September 2008 Archives

In advance of Thursday's debate between Senator Biden and Governor Palin here is a round up of all the posts we have had about Sarah Palin since she came on the scene only a month ago. (Seems like forever doesn't it?) Here are a collection of some of the most remarkable religious voices in America including: Steve Waldman, Diana Butler Bass, Paul Raushenbush, Lisa Sharon Harper, Omid Safi, Randall Balmer, Eric Sapp, Welton Gaddy, Leonard Fein, Brian McLaren, Mara Vanderslice and Renita Weems.   Knowledge is power:

Palin's Religion - What's Scary, What's not - by Steve Waldman

Those on the left, or merely those who aren't evangelical Christians, are struggling to make sense of the religious life of Sarah Palin. To many, she seems a frightening harbinger of a fundamentalist takeover. Saturday's New York Times piece about Palin's deep faith and Bible-focused church will be chewed over for evidence of her extremism. Conservatives, meanwhile, will seize on the scrutiny -- including liberal overreactions -- as evidence that the left and the mainstream media are anti-Christian.  Read more...

The Apocalypse Rears its Head - by Diana Butler Bass

With media attention directed toward the largest economic story in recent American history, other stories are falling by the way.  One of the most interesting--and surely least understood--is the story of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's religious faith.

As a mainline Protestant whose faith values pluralism, I confess that I have been reluctant to blog on Ms. Palin's religion or to make that an issue.  But a small turn of phrase in her Katie Couric interview has given me pause and underscored the importance of Ms. Palin's theology in relationship to her politics. Read more...

 The Jewish Vote - A Backlash Against Christians? - by Paul Raushenbush

Should or shouldn't Jews vote for John McCain?  What effect does his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate (apparently instead of Joe Lieberman) whose religious world view is frightening and repellent to most Jewish voters have on their decision?  This is the subject of on-line discussions that have caught fire recently.  Read more...

Palin: The Religious Right's American Idol - by Lisa Sharon Harper

If the Republican Convention was American Idol and Palin's speech was a rock ballad, Palin would be preparing for next week's big sing-off right about now.

But this is NOT a reality TV show.  This is reality; the future of our country, arguably the future of the world hangs in the balance. Read more...

Palin Hears Voices - by Omid Safi

Religious conviction is a delicate matter.    Many of the greatest reformers this world has ever known, Christ, Moses, and Muhammad, not to mention more recent figures like Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu, all heard God's voice, pushing them along, affirming them, inspiring them, and lifting them up in moments of doubt and exhaustion.   Religious conviction can be a beautiful thing, illuminating one's path in a dark night of the soul, providing a sense of purpose and mission.

This type of religious conviction can also be a tricky, not to say terrifying, matter.   Many who claim to hear God's voice then move to speaking for God, with no pause to allow for a moment of humility.    My own question about religious reformers who claim to hear the voice of God or speak for God is always fairly simple:  how deep is your love, and whom do you serve?   In other words, is your conviction rooted in love, and is it directed to the uplifting of all of God's children, or does it uplift some at the expense of others?   This is what causes me concern about some of what I heard from Governor Sarah Palin so far.  Read more...

Praying for Pipeline - by Randall Balmer

Some years ago, Melissa Fay Greene wrote a book about the rural South entitled Praying for Sheetrock. If Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, ever published an autobiography, she might consider calling it Praying for Pipeline.

It appears that God has a keen interest in the building of a multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline in the forty-ninth state. "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built," the Alaska governor said. "So pray for that."  Read more...

Lay off Palin - Please!  By Eric Sapp

An election does not go by without someone paraphrasing Will Roger's famous quotation about not being a part of an organized Party because we are Democrats.  Well, as Democrats, we may not be organized, but we sure are predictable...and we have walked--nay, sprinted--right into the trap Republicans laid for us with the Palin nomination. The glee with which liberal bloggers, Democratic pundits, and the media latched on to the fact that Palin's inexperience makes her less qualified to be President than Obama--as if doing so would somehow undermine the GOP attack on Obama as inexperienced--is mind-boggling.  Read more...

Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech

The Matthew 25 Network released the following statement today in response to Governor Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC Convention.  In the coming days we will be seeking thousands of signatures onto this statement from Christians leaders and individuals around the country. Read more...

Democracy, Not Theocracy, by Welton Gaddy

In her speech last night, Governor Palin missed a golden opportunity to explain how her religious beliefs would influence her policy priorities in the White House. This is a conversation that all of our political candidates should have with the American people, but it is particularly important one for Governor Palin given her alarming theocratic rhetoric that has been revealed this week.  Read more... 

An Ironic Night at the RNC, by Brian McLaren

There were four highly ironic moments for me last night, watching the RNC on television.

First, Rudy Giuliani seemed to side with down-to-earth, rural, moral, family-friendly middle America against the urban, educated, gay-friendly, divorcing East Coast elite - and neither he nor the crowd seemed to notice the irony. At least Sarah Palin - with her pit-bull-in-lipstick line - didn't pretend to be something she wasn't.   Read more...

The Jewish Perspective, by Leonard Fine

"A grand slam home run," the commentators agreed.  More like a foul -- a very foul -- ball to me.

The subject is, of course, Sarah Palin, whose not-yet week-old candidacy for Vice President of the United States has sucked up so much oxygen these last days.  The reflections that follow were composed on day two of that candidacy -- before we learned of the truncated vetting process, before we learned of the daughter's non-abstinence, before we learned, as we did in her maiden speech last night, just how sloganeeringly mean-spirited she can be, this pit bull with lipstick.  Read more...

Plenty of Punches, but no Policies, by Renita Weems

http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/09/plenty-of-punches-but-no-polic.html

Congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin for proving last night that she came honestly by her high school nickname "Barracuda.". She certainly carried forward the McCain strategy of mockery, ridicule, sarcasm and disrespect. Sarah Palin showed that there is at least one aspect of the Vice President role on the campaign trail she can do well, and that is play the role of attack dog.  McCain's campaign spokesperson Rick Davis said yesterday that this campaign isn't going to be about issues. They intend this to be about personality, not the issues. And that's what she did. Aimed primary at Barack Obama. Palin delivered the red meat for the audience at the RNC convention last night.

No policy however. Plenty of punches, however.  Read more...

Disappointed in Palin's Speech, by Mara Vanderslice

http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/09/disappointed-in-palins-speech.html

As a woman and as a Christian- I came away deeply disappointed by the speech Sarah Palin gave tonight in front of the RNC Convention.

At a time in our country's history when we have a chance to address the most important moral issues of our time, reviving our economy, fighting global poverty and disease, ending the war in Iraq and addressing climate change, Sarah Palin delivered one of the most cynical and sarcastic speeches we have heard yet from a national political figure this year.  Read more...

And because you have to laugh:

A strong statement from the head of the U.S. bishops domestic justice committee offers five conditions to guide any rescue/bailout package. In the Sept. 26 statement (it didn't get much press; I just found it now via ZENIT), Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre (Long Island) stressed "responsibility, accountability, awareness of advantages and limitations of the market, solidarity, subsidiarity and the common good, in the search for just and effective responses to the economic turmoil, while considering its human impact and ethical dimensions."

Murphy's statement contains some powerful and welcome language (and should give pause to those who want to enlist the Catholic Church as an arm of the GOP). He spoke of "the scandalous search for excessive economic rewards even to the point of dangerous speculation that exacerbates the pain and losses of the more vulnerable are egregious examples of an economic ethic that places economic gain above all other values." He said "Those who directly contributed to this crisis or profited from it should not be rewarded or escape accountability for the harm they have done." And he invoked Catholic social teaching to argue for greater regulation and intervention when needed. 

He concludes with a quote from John Paul II's encyclical, Centesimus Annus, written to mark the 100th anniversary of Leo XIII's great social encycical, Rerum Novarum: 

Our Catholic tradition calls for a "society of work, enterprise and participation" which "is not directed against the market, but demands that the market be appropriately controlled by the forces of society and by the state to assure that the basic needs of the whole society are satisfied."

Good reading, and good guidance for an economic culture that is changing before our eyes.

 

Over the summer, a seventy-year old family member has struggled mightily with the possibility of losing her home.  For many months, she has been in a financial meltdown, one unnoticed by politicians claiming that the economy was "sound."

Washington politicians were not the only ones ignoring the growing economic worries.  Churches and religious institutions have been oddly silent about the economy, too, except in theoretical ways.  The Vatican recently condemned the immorality of the new economy; Protestants have been working on the Millennium Development Goals.  Neither of these lofty projects addresses the fears of a retired seventy year old watching everything she worked for slip through her fingers.

Eighty years ago, churches largely failed to address the economic and social problems of the Great Depression.  In the face of America's worst economic crisis, the churches slid into religious depression.  Even before 1929, religious leaders noticed faith ebbing into ennui--a decline in church membership, missions, religious education, seminaries, stewardship, and justice ministries.  In 1927, Reinhold Niebuhr remarked on "a psychology of defeat" that had "gripped the forces of religion."

This "psychology of defeat" had been aided by a sustained fundamentalist attack on mainline churches during the twenty years prior to the Depression.  This theological conflict weakened the denominations.  When the 1929 crash occurred, America's leading churches had been so battered by arguments over the Virgin Birth and biblical inerrancy that they lacked the resources to mount a meaningful response to the economic crisis.  While the economy spiraled, Christians succumbed to, what historian Robert Handy called, "a nationally observable spiritual lethargy" where people even ceased to expect that churches could help them.

At the time, the editors of Christian Century wondered why the Depression had not sparked a renewal of the churches.  After all, in tough circumstances people often turn to God for relief.  "But this depression is different," they wrote.  It was "due to the failure of human intelligence or the blind power of entrenched privilege, or both."  It is a bit difficult to figure out how to spiritually stir people out of a crisis caused by greed.   

If this isn't depressing enough, the most vigorous forms of faith that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s were also the most extreme--this period marked a high point of Christian nationalism, Aryanism, and religious fascism in the United States.  Demagogues like Protestant preacher Gerald Smith and Roman Catholic Father Charles Coughlin fired populist passions against Jews, the government, and liberals.  

The parallels between religious events of the 1920s and 1930s are painfully obvious and not terribly comforting in our current situation.  However, if we understand how the churches failed our great-grandparents, we might have the foresight to do better.  

Thus, I offer a 5-point spiritual bailout plan for churches:

1)  Stop fighting about issues like gay and lesbian people in church.  People are sick and tired of it.  God loves everybody, OK?

2)  Repent.  Greed is a sin.  I think we forgot.    

3)  Preach hope.  Defeat has no place in church.  I haven't heard a sermon on hope in ten years.  Let's get to it.  

4)  Avoid the temptation to scapegoat others.  No crusades allowed.

5)  Read the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-13; Luke 6:20-31) and take them literally, especially when Jesus says, "Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again."    

I pray that churches find this plan more palatable than Congress found the $700 billion bailout plan.  Even if this is only a great recession, we've got to do better this time.




 
 

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Anchor Bob Abernethy interviewed Rev. Jim Wallis from Sojourners and Father Jim Martin from America Magazine about the current crisis and the religion response. 

Read an excerpt below:

BOB ABERNETHY: Now, the financial crisis and proposals to solve it. What do religious voices have to say?

What are the religious principles that all of us should bear in mind as we try to evaluate the different proposals for getting out of this crisis?

Father JIM MARTIN (Editor, America Magazine): Well, I'd like to go from the general to the specific. You can start with the Jewish and Christian principles of caring for the poor, which is very important in both the Old and the New Testaments. Jesus speaks about that very forcefully. More specifically, the Catholic tradition in their social teaching documents talk about solidarity with one another and the common good. It's not just every man in it for himself, or every woman. You know, we Jesuits talk about not making decisions in a time when you're freaking out. So there's a sort of discernment that's needed. And then, finally, I think that the role of conscience needs to play in this. There's a reason why people feel uncomfortable with so many people making money and with the bailout possibly helping only the wealthy, and I think the reason people feel that sort of uncomfortable feeling is conscience. I mean, it's telling us that something's wrong when only the wealthy benefits, so I think those are some of the principles.

ABERNETHY: But, Jim Wallis, whatever we do has to be something that, first of all, is practical, perhaps. Does it work? Does it work for the whole economy, and does it also work for the very poor?

Reverend JIM WALLIS (Editor-in-Chief and CEO, Sojourners Magazine): Well, I'm an evangelical convert to Catholic social teachings, so I'm going to agree with Jim about all this. You know, this crisis is structural and spiritual both, and this has come about because private gain, greed, has prevailed over the common good. We've lost sight of what the common good is, and it's true, there's a conversation going on about rewarding the people who are indeed most responsible for the crisis.

ABERNETHY: And lots of people are very angry about that.

Rev. WALLIS: And they should be. I think God's angry at that. Someone suggested the other day, I thought it was a good idea, the CEOs should be paraded down Wall Street in sack cloth and ashes. I think that's true. So rewarding them while you leave people in my hometown of Detroit -- my brother has a $130,000 mortgage; his house is worth $60,000 now, so this is wrong. So the principle is common good and justice. But also I would say this is a moment, a teachable moment to talk about habits, practices, assumptions about greed that we've lost conversation about for a long time.

Read the rest of this article here:

As most politically active Americans focused on the financial system bailout legislation over the weekend, 33 Christian ministers took the occasion of Sunday sermons to defy federal tax regulations prohibiting endorsement of political candidates by churches and other tax-exempt organizations.  The immediate object of this protest was to pretty clearly demand the election of John McCain as a religious obligation because of Barack Obama's position on abortion and same-sex relationships. 

Organized by a Christian Right group called the Alliance Defense Fund, the Sunday action drew attention for its provocative nature.  Churches and other religious (and for that matter, charitable) groups have generally been given broad latitude by the IRS to make or support political pronouncements so long as they avoid direct statements about candidate preferences. 

But take a step back and look at the protest from a broader lens, and its audacity becomes much more apparent.  These ministers are essentially (and in most cases, explicitly) taking a prophetic stance that stopping abortion and fighting same-sex relationships are so supremely important and so clearly required by divine commandment that all other issues of war, peace, justice, prosperity, and ethics must be subordinated, along with the presumed legitimacy of American society, including its courts.  Moreover, all U.S. taxpayers must subsidize this prophetic stance by providing the protesting organizations with a continuing exemption from taxation for all their properties, and for contributions made to them. 

 

 

Rep. John LaBruzzo, a Republican from Metarie (David Duke's old haunts) wants to pay poor women $1,000 to get sterilized. Why? Because people receiving food and housing assistance "are reproducing at a faster rate than more affluent, better-educated residents." The...

I know he can't do it, but I wish he would.  Just once.  Wouldn't it be nice if Senator Obama responded sharply to Senator McCain's efforts to paint him as inexperience - as the naïve young man who dared to...

Senator Obama had a good night at Ole Miss. He dominated the opening discussion on the economy and held his own during the discussion on foreign affairs. Translation: signficant night for Senator Obama. I appreciate the fact that Senator McCain...

Missing from the vocabulary of tonight's presidential debate on foreign relations and the economy were such small terms as God, religion, and faith - there wasn't even a God Bless America.   I co-direct the Program on Religion, Diplomacy,...

Rabbis of antiquity interpreted the attempt by humanity to build a Tower of Babel that would allow people to storm heaven as a symbol of human hubris and technological power gone crazy. It was globalization for the sake of...

With media attention directed toward the largest economic story in recent American history, other stories are falling by the way.  One of the most interesting--and surely least understood--is the story of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's religious faith.As a...

I hope both Senators Obama and McCain show up for the debate at Ole Miss. Its important to see our two choices together, interacting, answering the same questions. Showcasing why they should be President is pretty much their job...

Apparently we have a deal to bail out Wall Street using 700 Billion dollars of tax payer's money to ensure that we same tax payers don't suffer an even more severe downturn.  The frustrating thing for most of us...

Jack Abramoff's in prison...Ralph Reed is disgraced...what's a poor Republican to do when they need access to casino money to fund their most outrageous attacks on Democratic opponents?  Answer:  Turn to Vegas Casino Billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his shadow 527...

Looking for a Catholic--some would say traditionally Christian--point of view on the economic meltdown? The  church has long-standing teachings and resources that I think could be useful--and an antidote to some of the idolatry and fatalism of unfettered free-marketeering. ("Hey, stuff...

When Steve Waldman asked the question whether the 9th commandment was a lesser one he must have struck a nerve: Listen to Ad Here   FaithfulAmerica.org is flooding the Mississippi airwaves this week with radio ads demanding accountability and honesty from the...

Should or shouldn't Jews vote for John McCain?  What effect does his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate (apparently instead of Joe Lieberman) whose religious world view is frightening and repellent to most Jewish voters have on their decision?...

As we contemplate the fact that Republicans are arguing for the largest U.S. government interference in the free markets in our nation's history--a bailout just shy of being equal to the entire US debt when Ronald Reagan became President--Democrats MUST...

As world leaders gather in New York and Friday's first debate focuses on international affairs, it is important to keep in mind the overwhelming support that Senator Obama has among the average people around the world. While this might...

That is the bracing message from Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora in a Sept. 12 column that is the best rendering I've yet seen of how the church--and the bishops--can approach the elections. The statement is titled "Why we don't take...

The Times' columnist Nicholas Kristof had a piece on Sunday, "The Push to 'Otherize' Obama," that perfectly sums up the efforts to key in on fears of Obama's race and persistent (unfounded) doubts about his faith, and how that plays...

Barack Obama is not giving up on faith-based voters. While polls seem to show voters stuck in same pattern as 2004, despite the Democrat's persistent outreach and God talk, the campaign is redoubling its efforts and rejecting suggestions that the...

Do the hot-button culture war issues like abortion and gay marriage matter? If you read only blogs or the news coverage (such as this NYTimes story, "Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholics") you might get the impression that these are the...

Results from the huge American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of 2000 stunned many and led to heated debates when it showed some 14 percent of Americans embracing some form of secularism. Preliminary numbers released today from the upcoming 2008 ARIS survey...

Beginning next week, the Matthew 25 Network will run a new ad on Christian radio stations in Ohio connecting the Christian mandate to care for the least among us with the economic crisis in Ohio and around the country.  Former...

Given the recent summit on Value Voters, and the crisis on Wall Street I thought it might be interesting to ask a non-Christian on what values informed his approach to the public square.  I sent an email to Robert Thurman, a...

Lisa Sharon Harper is executive director of New York Faith & Justice and the author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican ... or Democrat   If the Republican Convention was American Idol and Palin's speech was a rock ballad,...

There's been a lot of discussion here at Beliefnet and elsewhere about the variable impact of cultural issues like abortion in the current presidential campaign.  And it's safe to say most Democrats have concluded that Barack Obama's prospects for victory...

The furious division in Catholicism over abortion and the presidential election grows wider. But to what end? A front-page story in today's New York Times is titled, "Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes," and yet evidence of how that is...

The turmoil on Wall Street is continuing, and even though it is closer to me than even Russia is to Alaska, I understand less than little about economics. And yet the human toll of the crashes and crises is poignantly clear, and is spreading. ...

Steve Waldman, Editor in Chief of Beliefnet has another interesting post on his blog.  He is wondering "Is The Ninth Commandment A Lesser One?" and if the McCain camp is practicing moral relativism.  You can read his post below: Several conservatives have been willing...

How is it that many, from left to right, who believe and argue that "values" and religion play a primary role in driving voting choices don't equate "economic" issues and concerns as values-driven?   How is it that those who...

The "Obama Waffles" episode illustrates the racism that everyone knew would surface around the murky edges of the pro-McCain campaign.  That was inevitable.  What should not be inevitable and certainly not tolerated is that evangelical Christians play a role in...

I became an Obama supporter because his candidacy and vision for America filled me with a feeling that no politician in my lifetime had inspired - hope. The hope that fueled my support for Senator Obama to be elected president was not sunny...

Fallout over controversial remarks on abortion by Joseph Biden and Nancy Pelosi are continuing. And not just in the political sphere. The U.S. Bishops announced last week that in light of the conflicts and debates, they will address the topic...

WHO'S VOTING VALUES-AND WHAT VALUES I got two separate documents on the computer on the same day that made me pause. If we hear the same language long enough, we can begin to believe it. One of those is certainly...

Mississippi's Republican Governor and Secretary State are turning the November ballot upside down in Magnolia state. They are putting a race for the United State's Senate, the most high-profile race in the state, at the end of the ballot. The...

Beliefnet's Steve Waldman wrote about Sarah Palin's faith in a way that seems balanced and intelligent to me.  You can find his full text below: Those on the left, or merely those who aren't evangelical Christians, are struggling to make...

Much will be written today--and rightfully so--about 9/11 and what that day meant to our country.  As with many Americans, it was a day that had a deep and emotional effect on me, but in the years since, I...

Thursday is the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the crashed airliner in Shanksville, Pa., an observance that will bring renewed focus on relations between Islam and the West. But...

Progressive Revival is pleased to present the second debate/discussion between two of Time Magazine's most powerful Evangelicals: Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, and author of Divided States of America; and Brian McLaren, Progressive Revival blogger and author of Everything...

Eric Sapp is a Democratic faith outreach strategist and former partner at Common Good Strategies.  He is currently director of FaithfulDemocrats.com, and founding partner at the Eleison Group.   (cross posted to faithfulldemocrats) Let's be honest, up until recently, the...

Religious conviction is a delicate matter.    Many of the greatest reformers this world has ever known, Christ, Moses, and Muhammad, not to mention more recent figures like Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu, all heard God's voice, pushing them along,...

For all the wilful disparaging of the MSM by the GOP and its allies on the Christian right, there is a good argument to be made that the "media" (whatever that is, today) is reading straight out of the McCain...

I have to admit that speeches delivered by candidates at the recent national political conventions do not sway my opinion of that particular candidate.  I also know from experience that these same speeches are written by professional speech writers and...

From the NYT "Caucus" blog: The two campaigns issued a rare joint statement on Saturday announcing the plans of the Republican and Democratic rivals. They also will appear together at a forum later that day at Columbia University. "All of...

Whether Sarah Palin's family, or Sarah Palin herself, should be an subject of commentary and scruitny has itself become a much-debated topic. But let us agree that the issues raised by her candidacy, notably the revelation of her 17-year-old daughter's...

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If you listened closely during the various speeches at the RNC convention, you'll notice that the times when the crowd was most animated was when Republican rage was focused on what Sen. John McCain calls the "trancendent challenge of our...

Eric Sapp is a Democratic faith outreach strategist and former partner at Common Good Strategies.  He is currently director of FaithfulDemocrats.com, and founding partner at the Eleison Group.   An election does not go by without someone paraphrasing Will...

Governor Palin's acceptance speech sparked numerous posts and commentary, the reactions were strong, both positive and negative.  However, Senator McCain's speech seems to have passed by without much comment.Senator McCain's personal story and heroism in Vietnam is indeed remarkable- as...

The Matthew 25 Network released the following statement today in response to Governor Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC Convention.  In the coming days we will be seeking thousands of signatures onto this statement from Christians leaders and individuals around...

Cross posted over at The Hill Blog. In her speech last night, Governor Palin missed a golden opportunity to explain how her religious beliefs would influence her policy priorities in the White House. This is a conversation that all of...

There were four highly ironic moments for me last night, watching the RNC on television. First, Rudy Giuliani seemed to side with down-to-earth, rural, moral, family-friendly middle America against the urban, educated, gay-friendly, divorcing East Coast elite - and neither...

"A grand slam home run," the commentators agreed.  More like a foul -- a very foul -- ball to me.The subject is, of course, Sarah Palin, whose not-yet week-old candidacy for Vice President of the United States has sucked up...

Congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin for proving last night that she came honestly by her high school nickname "Barracuda.". She certainly carried forward the McCain strategy of mockery, ridicule, sarcasm and disrespect. Sarah Palin showed that there is at least...

As a woman and as a Christian- I came away deeply disappointed by the speech Sarah Palin gave tonight in front of the RNC Convention.At a time in our country's history when we have a chance to address the most...

Join the Save Darfur campaign to build political pressure for the next president to make Darfur a priority from day one in office.  The campaign includes efforts to gather a million postcards to deliver to the new president urging the...

Today is the third day of the Hebrew month of Elul.  This is the last month of the Jewish calendar, a time of sustained introspection in preparation for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day...

The Washington Post has the story here, and a facsimile of the bill on which Palin herself wrote out how much to cut and where: ST. PAUL -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee who revealed Monday that...

Nico Pitney and Sam Stein at Huffington Post write that Palin's Pentecoastal Church May Have Shaped A Controversial Worldview.  They write: Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much...

I had thought the terrifying onslaught of Gustav and the efforts by the GOP to dodge the Katrina bullet--or turn it to McCain's benefit--would be the story of the day, but the bombshell news that Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter Bristol...