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The story of Sen. John “Call me JFK” Kerry and the Catholic bishops is going to roll on for awhile. There all kinds of hooks that journalists have not really explored yet, such as the nature of the divisions among the U.S. Catholic bishops and how these fractures are linked to other issues within Catholicism. For example: Do Catholics still need to go to confession? How often?
What a time for Google to get messed up. As I started work on this post, Google News had some kind of technical problem that mixed up the URLs for stories on same-sex marriages in Massachusetts and those on the video decapitation of American Nick Berg.
When we last visited the Palm Beach soap opera about the Menorah and the Nativity scene, the church-state experts at the Palm Beach Post had concluded that this was not a case that hinged on U.S. equal-access laws. No, it was about — cue drum roll — two uppity Christian ladies who were guilty of “recidivist anti-Semitism.”
What do liberal Episcopal bishops do when a local culture careens past their church in the debate about gay marriage? As the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe and The Washington Times have reported recently, some bishops choose a more cautious path than one would expect from their previous announcements and votes at their church’s triennial General Convention.
Here are some dates to mark on the God-beat calendar. On June 17, Sen. John “What would JFK do?” Kerry is planning a fundraising event in posh Aspen, followed by several events in Denver.
John Leo’s column in the April 17 U.S. News & World Report is one of the better commentaries to date about Catholic bishops, Catholic politicians and public policy on abortion. Leo points out the crucial role played by Mario Cuomo, who in his 1984 speech “Religious Belief and Public Morality: A Catholic Governor’s Perspective” explained how he reconciled his church’s teachings on abortion with his responsibilities as governor of New York.
It’s terrible work, but someone had to do it. Columnist Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News bravely leapt on a deadly radio the other day, daring to listen to another cycle of Air America programming so that others would not have to do so.
At least once a year, it seems, the ACLU supports a case that defies the expectations of its tougher critics. A few months ago, for instance, the group defended Rush Limbaugh’s right to keep his medical records private.
Javed Anjum was an 19-year-old Christian student in Pakistan who died on May 2 of “renal failure,” after suffering broken ribs and loss of eyesight. It also seemed that someone had yanked out his nails.
