Religion
May 5, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
When Speaker Paul Ryan fired Rev. Patrick Conway from his job as Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, critics of the decision argued that Ryan made the decision because Conway is Catholic. Conway himself reportedly took that position in a complaint against the Speaker’s office. The claim is absurd. Ryan himself is Catholic. A more plausible charge is that Ryan fired Conway because of his theology. Conway is a
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April 29, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Who runs Pope Francis’s Twitter feed? Because this is beyond embarrassing—it’s so stupid it isn’t even idiotic: I’m on the road again today and tomorrow, but when I get home, remind me to dust off my copy of Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address and explain why it was the best and most important Papal speech of our still-young century. And thus why Francis is such an immense disappointment by any comparison.
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April 28, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
JK Scott is the punter for last season’s national champion University of Alabama football team who, during a recent team visit to the White House, initiated a prayer for President Trump. He described it this way: I said ‘Hey, Mr. Trump, would you let me pray over you.” “He said ‘Yeah, come on.” From there, Scott put one hand on Trump’s shoulder and the other on his chest. “And I
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April 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, I reported that, from what I’m hearing, Senate leadership is pushing to confirm Chai Feldblum as EEOC Commissioner this week. Feldblum, as we have discussed, is a left-wing radical who, among other things, formulated President Obama’s LBGT agenda. She thinks it’s fine if that agenda tramples religious freedom, as it often does. Sen. Mike Lee placed a hold on Feldblum’s nomination. However, the plan is to get Lee’s
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April 22, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Mike Lee has been fighting against the renomination of Chai Feldblum as EEOC Commissioner. Feldblum is the architect of President Obama’s radical LBGT agenda. She believes, among other things, that when religious liberty and sexual liberty conflict, sexual liberty should prevail in virtually all cases. The confirmation of Feldblum looked like a done deal in December. However, key social conservative groups sounded the alarm, and Sen. Lee placed a
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April 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
We have seen that, from a conservative perspective, the Alex Acosta Department of Labor is bad on immigration, bad on equal pay, and weak on at least one important wage and hour law issue. Now we learn that it is also bad on religious liberty. We learn this from the case of Acosta v. Cathedral Buffet, Inc.; Ernest Angley. In this action, the Department of Labor sued a restaurant operated
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April 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
On Tuesday, the University of Alabama football team visited President Trump at the White House. Trump honored the team for winning another national championship. The visit featured an impromptu prayer: Shortly after President Trump delivered his remarks, a group of players approached him and, after exchanging a few words, began to pray. The huddle showed the president bowing his head while a player placed his hand on Trump’s shoulder as
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April 4, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
There’s a new privilege for malcontents to obsess over: Christian privilege. The phenomenon must be real because George Washington University is holding a program about it: How do Christians in the USA experience life in an easier way than non-Christians? Even with the separation of Church and State, are there places where Christians have built-in advantages over non-Christians? How do we celebrate Christian identities and acknowledge that Christians receive unmerited
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March 25, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Trayon White is the D.C. Council member who explained that Jewish financiers control the climate and create natural disasters to gain political control. As I noted here, local Jewish leaders quickly forgave White and expressed their desire to work with him. Now, with Passover approaching, White is receiving invitations to multiple Seders. White accepted one of them. I’m not sure it’s a great idea to have White attend a Seder,
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March 10, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has agreed with the EEOC that a funeral home engaged in unlawful discrimination when it fired a male funeral director who was “transitioning” to female and dressing as a woman at work. The case is EEOC v. Harris Funeral Homes. The opinion is by Karen Nelson Moore, a Clinton appointee and one of the most left-wing federal appeals court judges in
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December 22, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) is, I believe, the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America. It articulates and advocates for public policy positions based upon traditional Jewish thought. Today the CJV sharply criticized the Trump Administration for re-nominating Chai Feldblum to the EEOC. Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Eastern Regional. Vice President of the CJV, explained: Feldblum has been truly unfriendly to accommodation of religious views. The decision to renew
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December 10, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Listening to the oral argument before the Supreme Court in the wedding cake case, it struck me how artificial the discussion was. Much of it centered on whether and under what circumstances cakes are speech. Bizarre. I don’t blame the advocates or the current Justices for the content of the argument. They must be mindful of Supreme Court precedents whether or not, as a practical matter, they fit this case
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October 29, 2017 — Steven Hayward
There’s a saying attributed variously to Robert Conquest or John O’Sullivan that “any institution that is not explicitly right-wing will become left-wing over time.” A good case in point is the Episcopal Church, which was once known as “the Republican Party at prayer,” but which has for the last several decades fallen in line behind every politically correct enthusiasm of the left. We imagine the conversation in the Episcopal clergy
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September 21, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
During the Days of Awe, which began yesterday at sundown with Rosh Hashanah and will conclude ten days later with Yom Kippur, Jews focus on repenting for transgressions we have committed in the year just ending. However, at Temple Sinai in upscale Northwest Washington Jews are focusing on something else. They are seeking atonement for the sins of the United States. Nor is this phenomenon confined to Washington. According to
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September 1, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Christian Adams at PJ Media reports that the United State Department of Justice issued subpoenas to force a Christian pastor in Virginia to disclose under oath his views on Islam. Fortunately, today a federal court dismissed the underlying case that gave rise to the subpoena. Nonetheless, the saga reminds us of the abusive leftism of the DOJ. Steve Harrelson is the pastor of the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in Boston,
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August 28, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Very sad news today of the passing of Michael Cromartie, after a long battle with cancer. I’ve known Mike for 30 years, and he was always my favorite person to encounter on the street or anywhere else in Washington. No one had a more infectious sense of joy and delight, which was the obvious product of his deep Christian faith, which he nevertheless applied with flinty realism in our always
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June 26, 2017 — Steven Hayward
I’m on the road today, departing shortly on a flight to Munich, and then connecting on to Bulgaria tomorrow (long story—I’ll try to post updates when I get internet access), but I’m keeping an eye out for Supreme Court news, especially the hoped-for retirement announcement of Justice Kennedy. One announcement from the Court today is important: they are taking up the appeal of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, which had
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