At the funeral of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in August 2009, Boston’s Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley pulled President Obama aside for a quiet word. It was a sign of things to come: the first failure of the president to understand the moral […]
With health-care battle not yet over, Obama must reach out to religious leaders Read More »
Mommy and daddy are fighting, and the anguished children don’t know where to turn. This is the state of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States today. A small group of very conservative bishops has hijacked the church, or
Catholics caught between bishops, Obama’s birth control mandate Read More »
People always ask, “What would Jesus do?,” but in America today, it’s impossible to know. And that’s because there are (at least) two prevailing views of God at work in our public and political conversation. It would not be an
Obama and Romney offer differing views of God Read More »
Cornel West is a self-proclaimed prophet who believes in the virtues of love and justice. But in his own life, he can’t seem to find either. In November 2007, Cornel West got onstage at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and before a
“I Want to Be Like Jesus.” Read More »
When President Obama threw his support behind same-sex marriage, he did something much more than please the members of the LGBT community and the people who love them. He gave hope and encouragement to millions of Americans struggling to do right
Obama’s embrace of gay marriage makes for a spiritual Mother’s Day Read More »
Last week, the Christianity police, in the persons of Rick Santorum and Franklin Graham, came forward to discredit the president’s religious beliefs. First, Santorum called President Obama’s theology “phony”; then, on “Morning Joe,” Graham refused to accept Obama into his Christian band
The religion and politics of division Read More »
A very wise Trappist monk once told me that unless everyone gets to heaven, no one will. It’s this sense of mutual responsibility — fundamental to the Judeo-Christian tradition — that President Obama needs to emphasize now. It seems far-fetched,
How Obama should fight the ‘war on religion’ Read More »
“We worship an awesome God in the blue states!” That was Barack Obama in 2004, not yet a U.S. senator, at the Democratic National Convention. And for the next four years, he did something extraordinary. He convincingly articulated a
Believers wonder: Where is the old Obama? Read More »
After this week’s debt-ceiling deal in Congress, trillions of dollars of spending cuts are on the table. New cuts will sink deep, laying bare the nation’s moral priorities. The tough choices will be left to a new Joint Select Committee on Deficit
Christians on both sides of budget battle claim to fight for the poor Read More »
Powerful new rhetoric on the religious right pits Obama and big government against ‘God’s America’—and promises to galvanize Christians in 2012. On Nov. 30, about a dozen moderate Christian leaders gathered for a meeting in Washington, D.C. Their colleagues on the religious
One Nation Under God Read More »