On paper, Mitt Romney was an excellent candidate for the Republican nomination for president. Handsome, professionally successful, personally wealthy, happily married and with a blemish-free past, Romney looked like a pretty good bet. He was pitching himself as a conservative’s conservative
Romney and Religion Read More »
Reincarnation, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “rebirth in new bodies or forms of life; especially: a rebirth of a soul in a new human body.” This ancient belief, a core belief of more than 800 million Hindus, has been in the news, most recently because of allegations in Andrew Morton’s new book, “Tom Cruise:
Heaven is A Place On Earth Read More »
In the 20th Century no group was better at chronicling its own experience than the American Jews. You want self-loathing, assimilation and paranoia? Turn to Philip Roth. You want bright young women resisting and yet conforming to family expectations? Check out Allegra Goodman. You want the passionate rediscovery of Jewish history and values? Turn to
Is It Good For the Jews? Read More »
You might think of 2007 as the year the atheists won. They didn’t succeed in converting the 86 percent of Americans who say they believe in God into nonbelievers
Moderates Storm The Religious Battlefield Read More »
You need only go back to the first chapter of Genesis to see how elemental water is to the observance of faith: “And the Spirit of God,” the Bible says, “moved upon the face of the waters.” In the Torah, water is used to ordain priests and to purify the sons of Aaron before they
Bless This Bottled Water Read More »
You might think of this week as Kay Warren’s coming-out party. Her husband, Rick, who is perhaps the most celebrated evangelical pastor in the world under the age of 60, has long said that his commitment to solving the international AIDS crisis, culminating in the third global AIDS summit held at his Saddleback church in
AIDS And The Pastor’s Wife Read More »
Rick Warren, the influential pastor of the Saddleback megachurch in Orange County, Calif., invited eight presidential candidates to speak at his third annual “Global Summit on AIDS and the Church,” but only Hillary Clinton came. (Five other candidates made appearances via pretaped video.) Clinton’s speech at the church on Thursday
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Rudy Giuliani has a Catholic problem and it’s not, strangely enough, that he was raised as a Roman Catholic, considered becoming a priest, then dumped his second of three wives on television and has been photographed in a dress. Rudy’s Catholic problem is this: he is pro-choice, and 63 percent of white Catholics who go
A Catholic Dilemma: Can They Root for Rudy? Read More »
Over the past three years, Sen. John Kerry has had a lot of time to think about his God, and at a meeting with journalists in Washington earlier this month he shared those thoughts. He grew up in a Roman Catholic home before Vatican II; though devout, he prayed in private behind his closed bedroom
The Authenticity Test Read More »
On Nov. 14, in the enormous ballroom of the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel, hundreds of black-clad bishops were called to prayer-and then they got down to business. After a long debate, 221 of 224 members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the document, called “Faithful Citizenship.” The goal: to encourage American Catholics
Campaign Soul Searching Read More »