The Matthew 25 Network is saddened, shocked, and outraged by the assassination of George Tiller as he attended church on Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2009. Though our membership has a diversity of opinions on the question of abortion, we all agree that violence in the name of any political cause is absolutely unacceptable, and that Dr. Tiller’s assassination was an unequivocally evil act.
Our sincerest prayers go out to Dr. Tiller’s family and friends, as well as to his church family, whose memories of Pentecost Sunday 2009 will be forever marred by this act of heinous violence that happened in their midst. We pray that the God of comfort bring them blessing and hope in a time of deep trial and trauma.
As more information comes out about this disgusting act, it is becoming more and more apparent that verbal violence, the demonization of those on the other side of an incredibly emotional and volatile issue, was a major contributing factor in Dr. Tiller’s assassination.
This assassination should serve as a wake-up call, a clear indication that violent language leads to violent deeds and a clear invitation to all of us to speak and act in good faith and try to find common-ground solutions to our problems. We hope that our brothers and sisters on both sides of this issue will come together with us not only in condemning this act and all acts of terrorism, but also in striving to find common ground and a better way of talking about this issue, in order to ensure that acts of violence like this never happen again.
Faith in Public Life’s blog is up with a great round-up of coverage and a fact check on some of the false memes in religion and politics coverage of Sebelius. M25 has done a lot of new-media work on the Sebelius story… going forward – How can we, as a community, get better in driving the coverage.
Sebelius for HHS: The George Tiller False Attack in the MSM
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is President Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Under her leadership in Kansas, abortions dropped by more than 10%. While pro-choice, she is personally opposed to abortion and has worked to reduce the number of abortions in the very red state where she, a pro-choice Democrat, was elected twice as governor.
This is kind of sad. Aging end-times preachers trying to make since of a long gone radical theology. As Christians have been doing for generations cold-war end-times prophets came to believe that their enemies (Soviets and communism) were forebearers to the anti-Christ. Today that theology is bankrupt. But this interview should serve as a warning that we ought not be quick to declare our political enemies to be theological enemies.
A communism-Antichrist link seems nuts today. But only 20 years ago it was a fairly widely held opinion.
At a symposium Jan. 29 on Catholic social teaching and the new Obama administration, Catholic University of America history professor Leslie Woodcock Tentler challenged the recent declarations of some U.S. Catholic bishops who suggested it was sinful for Catholics to vote for Barack Obama.
The effect of episcopal statements focusing on legalized abortion as the nation’s overriding issue, she said, was to reduce U.S public perception of Catholic social teaching to what the church says about sex and to sever Catholic social teaching from the wider political discourse in the nation.
She said she is a lifelong Democrat who firmly believes that “our party is wrong on abortion,” but even if the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is reversed, abortion will almost certainly remain legal in every state, as demonstrated by the successive 2006 and 2008 referendums in South Dakota, where voters twice defeated measures that would have made most abortions illegal.
Daniel Burke, from Religion News Service, has an interesting reflection with Robert Bellah concerning President Obama
Though he has written numerous books and articles, Robert Bellahknows he will
always best be known as the author of “Civil Religion in America.”
The seminal 1967 essay, which popularized Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s notion of shared cultural ideas, illuminated the subtext beneath cherished American myths and ideals. Chief among these, Bellah argues, is that human rights are God-given, and America’s leaders are obliged to carry out God’s will.
Bellah talked about Abraham Lincoln, President Obama’s inaugural address, and why former President George W. Bush didn’t get (civil) religion. Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Some call Abraham Lincoln the Jesus of American civil religion—he freed the slaves, saved the country, and was killed on Good Friday,. Is that going too far?
Good write-up on Obama coming through on his torture and Gitmo promises.
By Mark Wilson, Getty Images
By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service
WASHINGTON — Religious leaders from the U.S. Catholic bishops to evangelical human rights advocates have applauded President Obama’s executive order that essentially ends torture of detainees held by the U.S. government.
On This second full day in office, the president signed an executive order on “ensuring lawful interrogations” to “promote the safe, lawful and humane treatment of individuals in United States custody.
The Matthew 25 Network is a community of Christians from diverse paths gathering in response to the words and acts of Christ. We humbly seek to love and care for all our neighbors.
