Welcome to Distinctly Catholic, a blog by Michael Sean Winters that examines politics, religion and the estuary where the two meet, all from a distinctively Catholic point of view. The blog is small "c" catholic as well as big "C" Catholic, examining a wide range of issues but always from the perspective of Catholic history and theology.
Last week, after the authorities in Boston released the photos of the two suspects in the Marathon bombing case, a black friend of mine stopped by. “Thank God they are Caucasian,” he said. If you are in America and you are black, an instance of violence triggers the fear that the still-current prejudice against you and your race might get a fresh jolt of ugly enthusiasm if the perpetrator of the violence is black.
Writing at Religion & Politics, John Gehring asks what happened to the push for common ground around the proposition that both pro-life and pro-choice groups should pursue strategies to reduce the abortion rate. In part, as he reports, there was progress, with the inclusion of some provisions of the Pregnant Woman Support Act into the Affordable Care Act.
The Franciscan Action Network (FAN) applauded the Senate proposal on comprehensive immigration reform. "We especially welcome the inclusion of a path to citizenship, with a special provision for Dreamers, and several provisions which promote family unity," the group said in a press release. "In our initial and incomplete assessment, FAN has several concerns about the legislation, including stringent and costly border enforcement measures, the very long path to citizenship, and the elimination of the family sibling category."
The idea that the State of Israel exercises undue influence in Washington is an old and usually unsavory idea. It is disturbing to find it in the headline of an article at Commonweal.
Over at Politico, Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan on "How the NRA won." It is clear that the key senators whose votes will need to shift come from states that are culturally conservative and/or largely rural. Here is where the churches must come in. If the country is ever to get progress on gun control, the faith community will need to galvanize an alternative narrative from that be put forward by the NRA.
“We spend most of our days in denial, until the day it is no longer possible,” writes Michael Gerson in his column this morning. “The options are relatively simple: Either death is final, or love is final. ‘You wanted justice, didn’t you?’ says J.B.’s wife in Archibald MacLeish’s play. ‘There isn’t any…Only love.’”
Wasn't it just a few days ago that the Senate voted overwhelmingly to invoke cloture? What happened? Yes, the major part of the story is the NRA threatening senators. But, it is also time for the Senate Democrats to realize that they have, in Harry Reid, one of the worst Majority Leaders in recent history. Can you imagine this debacle happening on LBJ's watch?
Harold Meyerson, in the Washington Post, writes about how Wal-Mart is ruining everything, including Wal-Mart. How I wish President Obama would spend less time talking to his Wall Street buddies and more time with Meyerson.
Yesterday, CNN was roundly criticized for broadcasting premature reports that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston Marathon case when, in fact, no such arrest had been made. And I was criticized, both in the comments and by emails from people I respect for my post which included an inadequate characterization of Sr. Laurie Brink’s keynote address at an LCWR conference which, in turn, became one of the items mentioned in the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR.
Religion & Politics, the online journal of the Danforth Center, has two articles about the HHS mandate that sum up the divergent positions well.
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