Streaming Progressive Faith by IPC

52 percent of them want churches to keep out of politics, according to a survey just released by the Pew Forum. It's not just one group or another, either. 51% of Republicans and 52% Democrats agree, as do 50% of conservatives. That's a twenty-point jump in just four years.

There's plenty of juicy material in the survey, including that Democrats are perceived as being faith-friendly by more people, though they're still pretty far behind the Republicans on that score.

These bullet points are my favorites, though:

• While some social conservatives are expressing changed views about religion and politics, there is little indication that they are changing their voting preferences: John McCain has about as large a lead over Barack Obama among conservatives and white evangelicals as George W. Bush did at this stage in the campaign four years ago.
• Just 28% of white evangelical Protestants say they are strong backers of McCain. Four years ago, 57% of white evangelicals described themselves as strong backers of President Bush.
• As was the case in previous presidential elections, the voting inclinations of Catholic voters – especially white non-Hispanic Catholics – remain fluid. Four years ago at this time John Kerry held a slight edge over Bush among white non-Hispanic Catholics; but he lost that lead by the election. In the current poll, this group, which accounts for 18% of the electorate, is divided almost evenly: 45% support McCain, while 44% favor Obama.
• For the most part, the issues that are important to the public as a whole are also important to particular religious groups. However, social issues, especially gay marriage, continue to be more important for white evangelicals than for other registered voters. Currently, 46% of white evangelicals say gay marriage will be a very important voting issue, compared with 28% of all voters. That is only somewhat less than the percentage of white evangelical voters who viewed gay marriage as very important in October 2004 (49%).

I don't know how much clearer it could be that "faith outreach" doesn't work. The kinds of social divisions that reflect along religious lines are deep-seated and resistant to change. So are the voting patterns that go along with them. Evangelicals vote Republican because the GOP best matches their social and philosophical outlook on issues like same-sex marriage.

That's not going to change until the social structures underlaying it change. It's certainly not going to change because some consultants spend a couple of years reassuring these voters that Democrats aren't so radical after all.

Today's Meditation: thanks to poetseers.org

God, God, God!

From the depth of slumber,
As I ascend the spiral stairway of wakefulness,
I whisper
God, God, God!

Thou art the food and when I break my fast
Of nightly separation from Thee
I taste thee and mentally say
God, God, God!

No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind
Ever keeps turning on Thee;
And in the battle dim of activity my silent war cry
Is ever;
God, God, God!

When boisterous storms of trials shriek
And worries howl at me,
I drown their noises, loudly chanting
God, God, God!

When my mind weaves dreams
With treads of memories,
Then on that magic cloth I do emboss;
God, God, God!

Ever night, in time of deepest sleep,
My peace dreams and calls; Joy! Joy! Joy!
And my Joy comes singing evermore;
God, God, God!

In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,
Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,
My soul constantly hums, unheard by any;
God, God, God!

- Paramahansa Yogananda

There's more:

Look, it's no mystery why John McCain keeps mentioning Iran's lack of "Judeo-Christian values". He's so old the only thing that gets his little flyboy to stand to attention is that sweet, sweet war porn. He wants to get it on with Iran, bad, and this is his way of telling the Clash of Civilization folks that he's pretty sure they wouldn't mind hitting that either.

This also applies to his repeated references to Georgia's long history of Christianity or his equally repeated confusion about Shiite Iran's involvement with Sunni al Qaeda. McCain knows that his target demographic believes that they're locked in a religious battle for supremacy against the Islamic crescent and, well, apparently against the godless Rooskies too. Anyway, they want a justification for going to war, and he's all too happy to oblige, using religious reasons or whatever's handy.

More to the point, perhaps, it's McCain's way of giving a wink-wink to John Hagee's people. He may have had to drop their pastor like a bucket of warm spit, but by God, he'll never give up their cause.

And inasmuch as "their cause" works out to welcoming Armageddon by glassing Iran or whoever Likud tells them is today's threat to Israeli security, this may be the kind of thing our elite media gatekeepers may want to figure out between now and November. But since the media narrative declares that the only religious story worth covering this year is whether Democrats have done enough to appease the kind of people who want to take away a woman's ability to control her own body, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Proof that there is a God:  Rachel Maddow gets her own TV show!

Wanker of the Day: Conservative radio host Mike Gallagher for arguing that lesbian adoptions will inevitably lead to the legalization of adoptions by pedophiles.

Majority of middle class supports progressive policies.

I couldn't have said it better

I am filling in for Deb Brown--she and her family were lucky to get tickets to see Sen. Obama--can you imagine her leaving us for that?  Yup, me too.  I worked and then Mom and I went to Marshall's where I scored some really great looking lamps and end tables for the living room.  The end tables I have right now are about as old as I am--so they are pretty close to being antiques!  I have a pink lamp and 2 off white ones that look like pottery--very 1990s--time for a change!  I can hardly wait to get this all together.  

Some college presidents are calling for the drinking age to be lowered again.  It seems silly to consider at 18 you are an adult in every other way--and sometimes earlier.  The drinking age was 18 when I was that age--although the states could decide for themselves, so there was a patchwork of often odd laws across the country.  New Jersey allowed 18 year olds to vote, Pennsylvania stayed at 21.  I went to college in Pennsylvania!  Ohio allowed drinking over 20 and from 18-20 they could drink 3-2 beer as it was called--3.2% alcohol.  That was a difficult law to watch.  Drunk driving deaths increased, but some of that was due to the need to drive to neighboring states to drink.  It made it easier for younger kids to get alcohol since they were more likely to know an 18 year old rather than a 21 year old.  We drank our lunches during High School a few times--we got served at 17..... I wish we didn't make drinking such a forbidden fruit.  If it wasn't a big deal, I don't think we would see so much binge drinking.  It is a nightmare to deal with under-aged drinking in colleges across the country.  Students have no idea just how stupid they act and look when they drink too much.  There seem to be so many more predators today--we had great guy friends who took care of us, who would never take advantage.  

So, what are you up to?  What are you eating and drinking and thinking about?  Pull up a chair and chat for a while.

Markos Moulitsas: Taking On The System: Rules For Radical Change In A Digital Era

For reasons that should become clear, this will be necessarily a brief review.

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] early morning for me--see you later!

Today's Meditation:

   COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   When upon life's billows
   You are tempest tossed
   When you are discouraged
   Thinking all is lost
   Count your many blessings
   Name them one by one
   And it will surprise you
   What the Lord has done


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   Are you ever burdened
   With a load of care
   Does the cross seem heavy
   You are called to bear
   Count your many blessings
   Every doubt will fly
   And you will be singing
   As the days go by


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   When you look at others
   With their lands and gold
   Think that Christ has promised
   You His wealth untold
   Count your many blessings
   Money cannot buy
   Your reward in heaven
   Nor your home on high


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   So, amid the conflict
   Whether great or small
   Do not be discouraged
   God is over all
   Count your many blessings
   Angels will attend
   Help and comfort give you
   To your journey's end


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


~ Johnson Oatman, 1897

There's more....

From the Ministry Institute at Mater Dei ( Full post )

As I've blogged here in years past, we always got the day after Halloween off. As young kids, we thought it might be to recover from the fun of the night before and have a day to barter candy from siblings. We thought this even though the nuns told us again and again the reason we had it off was because it was a feast day (and the mandatory Mass was a reminder it wasn't just a fun, fun day.) ( Full post )

Father Dan's Jubilee homily contained some great Jesuit history. And now the big challenge facing the Jesuits is lower numbers than the society once had. Interesting side note: California politico Jerry Brown was a year ahead of Father in the Society. He left in his fourth year. ( Full post )

From Britain's newspaper The Telegraph: ( Full post )

Blog reader Kipling L. McVay was in search of information about Mary Magdalene and her condemnation by Pope Gregory. (See post below.) ( Full post )

When Jesuit Dan Kendall was a novitiate in 1957 in California, the young men worked the seminary's vineyards. ( Full post )

The last Catholicism for a New Millennium lecture for the Fall will be this Thursday, November 29, at 7:30 at the Gonzaga Law School. John Perry SJ, from the University of Manitoba speaking on “Torture: Religious Ethics and National Security” ( Full post )

Monk and mystic Thomas Merton wrote these words in his 1949 book Seeds of Contemplation. See any parallels to today's world? ( Full post )

Took a long weekend to fly to San Francisco to celebrate Jesuit Dan Kendall's 50th year as a Jesuit. ( Full post )

Beliefnet has a cute cover story today reviewing 10 religious Halloween candies, representing a variety of faith traditions. (These are actual candies, mostly available through religious Web sites.) ( Full post )

I'm shuttering Journey to Vatican III today. It was a bit of a tough decision for me, because the blog has been a way to research Catholic issues and I've "met" Catholics from around the world who e-mailed me after reading blog items. ( Full post )

(This post is being simulblogged at Matter of Opinion. Go there if you do know some of the pioneers mentioned below. Almost all of them are well-known to people in regional Catholic Land.) ( Full post )

John Allen's weekly column in National Catholic Reporter had an interesting analysis of the pope's relationship with Latin American bishops. Liberation theology is always a sticking point. ( Full post )