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A story on ESPN.com, describing the uncertain future of basketball coach Billy Gillispie at the University of Kentucky, vividly illustrates the dangers of trying to fill in the blanks:
The Roman Catholic bishop of South Bend, Indiana will not be attending the graduation ceremonies at the University of Notre Dame because President Barack Obama will be honored at that time. Obama’s policies on embryonic stem-cell research and abortion conflict with Catholic teaching about the sanctity of human life.
A federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration this week to make the Plan B “morning-after” birth control pill available over the counter to girls aged 17. It was already available over the counter to women aged 18 and older.
There’s a tremendous debate going on in the U.K. about the place of religion, not only about its place in the public square, but internally, among believers, notably the Roman Catholics and Anglicans themselves.
This may be turning into a “theme week” for me here at GetReligion. Call it the “dog that didn’t bark” week. Or maybe I need to run that lighthouse joke — again. Remember that one?
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.
Veteran reporter Robin Wright of The Washington Post has written a sprightly and encouraging article for Time about Muslims around the world who “do not want either an Iranian-style theocracy or a Western-style democracy.” Instead, “They want a blend, with clerics playing an advisory role in societies, not ruling them.”
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured an interesting package yesterday about prison inmates who are exonerated years after their convictions.
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.
