Terry Mattingly looks at the most recent battles, from the left and the right: If you could erase one moment from Sen. Barack Obama's White House campaign, which would you choose? That's an easy question for evangelicals, Catholics and other religious believers who back Obama. Most would happily erase all evidence of his speech last spring to a circle of insiders behind closed doors in San Francisco. For those who have ignored national news in 2008, Obama talked about meeting voters in rural Pennsylvania, where hard times have crushed hopes and fueled resentments. "So it's not surprising then that they get bitter," he said, that "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them ... to explain their frustrations." Welcome back to the "culture wars," all you politicos who hoped and prayed that talk about "values voters" and "pew gaps" would disappear. Instead, Republicans have been chanting this mantra -- "bitter," "cling," "God" and "guns" -- … [Read more...]
Mattingly on Fr. John Peck
Update (10/13/08): The complete, unedited column is now available on Terry Mattingly's site under the title, "Beyond Orthodox folk dancing." (10/11/08): Religion writer Terry Mattingly has a column in today's Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera newspaper that is a must read. He looks at the controversy surrounding the publication of Fr. John Peck's "The Orthodox Church of Tomorrow" here on the Web site of the American Orthodox Institute. Mattingly is a blogger at the GetReligion site, a syndicated columnist, and directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He recently joined AOI as an adviser. About Fr. Peck, Mattingly said that "the 46-year-old priest wrote an article about the positive Orthodox trends in America, as well as offering candid talk about the problems faced by some of his friends. He finished 'The Orthodox Church of Tomorrow' soon after arriving at the Greek Orthodox mission in Prescott, Ariz., and sent it to the American … [Read more...]