day that Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput was critiquing media coverage of the church, we got a real time example of some less-than-stellar religion reporting. Pope Benedict XVI landed in Africa this week and received breathless coverage because, as Amy Welborn put it over at Beliefnet, “the Pope has not booked a seat on the condom train.”


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