U.S. President Barack Obama waves as he walks out from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington May 10, 2012. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas Some rejoiced in the U.S. president’s courage. Others predicted hellfire at the polls. One pastor said he would reflect on the matter in prayer. President Barack Obama’s announcement on Wednesday that he supported same-sex marriage stirred impassioned responses at places of worship across the United States, underscoring the risk he took in coming out in favor of such a controversial measure. Gay and liberal Christians found renewed enthusiasm for Obama, who had disappointed many on the left when his 2008 message of hope and change ran into the realities of governing. “It just makes me giddy with joy. I have been ... Continue reading →

The presidential election will tell if Americans view support for gay marriage as a political sin but the vote is in on whether it is theologically sinful -- and it's a close call.A survey released today by LifeWay Research, a Nashville, Tenn., based Christian research group finds, 44% says yes, 43 % say no and 13% are unsure. The survey of 2,144 U.S. adults was conducted before President Obama evolved to support marriage equality and his GOP rival Mitt Romney revved up attention to his current view that marriage is only for one man and one woman.It found that, born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christians were the most negative: 82% call homosexual behavior sinful, 14% don't.Of course, sin means "different things to different people," said Scott ... Continue reading →

Mark Silk is a medievalist by training, and a professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. But what he really does, on his blog Spiritual Politics, which runs on the Web site of the Religion News Service, is to scan the religion-politics landscape and make a single shrewd observation every day. In a world where religion coverage is so often myopic and self-serving — everybody’s religion looks scary to outsiders — Silk stands on the sidelines with a passionate interest and a dispassionate point of view. At a time when words such as “faith,” “God,” and “Bible” can instantly trigger outrage (as when the journalist Dan Savage recently offended Christian students in a speech and then ridiculed them for taking offense), Silk refrains from predictable ... Continue reading →

Welcome to the first installment of GetGetReligion, an occasional look at GetReligion, the daily review of mainstream religion coverage that is dedicated to the proposition that "the press...just doesn't get religion." Written by Godbeat graybeard Terry Mattingly and a shifting cast of younger associates, GetReligion is bankrolled by conservative moneybags and Mattingly pal Roberta Ahmanson (a sometime MSM religion reporter herself). So while it loves finding missed religion angles and tosses the odd laurel along with the brickbats, the axe GetReligion perpetually grinds is that when it comes to religion, the press is guilty guilty guilty of secular liberal bias. The question we ask here at GetGet is, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?--or, loosely translated, What's that damn dog barking about anyway? From time to time ... Continue reading →