Mitt Romney faces the Moral Majority

Last updated on: May 21, 2012 at 7:37 am By tmatt

When the Rev. Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979, many fundamentalist pastors were appalled by his decision to wade into the muck of politics. Even more shocking, Falwell said this would be an interfaith project from the get-go, one open to conservatives in many flocks — including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The goal was to focus on the moral convictions that united believers in different faiths, not the scriptures, creeds and theology that separated... Read more

Prof. Benedict addresses Catholic academia

Last updated on: May 14, 2012 at 8:32 am By tmatt

In his latest address to American bishops visiting Rome, Pope Benedict XVI stressed that Catholic educators should remain true to the faith — a reminder issued just in time for another tense season of commencement addresses. No, the pope did not mention Georgetown University by name, when discussing the Catholic campus culture wars. Yes, he did mention the law requiring professors who teach Catholic theology to obtain a Canon 812 “mandatum (mandate)” document from their bishops to certify that they... Read more

“Shocking” news for postmodern nuns

Last updated on: May 7, 2012 at 7:32 am By tmatt

In the beginning there was the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Women’s Institutes, which was established with the Vatican’s blessing in 1959 during an era of rapid growth for Catholic religious orders. Then along came two cultural earthquakes, the Second Vatican Council and the Sexual Revolution. In 1971 the women’s conference changed its name — this time without the Vatican’s blessing — to become the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Two leaders in this transformation later wrote that the... Read more

Why Chuck Colson spent Easter in prison

Last updated on: April 30, 2012 at 8:04 am By tmatt

It wasn’t the typical Bible text for an Easter sermon, but the preacher knew what this congregation needed to hear. Never forget, he said, what Jesus proclaimed in his first sermon: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.” This isn’t the sermon that many believers hear... Read more

2012: It’s religion news deja vu

Last updated on: April 23, 2012 at 9:06 am By tmatt

The late, great Associated Press religion reporter George Cornell noticed a striking pattern as he dug into a 1981 survey of journalists in elite newsrooms such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, ABC, CBS and NBC. In the space marked “religion,” 50 percent of these elite journalists wrote one word — “none.” “They wrote ‘none’ and many even underlined that word,” said Cornell, in an interview conducted for my graduate project at... Read more

Titanic sermons, a century later

Last updated on: April 16, 2012 at 10:56 am By tmatt

The White Star Line publicists pulled out all the stops when promoting the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic, even claiming in one brochure that these giants “were designed to be unsinkable.” By the time Titanic put to sea, this language had evolved into a boast — reportedly shared with passengers — that “God Himself couldn’t sink this ship.” Thus, when the liner sank on April 15, 1912, preachers on both sides of the Atlantic were among the first... Read more

Behind the Catholic flight from pews

Last updated on: April 9, 2012 at 6:56 am By tmatt

Early in Father William Byron’s research into why millions of Americans are leaving Catholic pews, he heard about one woman’s tense encounter with a parish receptionist and he’s been sharing the horror story ever since. The woman wanted to tell a priest about her feelings that she had lost “the Catholic church I grew up with.” However, she wasn’t sure she wanted to share the details with the woman who answered the parish telephone — who kept pushing for specifics.... Read more

BBC leader says race trumps religion

Last updated on: April 2, 2012 at 7:17 am By tmatt

The full-page New York Times advertisement by the Freedom From Religion Foundation was certainly blunt — starting with its headline telling “liberal” and “nominal” Catholics that “It’s Time to Consider Quitting the Catholic Church.” Conservative Catholics were outraged and called the newspaper’s leaders hypocrites, claiming they would never dare to run such a fierce and offensive ad that targeted believers in other faiths, especially Islam. Sure enough, a group called Stop Islamization of America immediately produced a full-page advertisement that... Read more

Lent and Easter, in blood, sweat and ink

Last updated on: March 26, 2012 at 1:34 pm By tmatt

The graphic tattoos that cover the bodies of millions of Russian prisoners symbolize their sins and crimes, their pain and suffering. Some of the tattoos are beautiful and hint at redemption. Others are disgusting, especially those etched involuntarily into the faces of victims by other prisoners as punishment for especially shameful crimes behind bars or on the outside. Put all of these images together, said artist Scott Erickson, and they tell the stories of broken people. That’s the big idea... Read more

Rise of the “secular Catholics”

Last updated on: March 19, 2012 at 5:01 am By tmatt

As a rule, opinion polls are not as important to bishops as they are to politicians. Nevertheless, CNN anchor Kyra Phillips recently asked Bishop Joseph Malone of Maine if he realized just how out of step he is with current doctrinal trends in his own flock. “So, bishop, times are changing,” she said. “Views are changing. … So, why not get on board with the 43 percent of Catholics?” The puzzled bishop replied: “The 43 percent who?” “Who have no... Read more