Faith and Politics
There's an election a week away, and consequently some of us are pretty busy with election reporting and commentary. But that shouldn't mean that the discussion here at God's Politics stalls. So here's an article I highly recommend by Slate's Jacob Weisberg on negative campaign ads.
As Weisberg points out, a "negative" ad used to just mean something that wasn't a positive portrayal of your own candidate, [...]
I promise to limit the number of times I link to my boyfriend (or myself) on this blog, but since he's a writer, a fellow journalist, and an astute political observer, it's going to happen from time to time. My apologies in advance.
With that over with, I'd like to direct your attention to this observation by Noam Scheiber, of The New Republic. A paragraph at the end of a New York [...]
Jim Wallis talks to Minnesota Public Radio about a new generation of evangelical progressives, how the Left-Right debate is failing to resolve our deepest crises, and why we need a new "prophetic politics."
I just wanted to let our readers know that I'm involved in a week-long debate over at The New Republic with Joe Loconte, formerly of the Heritage Foundation and now with the Ethics and Public Policy Center. (Scroll down to read's Joe entry first, since he gets the debate started and I respond. We'll continue the discussion on Thursday and Friday.)
The debate [...]
I'm impressed. A week after Sojourners/Call to Renewal got an impressive spectrum of religious leaders to unite as Evangelicals for Darfur (it's not often that Jim Wallis and the Christian Coalition find common cause), the ONE Campaign has links to its new "ONE Vote" TV spot on both RNC and DNC Web sites, which will also be broadcast on MTV and Fox [...]
My longer, point-by-point response to attacks made by critics of the Kuo book can be read here, at FaithfulDemocrats.com. It should give you a good sense of the best bits of the book. But I'd also encourage you to read the book yourself. The scandalous political bits have been picked up all over the news by now, but this is not just a "tell-all" book. It's also a thoughtful, moving, and brutally [...]
To say there are few surprises in David Kuo's new book, Tempting Faith, is not to suggest that it is uninteresting or to be skipped. On the contrary, the book provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how political priorities get made and carried out in the Bush White House.
It's just that, as much [...]
This four-part Boston Globe series on faith and foreign aid is required reading this week. And it's especially troubling for those of us who have tried to convince our friends on the progressive side not to freak [...]
Dear Dr. Dobson,
I've wanted to write you a letter for a long, long time, but until now, it just hasn't seemed like the right time. I waited all last week to hear what you would have to say about the scandal surrounding Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida); the revelation that he was having sexually explicit conversations with underage pages, and that the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives knew about this for many months (maybe even years) and [...]
I recently came across this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from his sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:9:
"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to [...]
I was setting out to write a post about a little-noticed agreement reached by congressional Republican negotiators last week. The arrangement removed a harmful legislative provision that would [...]
The consensus evangelical document (For the Health of the Nation: AnEvangelical Call to Civic Responsibility) says that "faithful evangelical civic engagement must champion a biblically [...]
I heard a thought-provoking commentary on "All Things Considered" last night by a woman named Caroline Langston. She talked about the fact that over the past decade or so her political views have changed, but not her religious views--and [...]
A few weeks ago, Jim Wallis pledged that we who write about the Religious Right--including those of us on this blog--would not treat them the way they have treated us. Which is to say, we will always keep in mind that, [...]
Part four of a dialogue between Jim Wallis and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed on the question: "What should values voters value most?"
Jim, I fear you have been paying only selective attention to religious conservatives. Conservative people of faith care about a broad range of issues, including tax [...]
Part three of a dialogue between Jim Wallis and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed on the question: "What should values voters value most?"
You raise several interesting lines of thought in your response, [...]
Part two of a dialogue between Jim Wallis and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed on the question: "What should values voters value most?"
Jim, you make the point that there are many issues of moral concern beyond marriage and abortion. I don't think there is a disagreement between liberals and [...]
This week I welcome Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and one of the most articulate leaders of America's Religious Right, to be my first dialogue partner on God's Politics. We will post our comments and responses to each other, back and forth, all week long--and you can read [...]