NCR Today

When I read this story, all I could say was, “you’ve got to be kidding!” The Catholic Bishops of Ohio have just issued a letter instructing Catholics not to support the “Race for the Cure” sponsored annually by the Susan G. Komen Foundation. That foundation is the largest group funding breast cancer research in the United States.

The reason? The bishops say that the Komen Foundation does not explicitly oppose the use of embryonic stem cells in research, a practice which the hierarchy condemns. It’s not that Komen actually funds research using embryonic stem cells. The bishops say explicitly that they have no evidence of that. Rather, the bishops say they oppose Komen because of the possibility that they might fund such research… because they have not said they won’t. Huh?

In an essay in the Huffington Post, Marie Griffith analyzes the peculiar brand of feminism adopted by America’s most prominent female evangelicals: Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

Griffith, who serves as director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., notes that the evangelical feminism of Palin and Bachmann is a “far cry” from the original movement founded by Christian women in the 1970s.

Back then, evangelical feminists found their faith in an egalitarian Jesus. They saw clear connections between their Christian beliefs and the principles of the Women’s Liberation Movement.

These Evangelical women leaned left, while the new breed of Evangelical feminists always seem to take a hard right.

Given their conservatism, how can Palin, Bachmann and their ilk be considered feminists? Griffith offers a helpful explanation:

He was criticized by many Christians for his controversial movie "The Last Temptation of Christ," but a new review of Martin Scorsese's work paints the director as one of America's most Catholic filmmakers.

Even beyond "Last Temptation," Scorsese has rarely achieved widespread acceptance; his films are often called too dark and tragic for general audiences. Movies like "Raging Bull" and "Gangs of New York" can seem bleak for bleakness sake -- offering nothing more than a downbeat take on a cynical world.

But in the July edition of Harper's Magazine, Vince Passaro writes passionately about how Scorsese's strong Italian Catholic upbringing lies at the heart of the stories he tells on film. In interviews, Scorsese has admitted that one of his great themes is betrayal -- and Passaro notes that in each movie, Scorsese's turncoat ends up alone, isolated from society, a Judas who pays a heavy price. More than that, Passaro writes, Scorsese's tragic figures demonstrate "what becomes of men who are separated from God, men who are lost."