Georgetown/On Faith

JUST LAW AND RELIGION

by Michael Kessler

Independence Day is a good opportunity to take a moment to ponder how some of our forebears envisioned religious freedom--one of our most fundamental liberties.

There are many well-known examples of the Founders urging toleration about religious diversity. They argued for government restraint so that religion may thrive, particularly James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments and Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia and letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. These are worthy essays which we should contemplate and debate. Besides these luminaries, there are many other important voices in the chorus of early Americans calling for religious freedom.

THIS CATHOLIC'S VIEW

By Thomas J. Reese, S.J.

"Having a meeting with the Holy Father is a great honor and something that I'm very much looking forward to," President Obama told a small group of religion journalist on July 2. Obama sees the pope as "somebody who combines a great intellect with great compassion." The meeting will take place on July 10.

The president looks on the upcoming meeting as comparable to a meeting with any head of state. "There are going to be areas where we've got deep agreements; there are going to be some areas where we've got some disagreements." He believes the relationship between the administration and the Vatican "is already very strong and we want to build on."

FAITH COMPLEX

By Jacques Berlinerblau

Richard Cizik puts the protest back in Protestant.

It is impossible not to watch this new video interview I conducted with him without pausing to marvel at how many mainstream Evangelical theological and political positions he challenges. That he does so with charm and wit just makes it all the more entertaining.

Now, people challenge Evangelical theological and political positions all the time. Mainline Protestants, for example, do so routinely and with heat (varying degrees of charm and wit, though). Yet please recall that Mr. Cizik was vice president for governmental affairs for the very organization that espoused those hotly contested positions, the National Association of Evangelicals.

FAITH IN ACTION

By Katherine Marshall

The annual ritual of the G8 Summit is upon us. There are plenty about other Gs (groups) - the G2 (U.S. and China), the G20 and the G77. Cynics speak of a G1, suggesting that the United States rules the roost. But the G8 is still the pinnacle of the world's powerful and rich. So these meetings are a magnet for those who would like to sit at the table and shape the world's agenda.

The 2009 G8 lead-up is in full swing. Last week the foreign ministers grappled with Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Israel-Palestine challenge. There's a special Africa meeting, youth gatherings, and gloomy discussions among financial gurus. All the events feed into the summit of heads of state, which opens July 10, in L'Aquila, Italy.

Among those who believe they have something to say about the global agenda are religious leaders, so they held a summit on June 16-17, in Rome. The Italian Catholic Bishops Conference was in charge, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lent its support. About 130 leaders from different faith traditions gathered to take stock.

JUST LAW AND RELIGION

by Michael Kessler

"I've let down a lot of people, that's the bottom line," declared South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford on Wednesday. Thus ended the fun media game, "Where in the World is Mark Sanford?" He was in Argentina, with his lover, over Father's Day, without having any contact with his wife and four children.

THIS CATHOLIC'S VIEW

By Thomas J. Reese, S.J.

A new encyclical on Catholic social teaching will soon be released as Pope Benedict's response to the current economic crisis. The encyclical, "Caritas in veritate" (Charity in Truth), has been in preparation for more than two years, but was delayed because the pope wanted it updated to respond to the world financial crisis. It could be published as early as June 29 if the various translations are finished.

Conservatives will be shocked and disappointed by the encyclical, which will reflect Benedict's skepticism toward unbridled capitalism based on greed.

Back in February, he said, "It is the Church's duty to denounce the fundamental errors that have now been revealed in the collapse of the major American banks. Human greed is a form of idolatry that is against the true God, and is a falsification of the image of God with another god, Mammon."

FAITH COMPLEX

By Jacques Berlinerblau

What I am about to say is not going to win me new friends and U-Street Corridor tavern chums in Washington D.C. But someone needs to say it and I guess that someone is going to be me: the coverage of the Obama administration's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships by mainstream journalists, policy analysts, and even academics has been ludicrously un-critical, the opposite of hard-hitting.

There. I said it.

In today's interview with Washington Post reporter Jacqueline L. Salmon, I set out to ask all the questions about Obama's faith-based office that I thought should have been asked months ago. (Ms. Salmon raises the counter-possibility that reporters have said so little about the Office because the Office has done so little in the four months since its inception).

FAITH IN ACTION

By Katherine Marshall

Here's a topic that deserves center stage this Father's Day: family planning. It's an improbable but vital issue for Father's Day for two reasons: It's more often linked to women than to men, and it's shrouded in tensions, many with religious overtones.

Some people view family planning as one of modernity's transforming achievements, part of the women's revolution. But from a heyday in which population policies were constantly in the news and a leading development practice, the whole topic seemed to go underground. There were good reasons and bad.

ISLAM AND THE WEST

By Daniel Brumberg

If there is one thing successful revolutionaries hate, it's a mass movement. The "people" are a useful device for seizing power. Elements of the populace--bused in at the state's expense! --can be stage-managed to reinforce the message that the Leader is in charge. But under no circumstances can they take to the streets en masse to speak for themselves. This would run counter to law and order. Revolutionaries just love order.

This logic goes hand in hand with a brutal contempt for the masses themselves. Iran's president made as much clear the other day, when he referred to the hundreds of thousands protesting as merely 'dirt and dust" (khas o khashak).

JUST LAW AND RELIGION

By Michael Kessler

I grew up watching PBS--especially the Victory Garden, This Old House, Julia Child, and the many ethnographic, travel, and nature programs. The antenna on my parent's house, set in the middle of Indiana's farm fields, picked up Chicago's WTTW. It was my Window to the World which offered me a view of life far beyond the short 70 miles I had ever ventured from my house.

I am not particularly religious in a church-going manner, and Sunday morning "church" is not on my television queue. I'm somewhat torn, however, by the decision of the Board of the Public Broadcasting Service, who voted yesterday to enforce its 1985 ban on sectarian programs. Affiliates who currently carry programs, about 5 of 356 member stations, can continue the practice, but new sectarian programs will not be allowed.

THIS CATHOLIC'S VIEW

By Thomas J. Reese, S.J.

Meeting in San Antonio June 17-19, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has an agenda that will keep it busy but it will not deal with the real issues facing the church: how to interact with Obama and how to respond to the exodus of one third of Catholics from the church.

Once again the bishops will discuss and vote on new English translations of liturgical prayers. Over the last few years, the bishops have gradually adopted new translations that are worse than the ones in current use because of the Vatican fetish for word-for-word translations of Latin texts. When this project is finally finished, it will be imposed on American parishes.

The inability of the U.S. bishops to fight off this stupid idea is tragic.