The omnipresent Howard “Howie” Kurtz of the Washington Post offered this interesting tweet after the victory in the U.S. House by Rep. Bart Stupak and his coalition that opposes the use of tax dollars to fund abortions:
Wish-fulfillment journalism
Amy Sullivan is a senior editor at Time. She’s remarkably partisan, even by journalistic standards, and sometimes her views can color her writing. But boy is she taking some flak for her recent piece “Priests Spar Over What It Means to Be Catholic.” Let’s just start with the headline. Considering that what follows is analysis about the views of an archbishop and a cardinal (and not priests), you know that facts aren’t going to be the piece’s strong suit.
Faith and the Berlin wall's fall
With Bon Jovi, Angela Merkel and Mikhail Gorbachev likely to steal the spotlight at the Berlin wall 20th anniversary celebration, Reuters’ Tom Heneghan says Protestant leaders feel overlooked:
Geneva almost celebrates Calvin
If you visit Geneva, Switzerland’s official tourism web site, you can easily find this awkwardly translated introduction to the city’s commemoration of Protestant reformer John Calvin:
Kaine's faith vs. that new guy's faith
Before the explosion of news from Fort Hood, there was another comment I wanted to make about the election of Virginia’s new governor, Robert F. McDonnell. So please allow me to dip into tmatt’s GetReligion Guilt folder and pull this one back out.
Cao's Catholic conscience
When the House narrowly passed its health care reform bill on Saturday night, it received 219 votes from Democrats and one from a Republican. I mentioned already that I was at the hospital with my daughter when it passed so I was passing time following reporters and pundits on Twitter. Many of them expressed shock — or at least surprise — that any Republican would support the bill. And when it was revealed that the lone vote came from Louisiana Rep. Joseph Cao, people referred to him mostly in that “oh yeah, he’s the guy who beat the corrupt William Jefferson” sort of way. Note this lede from a Christian Science Monitor story:
Military worried, but are Muslims?
Coverage of the tragedy at Fort Hood, which left at least 13 dead, has continued its evolution. I mentioned Friday that it began with shock and ended up with Muslims condemning the alleged actions of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The focus now has turned to fallout for the thousands of other Muslim members of the active-duty military.
Abortion was the key to it all
Several weeks ago, I received an email from one of the nation’s top political reporters. The bottom line: This reporter could not understand why editors and other reporters in the newsroom could not do the math and realize that the pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives were serious. They wanted an up-or-down vote on the status of the Hyde Amendment and its attempts to ban federal funds from being spent to fund abortions.
Maybe the bishops really mattered
Last night around midnight, the House of Representatives passed a health care bill by a narrow margin — 220 to 215. The Washington Post has the details.
