Ooh, Friday the 13th. Spooky...
For the record, RNR ain't superstitious--but a black cat just crossed our trail...Also, we've had to clean up two dog "accidents" in the living room this morning, and had our laptop cut out on us just as we were getting ready to start this diary. Maybe Fridays just aren't our day.
Today's Categories:
And a poll on superstition. (Not the Stevie Wonder song...)
Religion & Politics
The Revealer once again has a host of good stories and links. There's a story on how W. used religious language to advance his case for war
here, and another one
here discussing Pete Coors' godtalk. That second one carries the priceless headline "And the Devil Likes Schlitz." To which I respond: I'm a Budweiser man, actually.
Catholic News Service points out the aversion both presidential tickets have to talking about the needs of the poor, and the Washington Times carries the latest in its series "Catholic Liberals Are Even More Evil Than Regular Liberals." Today's edition: a "biased" survey from the Conference of Bishops.
The Christian Right has apparently come up with its answer to "Rock the Vote": "Redeem The Vote," which hopes to sign up 2,000,000 new voters. Given that so far, they've gotten 5,000 registrations, that they're backed by Gary Bauer, James Dobson and Chuck Colson, and that they feature an all-star lineup of Christian musicians, I'd say there's not much to worry about, in hipness or in politics. Besides, as Amy Sullivan points out with a link to a Denver Post article, evangelicals' voter registration hopes are pinned on Karl Rove's magic "4 million" figure (meaning that many evangelicals stayed home in 2000). The only problem? Rove's never cited a source for this figure. Can you say making it up as you go along?
Lastly this press release blasts Pres. Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives as "Un-christian and Unconstitutional." It's from the Constitution Party? Man, they really do have it in for the Republicans this year.
Religion & Gays
There's a host of links here to articles on yesterday's California court ruling nullifying gay marriages. The usual suspects applaud the ruling here and [here.] I guess you could say that this press release from the president of the Metropolitan Community Church defending gay marriage is also from a "usual suspect," but I'll give him a pass for two reasons. 1.I like his position (how's that for biased reporting?), and 2.because the release contains this historical tidbit:
Rev. Troy Perry performed the first same-sex marriage ever conducted in the
United States in 1970, and in 1971 filed the first-ever lawsuit seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages.
My gay friends can twit me if they like, but I never knew the history of SSM in the US went back that far.
One other link: a Catholic gay-rights group has called for support of Jim McGreevy's family. Not the man himself, but his family. This seems like a politically sensible move to me; cheating on your spouse is indefensible, no matter who you're cheating with, and stepping out in support of the family allows them to claim some kind of parity on the "family values" score. Others may disagree with me.
Catholic News
A Reuters piece declares "Jimmy Breslin takes on the Catholic Church." For the life of me, I can't tell if it's a hatchet job or if it's just imitating Breslin's inimitable style. Whatever. He's always fun to listen to.
The John Paul II deathwatch has apparently already begun, with an Atlantic Monthly article discussing the hidden politics of selecting a pope.
The Miami Herald has a piece calling Joseph Ratzinger Catholicism's "enforcer." It delivers on its promise. Key quote: "[Pope] John Paul plays the part of Ronald Reagan to [Cardinal Joseph] Ratzinger's Pat Buchanan." Pat Buchanan should be so lucky.
See "Religion and Politcs" and "Religion & Gays" above for more links.
Nice to Know
A new Hindu temple is going up in Bartlett, Illinois. If you've never seen one of these, they are magnificent structures--gi-normous, as the saying goes--and wonderful testaments both to Hindu faith and the emerging cultural diversity of the US. According to the 2001 ARIS survey, Hinduism grew 237% between 1990-1991, which makes it one of the fastest-growing religions in the US. (And before someone points it out, yes, "No religion" is the fastest-growing segment.) Anyway: hooray for Hindus! As Apu tells Rev. Lovejoy: "there are 700 million of us, you know."
Last but not least: the Dutch have changed their regulations for sperm-donors, removing the promise of anonymity, and causing a steep decline in the number of donors. Armando, theoria and PBJDiddy may want to think about cancelling those plane tickets.