Politics Daily

Why Gingrich Needs to Find His Inner Victim

David Gibson — 2011-03-10T21:34:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Religion, Bill Clinton, 2012 President, Culture, Disputations, Conservatives, Newt Gingrich, Ethics

Newt Gingrich has always been a hard guy to feel sorry for, given his blustery and often bilious political opinions and an indulgent personal life marked by three marriages and a chilling indifference to the dire circumstances of his jilted spouses.

As David Frum put it, "It's not the infidelity. It's the arrogance, hypocrisy, and -- most horrifying to women voters -- the cruelty. Anyone can dump one sick wife. Gingrich dumped two."

And yet Gingrich's latest explanation for his tendency to stray from his vows -- an attempt to soften his image with the public ahead of an expected run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination -- doesn't seem to be helping, either.

'Rango' Aims at 'Spiritual but Not Religious' Audience -- Which Is Sizable

Jeffrey Weiss — 2011-03-10T13:22:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Culture

"Rango" is a new movie that aims for an interesting demographic. Whatever its other charms, it's distinctly anti-religion but pro-spirituality. Which is likely to resonate pretty well with many viewers -- while of course irritating others.

[SPOILER ALERT: I've not going to give up much that I've not seen in the various reviews. But if you're the type who doesn't want anything tipped off, please go see the movie before reading further. I'll wait.]

The film is as good as most of the reviews describe it. In an era of too many needless sequels and "kid-friendly" movies that aim dumb, "Rango" is consistently surprising and often sophisticated. Plus fun and funny. And gorgeously animated.

The plot? Stick with me here: A talking pet chameleon who has apparently gone psychotic from loneliness (conversing with inanimate objects in his terrarium) gets lost in the Mojave Desert. He finds a town of like-sized talking animals and proceeds to have a Wild West adventure with elements pulled from just about every old western you've ever seen. (Plus a heaping helping of the movie "Chinatown.")

The ads tout it as a "family film" but there were parts that made me wonder if they were talking about the Addams Family. There's not much that's remotely cute about "Rango." It's realistically dirty and coarse in a way that made me think of the new version of "True Grit." A couple of the animal characters die in pretty unpleasant ways. Some of the dialogue and many of the cultural references will be utterly lost on 'tweens, much less younger kids. And the ultimate villain, a gigantic rattlesnake with guns where his rattles should be, slithers straight off the screen into your child's nightmares (without any need of 3D, I might add).

In other words, the film earns its PG rating.

Where does religion enter in? Back to the plot: The story centers on a battle for water rights. The little town (called "Dirt") is drying out. At noon every Wednesday, all of the inhabitants grab a bottle and line up. They perform a weirdly slapstick ritual to the tune of the Bob Nolan classic "Cool Water," bowing and bending and whacking each other as they approach a huge (for the animals) rusty pipe.

The mayor (a wonderfully menacing tortoise) and his oddly attired sidekicks produce the valve handle, which has the shape of a circle bifurcated by a cross. The mayor holds it aloft, like a consecrated host (or the way a rabbi holds up the Torah, if that's your ritual of choice).

"Acolytes, prepare the holy spigot," the mayor intones, in case you've missed the point.

But when the valve is turned, nothing emerges but mud. The ritual has failed.

The idea here is clearly to ridicule religious ritual -- to make us laugh at the goofiness.

How about the spiritual elements? They permeate the movie like the heat and the sand. At the very start, the suddenly lost lizard meets a Don Quixote-like armadillo who sets him off on what may as well be called a vision quest.

At one point, the critters all hold hands while one offers up a prayer to the "Spirit of the West" that ends in a quiet "amen." And later, the Spirit manifests itself as a Clint Eastwood clone (in Clint's spaghetti western "Man With No Name" persona) driving a white golf cart with Oscar statues in the back.

Yup, these are funny. But the movie wants us to laugh with these scenes, not at them. And ultimately, Rango fulfills his vision quest, finds his true and heroic identity, saves the town and gets the girl.

I can find no evidence that either the director (who come up with the idea for the movie), Gore Verbinski, or the script writer, John Logan, have addressed why they played faith issues the way they did.

Some religious movie reviewers have squirmed a bit about "Rango."

From Catholic News Service: "A reference to the 'face of God' during this episode approaches outright blasphemy."

The official U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website offers a small frown, saying that its "ill-advised foray into religious humor will jar on the sensibilities of many grownups."

Crosswalk.com inventories religious references: "Discussion of the 'spirit of the West'; the mayor says 'people have to believe in something'; the people of Dirt claim a 'great day of deliverance' and 'the time that was foretold,' and shout, 'Hallelujah!'; Rango mistakenly believes another character is 'consulting with the spirits'; mayor says others attribute divine power to him; a villain says, 'I'll take your soul straight down to hell' and suggests hell is his home; water is said to be the town's 'salvation.' "

Movieguide ("the family guide to movies and entertainment") is less bothered: "Very strong moral worldview with some light Christian, redemptive references and content, including some references to God but references to 'the Spirit of the West' are a little bit ambiguous but in an entertaining way that's endearing."

Christianity Today's Russ Breimeier gives a mostly positive review but notes: "Even weirder is the scene where the citizens of Dirt line up for their weekly water ration and begin some jerky choreography . . . followed by some hallelujah-smattered liturgy with the Mayor that borders on sacrilege. (In contrast, I found one critter's heartfelt prayer of thankfulness to the 'Spirit of the West' strangely touching, reminiscent of characters in the fiction of C. S. Lewis praying to their own god.)"

So who is the "spiritual but not religious" theme aimed at?

A Newsweek poll in 2009 turned up about 30 percent of Americans who identified as "spiritual but not religious." And last year, the Southern Baptist Convention's LifeWay Christian Resources reported a poll of 18 to 29-year-olds: 72 percent said that they're "really more spiritual than religious."

These are folks who are drawn to the eternal questions of faith but are turned off by some of the specifics of dogma and ritual. The entertainingly animated "Rango" may be drawn explicitly for them.

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Survey Rebuts Rep. Peter King's Claims on Radicals and Mosques

David Gibson — 2011-03-10T10:29:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Religion, Investigations, Immigration, Terror, National Security, Disputations, Congress, Conservatives, al Qaeda, Islam

As Rep. Peter King opened his controversial hearing into "radicalization in the American Muslim community" on Thursday morning, researchers were noting that King's claims about mosques in the United States being controlled by "radical imams" who are producing extremists are apparently untrue.

King, a Long Island Republican under fire for once supporting Irish Republican Army terrorism but now pursuing Islamic extremism, has claimed that over 80 percent of American mosques are controlled by "radical imams" and that Muslims are "an enemy living amongst us" who are not helping authorities combat terrorism. He has also lamented the number of mosques in the United States because they breed "home-grown" terrorists.

But a 2008 survey of 1,410 Muslims that was the largest ever conducted showed that almost all Muslims who regularly go to a mosque are likely to agree with the statement that Islam and the American political system are compatible.

The study by Karam Dana, who teaches at Tufts University, and colleague Matt A. Barreto shows that among Muslims who do not attend religious services regularly, 77 percent answered "yes" when asked whether Islam and American political values are compatible. Among those who are regularly involved in a mosque, that figure rose to 95 percent. The research confirmed results from a smaller, earlier survey.

"The more religious American Muslims happen to be, the more they participate in American politics," Dana told Religion News Service.

Like other religious institutions in the United States, mosques have helped members assimilate into American society and promoted support for American civic and political values, Dana said.

"Decades of scholarship on religious institutions, be they churches or synagogues, have shown that they foster participation in the political system," said Dana. "We believe that mosques are no different."

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Rep. Peter King's Hearing on American Muslims: How Radical? How Dangerous?

Patricia Murphy — 2011-03-10T00:02:00+00:00

Filed under: House, Democrats, Republicans, Religion, The Capitolist, Congress, Islam

Rep. Peter King's controversial hearing today examining the threat of radical Islam will feature two men whose family members became caught up in violent extremism, with tragic consequences.

A glimpse of the hearing emerged Wednesday as critics implored the New York Republican to scrap the session or broaden its focus. But King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, defended his approach even as he faced threats as well as questions about his own past as a supporter of the anti-British Irish Republican Army.

On Wednesday, a group of more than 50 Democrats, including the two Muslims serving in the House, wrote to King, asking him to cancel the hearing or examine religions in addition to Islam.

Should Rep. Peter King Investigate the Catholic Church?

David Gibson — 2011-03-09T16:40:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Religion, Terror, Disputations, Congress, Conservatives, Analysis, Islam

Rep. Peter King, the Long Island congressman who for years supported the Irish Republican Army as it waged a terror campaign to eject the British from Northern Ireland, says that track record has no bearing on his controversial decision to hold hearings this week on what he calls the "radicalization" of Islam in America.

The two examples are different, he argues, and the main reason is that unlike radical Muslims, the I.R.A. never launched attacks in the United States. (That made sense, since Irish-Americans were sending crucial material support to the I.R.A.)

"I understand why people who are misinformed might see a parallel. The fact is, the I.R.A. never attacked the United States. And my loyalty is to the United States," King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told The New York Times.

Ash Wednesday Idea: Beat Guilt This Lent -- Literally

David Gibson — 2011-03-08T22:26:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Culture, Disputations, Ethics

In an age when boosting self-esteem is seen as the answer to every problem, the idea of physically punishing oneself to expiate guilt is a notion that borders on the medieval.

But just in time for Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season of penance, new research shows that some form of "mortification of the flesh" -- the old-fashioned term for inflicting physical discomfort for spiritual growth -- can in fact alleviate feelings of guilt.

The old Christian ascetics knew it, and now social scientists have some proof that it's true -- and some explanation as to why that's so.

"One reason may be that the experience of physical pain alleviates feelings of guilt associated with immoral behavior," Brock Bastian writes in an article titled "Cleansing the Soul by Hurting the Flesh," which appears in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science.

Bastian and his colleagues at the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia divided 62 volunteers into three groups and asked two of the groups to write about an occasion when they "rejected or socially excluded another person" -- in other words, when they did something they felt bad about. The third group wrote about a neutral "everyday interaction [they] had with another person yesterday."

All completed a questionnaire that tested for levels of guilt. Then one group that wrote about something they felt guilty for immersed their hand into a bucket of ice water for as long as they could (it hurts -- try it) while members of the second group that wrote about treating someone badly immersed a hand in a nice, warm bath. The third "control" group -- the folks who didn't write about being a jerk and didn't feel especially guilty -- also got the ice water treatment.

Afterward they all rated how painful it was and also how guilty they felt after it was over.

The verdict: those people who had written about rejecting someone not only left their hands in the ice water longer and reported more pain, but they also emerged feeling half as much guilt as those who got the warm water treatment.

In short, Bastian argues, we want to give meaning to pain, to portray it as a comprehensible part of a cosmic balance sheet or a means of achieving justice so that suffering is not pointless; indeed, the Latin word for pain is poena, which means "penalty."

"Understood this way, pain may be perceived as repayment for sin in three ways," he writes.

"First, pain is the embodiment of atonement. Just as physical cleansing washes away sin...physical pain is experienced as a penalty, and paying that penalty reestablishes moral purity. Second, subjecting oneself to pain communicates remorse to others (including God) and signals that one has paid for one's sins, and this removes the threat of external punishment. Third, tolerating the punishment of pain is a test of one's virtue, reaffirming one's positive identity to oneself and others."

Now maybe you don't have a guilty conscience. Or maybe you recoil from the thought of flagellating yourself everyday like that spooky albino monk from "The Da Vinci Code" who actually did have something to feel guilty about. (Though it turns out the late Pope John Paul II did something similar, and he is up for sainthood. Go figure.)

But Bastian's research does indicate that engaging in some form of physical self-denial during the 40 days of Lent (or the High Holy Days or the month of Ramadan or whatever you prefer) might be beneficial to easing normal guilt, and that today's milder forms of mortification -- giving up chocolate or going on a carbon fast (reducing energy consumption) or even making Ash Wednesday a "spa day," as one pastor is doing -- may not be enough.

On the other hand, an earlier paper on the same topic, by Rob Nelissen and Marcel Zeelenberg at Tilburg University in The Netherlands, also identified what it called "the Dobby effect" -- named after the self-punishing house elf from the "Harry Potter" series. Poor Dobby felt guilty for disobeying his (albeit evil) masters and could not make amends, and hence continually abused himself.

While Nelissen and Zeelenberg also showed that people tend to alleviate guilt by punishing themselves, they found that they take that option only when they are not able to directly repair their relationship with the person they believe they have hurt.

That may explain why people use general rituals of self-denial -- fasting or a stone in the shoe or a hair shirt in more extreme cases -- if they can't or won't bring themselves to apologize directly to the offended person and why Lenten penance is being adapted for wider social causes, like climate change or world hunger, in which there is a no individual person to whom we can say, "I'm sorry."

"[H]elping someone else...does not repair your relationship with the victim," Nelissen writes. "I think that by self-punishing we in fact try to send a signal of remorse to our victim to let him or her know we still care about the relationship, even though we are unable at present to make amends directly."

Nothing wrong with a little mortification, then, as long as we don't go around broadcasting our virtue like "the hypocrites," as Jesus warned.

And as long as we don't take it too far. The Catholic Church defines a "fast day" as having just one full meal, and exempts children under 14 and those over 60, and anyone who could not physically tolerate such a regimen. That's not too onerous, and is probably good for us given the nation's epidemic of obesity.

Simple, clear rituals of physical penance are also less likely to deteriorate into an overemphasis on personal guilt and expiation, which is criticized by traditional Christianity as "scrupulosity," and is diagnosed by psychiatry as an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Indeed, while guilt is so often dismissed as the unjust product of manipulative religions -- Catholic guilt, Jewish guilt, Puritan guilt, you name it -- Sigmund Freud and his disciples saw guilt as a fact of the human condition. And guilt can be good in motivating conscientious people to make amends to victims, if possible, or to the wider community, or to God, or all three.

The key is to do something about guilt rather than just going around banging our head against furniture. After all, who wants to be Dobby?

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21 Priests in Philadelphia Suspended on Sex Abuse Allegations

David Gibson — 2011-03-08T18:32:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Scandal, Crime, Disputations, Catholic Scandal

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia on Tuesday placed 21 priests on administrative leave following a damning grand jury report last month -- the second investigation of sex abuse by priests in recent years -- that said up to 37 clerics suspected of abuse remained in ministry.

Rigali suspended the priests on the eve of Ash Wednesday and the penitential season of Lent. In a statement, Rigali expressed his "sorrow" for the abuse of children by clergy.

"I am truly sorry for the harm done to the victims of sexual abuse, as well as to the members of our community who suffer as a result of this great evil and crime," Rigali said.

The grand jury charged three priests and a parochial school teacher with raping and assaulting boys in their care, while a former official with the Philadelphia Archdiocese was accused of allowing the abusive priests to have access to children. Most of the cases were beyond the statute of limitations and could not be prosecuted.

Several of the 37 priests cited by the grand jury had been suspended from ministry before Tuesday's action or were incapacitated and have not been in active ministry, the archdiocese said. Two other priests no longer serve in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and are members of religious orders, whose leaders have been notified of the accusations.

Eight priests cited by the grand jury were cleared by an independent examination, the archdiocese said.

The revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in Philadelphia and threaten to reopen the abuse scandal that the U.S. hierarchy has tried to put behind it.

Shortly after the grand jury report was released, Rigali hired Gina Maisto Smith, a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney who has prosecuted child sexual assault cases for nearly two decades, to lead a review of the 37 cases.

"I was given the unlimited freedom to do a thorough review with full access to all files and documents," Smith said in the statement.

She will now lead a team that includes a "nationally renowned pediatrician" in the field of child abuse, a forensic psychiatrist and psychologist, an expert from the child advocacy community and other experts in investigating the remaining cases more fully.

"These administrative leaves are interim measures," Rigali stressed. "They are not in any way final determinations or judgments."

Tuesday's action was one of the most sweeping in the decade since widespread revelations of child sexual abuse by clergy began battering the Catholic Church, and they indicate that the church is still in the midst of what has been called the "Long Lent" of American Catholicism.

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Mike Huckabee Holds Strong Lead Among Conservative Christian Bloc

David Gibson — 2011-03-04T21:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Mitt Romney, Religion, Mike Huckabee, Polls, Sarah Palin, 2012 President, Disputations, Conservatives, Newt Gingrich, Barack Obama

Mike Huckabee has been making waves lately for his comments about Natalie Portman's out-of-wedlock pregnancy and Barack Obama's "anti-colonial" boyhood, but a new poll shows the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential hopeful still seems to be the hands-down favorite of conservative Christian voters who will be critical to securing the nomination.

The survey from the Barna Group, a leading Christian research organization, also indicates that Huckabee could go toe-to-toe with all Republican challengers, and he would be the toughest foe for President Obama in November 2012.

Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, is strongest among evangelical Christians -- the 7 percent of the population that Barna defines by the strictest criteria of traditional faith and biblical literalism -- with an 88 percent favorable rating, followed by former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with a 79 percent favorable ranking.

The field tails off considerably from there among evangelicals, with Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney -- who are widely expected to be among the first to throw their hats in the ring -- clocking 57 and 56 percent favorability ratings, respectively.

President Obama registers a meager 6 percent approval rating among this group, and an eye-opening 94 percent unfavorability rating.

Among "born again Christians" -- a pivotal and largely Republican-leaning group in the last three elections that Barna describes as "considerably less conservative than its evangelical subset" -- Huckabee still leads, with a 58 percent favorability rating. But Romney surges to a 49 percent positive ranking, just behind Palin at 53 percent. Gingrich polls at just 43 percent among born again Christians.

Among all Republicans, Palin and Romney post 69 percent favorability scores, but Huckabee is just behind with a 68 percent favorable rating. Gingrich generated a 62-32 positive-to-negative score among members of his party.

Spread across all voters, the numbers for the leading GOP candidates reflected other recent polls, as Huckabee still led, with 44 percent of adults holding a favorable view and 38 percent a negative view of him, followed by Romney, at an almost even 40-39 favorable-to-unfavorable ratio.

But the numbers for Palin (36 percent favorable) and Gingrich (32 percent favorable) fall off sharply from there.

An analysis by the Barna Group, which is led by evangelical Christian George Barna, concludes that while Obama stands "a better-than-even chance of being re-elected . . . Mrs. Palin would be the easiest opponent for him to defeat, while Mr. Huckabee would be the toughest adversary."

The numbers also suggest, however, that Huckabee's greatest electoral challenge could be securing his own party's nomination. In 2008, Huckabee's support among religious conservatives propelled him through the primaries, but he still finished second to John McCain.

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What Would Jesus Cut? Deficit Debate Rallies Christians -- and Exposes Divisions

David Gibson — 2011-03-03T22:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Religion, Taxes, Polls, Disputations, Congress, Conservatives, Liberals, Deficit, Tea Party, White House, Economy, John Boehner, 2012 Elections

"What would Jesus do?" That question has for years been a powerful slogan for conservative Christians who want to challenge Americans to conform to Gospel teachings. But now that some are applying the rallying cry to the nation's divisive budget battles, it is also exposing divisions among Christians as much as it is offering a united witness of faith -- or public policy.

Earlier this week a coalition of dozens of progressive Christian leaders led by Jim Wallis of Sojourners launched a campaign, "What would Jesus cut?" with a full-page ad in Monday's edition of Politico, and the group is following it up by sending e-mails and orange wristlets with the slogan to all members of Congress in an effort to prevent cuts for the poor and reduce defense spending.

Then on Thursday, a group of prominent evangelicals with a more conservative cast (though some signed onto both initiatives) launched a "A Christian Proposal for American Debt Crisis" that focuses on the deficit as a moral issue -- much as House Speaker John Boehner did this week -- but which also opposes the Republican-led effort to address the debt by slashing discretionary spending.

"Effective programs that prevent hunger and suffering and empower poorer members of society must continue and be adequately funded," the latest petition says.

Yet even as these Christian leaders, many of them card-carrying conservatives, push to spare the poor while reducing the deficit, they face serious internal tensions and fractures on two fronts: among themselves, on the one hand, and between these leaders and the folks in the pews, on the other.

Among the leadership, one clear difference of opinion is over what ought to be cut. Some would spare foreign aid to the poor and sacrifice more on the domestic side, while others disagree about whether defense spending should be significantly reduced. And the minefield of entitlement reform is treaded on ever so lightly, much as it is on both sides of the aisle in Washington.

At the same time, these faith-based campaigns focus almost exclusively on the issue of cutting spending and largely avoid the dreaded "t-word" -- taxes -- which has the potential to splinter any coalition.

For example, the "Christian Proposal for American Debt Crisis" launched on Thursday has only a broadly worded phrase near the end that says Congress "should remove many special exemptions, end many special subsidies, and keep the tax code progressive."

"Our general statement says we keep the tax code progressive. It doesn't say exactly how we do that," Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, a chief organizer of the petition, said on a Thursday conference call with other signatories that was organized by the liberal-leaning group, Faith in Public Life.

Sider said he would personally support a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans but acknowledged that not all of his colleagues agree with him.

Indeed, only one of the other five evangelicals on the call, Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, who is now a fellow at the ONE Campaign and a columnist for the Washington Post, responded to a question about tax hikes, and he cautioned against the idea because he said it would undermine economic growth.

Yet even modest language on protecting anti-poverty programs, for example, which are a relatively miniscule part of the federal budget, were seen as tantamount to "heresy" by Peter Wehner, writing at Commentary, about the "What Would Jesus Cut?" campaign.

Wehner's critique points directly to the other fault line facing Christian leaders advocating for the poor, namely the veritable gulf between even the more conservative activists like Michael Gerson and the believers in the pews.

As a recent Pew survey showed, evangelical Christians in particular are significantly more likely than other Americans to favor spending cuts on aid to poor people in the United States and overseas, and cuts on spending on behalf of the unemployed, environmental protection, scientific research, health care and education.

"I would say that we need an ongoing biblical dialogue with my brother and sister evangelicals," is how Ron Sider diplomatically phrased his reaction to the survey.

Shane Claiborne of The Simple Way, another speaker at Thursday's press conference, was more direct:

"I think that much of evangelical Christianity has lost the centeredness of Jesus and Jesus' heart for the poor and Jesus' Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount," he said. "We're starting with Christians because in some ways we've forgotten the 2,000 [Bible] verses that dare us and challenge us to remember the poor."

Claiborne called defense spending the "elephant in the room" that no one wanted to talk about, a reflection of the fact that the Pew survey showed that the only sectors of the federal budget on which evangelicals wanted to increase spending more than the rest of the public was defense and fighting crime.

Likewise, Gideon Strauss, president of Center for Public Justice, seemed to reject the philosophy of the tea party movement -- which surveys show is disproportionately composed of conservative white evangelicals -- when he declared Thursday that "those who disdain government and the political process dishonor God and their own humanity."

That's a powerful bit of preaching, but it's hard to see how it can affect a conversion on a flock that is in no mood to hear about shared sacrifices. Even more daunting is the task of translating such lofty principles into policy proposals that could unite Christian leaders themselves while having any chance of achieving their shared goals of protecting social programs while reducing the deficit and not raising taxes.

In the end, the Devil is always in the details, whether it's a question of the federal budget or what Jesus really meant.

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Boy Wrestles With Faith, Not Girl: Is it Christianity or Chivalry?

David Gibson — 2011-03-02T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Culture, Disputations

The case of the Iowa high school wrestler who cited his Christian beliefs in forfeiting a recent match against a girl in a state tournament seemed to be another one of those skirmishes in the culture wars that clearly pit religious tradition against modernity.

The sophomore wrestler, Joel Northrup, said his decision to default his match against freshman Cassy Herkelman in the 112-pound class was based on his religious convictions -- he didn't think it was right for a boy to try to subdue a girl physically or to touch her so intimately.

Even Cassy and her family said they respected Northrup's integrity in putting his principles over the chance to compete for the top prize in a state famed for churning out some of the best grapplers in the country.

But when pressed, Northrup and his father, Jamie Northrup, also conceded that they couldn't actually cite chapter or verse in the Bible to justify Joel's decision.

"Even though there's no specific Scripture that addresses wrestling with girls, there is the biblical Christian principle of treating women with respect and dignity and not looking at them as objects to be defeated on the wrestling mat, or in some cases, to be groped or slammed," Jamie Northrup told CNN.

But given that lack of scriptural foundation, some Christians argue that the Northrups -- and their many cheerleaders among conservative Christians -- are confusing Gospel teachings with culturally conditioned traditions that don't do justice to either the Bible or to Cassy Herkelman.

"When Joel refused to wrestle Cassy, he took an opportunity away from her. An opportunity for her to shine using her own God-given strength and ability. An opportunity to win or lose, fair and square," Caryn Rivadeneira, a popular Christian writer, wrote at the "Her.meneutics" blog of the evangelical monthly, Christianity Today.

Rivadeneira made a point of applauding Joel's decision to stress his opposition to violence toward girls.

"But I wonder," she added, "why he thinks the Christian faith smiles on violence-for-fun against fellow boys. I'm confident that it doesn't. My guess is that his decision to default has more to do with his view of who is against him on the mat than it does with actual violence. And I think his refusal has more to do with his cultural view of girls than his Christian faith."

Her post, like the story of Northrup's decision, has generated a huge amount of commentary among Christians, both in support and opposition to Joel's decision.

Joel's defenders said that in refusing to wrestle Cassy the 16-year-old boy was "only expressing what would have been taken as common sense and common decency just a few years ago," as R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, put it in a column on the Iowa wrestling controversy.

"This is insanity masquerading as athletic competition," Mohler wrote. He said the episode represents "a clash of worlds and worldviews" pitting modern liberals who see Joel as "a religious nut" against traditionalists who see Joel "as a young man of brave and noble conscience." Joel's actions were "moments of temporary sanity in a world going increasingly mad."

Similarly, Mark T. Mitchell at Front Porch Republic found it "heartening to see a young man attempt to uphold the ideals of the gentleman" against what he called "the leveling impulse of the age."

"Perhaps that singular ideal can be sustained during our long sojourn through the wilderness of liberalism," Mitchell wrote. "If and when we emerge on the other side, it may provide a hopeful reminder of what is possible and how a decent society might be constructed around ideals that foster acts of nobility, deference, propriety, and kindness."

Yet Mitchell and Mohler and other conservative defenders of Joel's decision invoked the medieval notion of "chivalry" to frame their argument rather than citing any specific Gospel inspiration.

That seems to bolster the view that Northrup's decision was more a matter of good manners than biblical teachings -- not that there's anything wrong with that. There is widespread and understandable nostalgia for the days of old when knights were bold, as well as being honorable and upstanding men who eschewed vulgarity and treated a lady as if she were the Virgin Mary.

Interestingly, it was European contact with Arab Muslims, whose soldiers were seen not only as gifted fighters but also as pious, courteous, and literary men of honor, that helped create the virtues of chivalry eventually adopted by medieval knights. Christendom baptized chivalry as a moral and religious code, and centuries later the idealized knight was transformed by the rising middle class into the role of the respectable gentleman.

In theory, anyone willing to discipline themselves could be a gentleman, and for the Puritans and then the Victorians, Christianity proved to be a useful tool in that training.

"It has been said that no man can be a gentleman who is not a Christian," the 19th century author and moralist T. S. Arthur wrote in one of his popular books. "We take the converse of this proposition, and say that no man can be a Christian who is not a gentleman."

But the connection between the Good Book and good behavior seemed to grow more tenuous the more it was asserted. "Good" Christians should not drink, it was claimed, and that gave birth to the temperance movement that led to Prohibition, despite the fact that Jesus and the apostles all drank wine, and quite frequently. Movie-going was off-limits, of course, and the length of skirts was regulated as if according to a rule set out in Leviticus.

Such scrupulous concern for outward probity led to the quip that Baptists were against premarital sex because it might lead to dancing.

Baptists still aren't big on drinking, actually, but movies are okay and born again Christian girls across America are encouraged to strut their stuff in beauty pageants that would have made their Victorian forebears blanch. (O tempora! O mores!)

The concern now seems to be that wrestling between a boy and a girl might lead to transgressions of a physical nature. (There is apparently no analogous outcry against boys touching each other's private parts while on the mat, nor of girls wrestling as long as it is with each other -- an activity that hardly seems in keeping with chivalrous notions of female modesty.)

But Caryn Rivadeneira notes that Jesus frequently broke the customs of his day when it came to dealing with women. He healed the bleeding woman who would have been considered unclean by standards of the time, for example; he talked with the Samaritan woman who Jews were supposed to avoid, and he allowed a prostitute who the Pharisees said he should completely avoid to wash his feet with her tears.

"That was the way Jesus behaved in a terrible-case scenario for women," Rivadeneira writes. "He provided opportunities. He didn't shirk away because things could be awkward. He didn't ease up because women were weak. Jesus treated women like humans. Like breathing, feeling, thinking, capable people."

Cassy herself seemed to echo that view, saying after winning her match by default that she should not be treated differently because she is a girl.

"The fact that I'm doing the same sport as them [boys], that I'm doing the same things as them, I don't think they should be much different," she told reporters.

Cassy Herkelman and Joel Northrup lost their subsequent matches in the tournament and so are done for the season. But the debate seems destined to go on.

Herkleman and another girl were the first of their gender to wrestle in Iowa's state tournament, but thousands of girls are competing in wrestling tournaments across the country, and their numbers are growing. That has led some to call for separate tournaments for girls and boys, but that may not happen anytime soon.

And it seems unlikely anyone will solve the riddle of whether Jesus would wrestle a girl, or whether his modern-day followers should. The discomfort factor for a teenage boy grinding a girl into the mat -- or being ground into the mat by her -- is certainly understandable, and maybe that should have been the single, and sufficient, criteria for Joel's decision, and the arguments of his defenders.

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Pope's 'Passion of the Christ': Don't Blame Jews for Death of Jesus

David Gibson — 2011-03-02T11:43:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Culture, Disputations, Pope Benedict XVI

In a new book on the historical Jesus set for release next week, Pope Benedict XVI forcefully argues that the Jewish people cannot be blamed for Christ's death on the cross and that even the most historically loaded Gospel phrases -- such as when the crowd shouts, "His blood be on us and on our children" -- are "not a curse, but rather redemption."

The blood of Jesus, Benedict writes, "does not cry out for vengeance and punishment, it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone, it is poured out for many, for all...[R]ead in the light of faith, it means that we all stand in need of the purifying power of love which is his blood."

Jewish groups welcomed the pope's remarks, with Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League calling the book "an important and historic moment for Catholic-Jewish relations" and saying Benedict has "rejected the previous teachings and perversions that have helped to foster and reinforce anti-Semitism through the centuries."

The Vatican on Wednesday published excerpts of the book, "Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two," the second volume of the pope's take on the gospels. The book is to go on sale on March 10, the day after Ash Wednesday and the start of the six-week season of Lent that will culminate with the commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus on Good Friday and Easter Sunday -- the period that Benedict focuses on in this second volume.

Supreme Court Upholds Westboro Baptist Church's Right to Military Funeral Protests

Andrew Cohen — 2011-03-02T10:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Law, Supreme Court

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that vitriolic anti-gay protests at military funerals are a form of political speech protected by the First Amendment.

Writing for the majority in an 8-1 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that the Westboro Baptist Church, led by its founder, Fred Phelps, could not be held liable for money damages sought by the family of a slain Marine, Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, whose funeral was picketed by church members in 2006. Only Justice Samuel Alito, who had forcefully objected to the protests during oral argument in the case in October, dissented from the opinion.

The court declared that the protesters' controversial signs -- on placards that read "God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11," "America is Doomed," "Thank God for IEDs" and "God Hates Fags," among others -- constituted lawful and peaceful commentary on political issues under First Amendment legal precedent.

Roberts wrote: "Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and -- as it did here -- inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a Nation we have chosen a different course -- to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate. That choice requires that we shield Westboro from tort liability for its picketing in this case."

The court ruled that the protesters stayed away from the memorial service, obeyed the constraints imposed upon them by local officials, and were barely seen by mourners as they drove to the service.

"Given that Westboro's speech was at a public place on a matter of public concern," Roberts wrote, "that speech is entitled to 'special protection' under the First Amendment" and "cannot be restricted simply because it is upsetting or arouses contempt."

The court thus affirmed a lower federal appeals court ruling that had tossed out the Snyders' lawsuit on similar grounds. Earlier, a federal trial judge had ruled in favor of the Snyder family, and against the Westboro Baptist Church.

In a strong dissent, Alito said that the court's decision allowed the Westboro church to "brutalize" the family at its most vulnerable moment. He wrote: "Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case. . . In this case, respondents brutally attacked Matthew Snyder, and this attack, which was almost certain to inflict injury, was central to respondents' well-practiced strategy for attracting public attention."

The Phelps' family, which essentially constitutes the Westboro Baptist Church, immediately praised the ruling. Margie Phelps, who acted as attorney for her family, told the Associated Press: "The only surprise is that Justice Alito did not feel compelled to follow his oath. We read the law. We follow the law. The only way for a different ruling is to shred the
First Amendment."

In an interview with CBS Radio News after the decision was announced, Phelps said she would tell the Snyder family: "This was a fool's errand. It was un-American as anything you could have done. That boy is still dead. . . Now get down on your knees, mourn for your sins, repent and obey."

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Peter Gomes, Who Offered Prayers at Inaugurations, Dead at 68

Politics Daily Staff — 2011-03-01T12:10:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Obits

Harvard spiritual leader Peter J. Gomes, who offered prayers at the inaugurations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, died Monday night after suffering a brain aneurysm and heart attack. The longtime divinity school professor, author and beloved minister at Memorial Church was 68.

Gomes' death was announced by the Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship, the Harvard Crimson reported.

He had a stroke in December, but seemed to be recovering and had hoped to deliver the Easter sermon at the historic Memorial Church in Harvard Yard, friends said. He had a pacemaker installed in 2009 after getting dizzy and falling during a speaking engagement in New York.

Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School, had worked at the Cambridge campus for more than 40 years and said he wanted to retire in 2012. He taught the popular course "History of Harvard and Its Presidents," and was known as an advocate for gay rights.

He authored "The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart" and "Sermons: The Book of Wisdom for Daily Living" -- both New York Times' bestsellers, the Crimson said.

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Pro-Choice Extremist Reportedly Arrested by FBI for Threats to Pro-Life Activists

David Gibson — 2011-02-26T21:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, Abortion, Crime, Disputations, Conservatives, Liberals

The FBI in New York has reportedly arrested Theodore Shulman, a radical abortion rights campaigner with a long history of threatening pro-life activists, and charged him with making interstate threats against two abortion opponents who were not identified.

The 49-year-old Shulman was arrested on Thursday and was being held without bond at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, according to pro-life activists who were alerted to Shulman's incarceration by federal investigators. An officer at the correctional center referred a calls about inmates to the public relations office, which is closed over the weekend.

"This is a huge relief to us that Ted Shulman is behind bars where he belongs," Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue, a prominent anti-abortion organization, said in a story on the group's website. "He often posted threatening comments to our website and called me on my cell phone too many times to count."

Sullenger was not one of the two targets listed in the federal complaint, which has apparently been sealed (the FBI did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday). But she and a number of prominent abortion opponents and conservative activists -- including blogger Jill Stanek, Princeton political philosopher Robert P. George, Father Frank Pavone from Priests for Life, Bryan Kemper of Stand True Ministries, and scientist and pro-life activist Gerard Nadal -- have been frequent targets of Shulman's rants.

Nadal wrote of his relief over the "reprieve from death threats" to himself and his family in the wake of Shulman's arrest, and Sullenger and others were equally grateful.

"He was always brazen in his threats and openly identified himself, telling us not to bother calling the FBI because they would never do anything for us," Sullenger said. "Thankfully, he was wrong about that."

In fact, most stories of violence or threatened violence over the volatile issue of abortion tend to be connected to anti-abortion extremists rather than radicals in the abortion rights camp.

But Shulman is an unusual case in many respects.

His mother is Alix Kates Shulman, a feminist author and political activist who first achieved notoriety in 1972 for her novel "Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen," which drew wide coverage for its frank depiction of the sexual experiences of a young Midwestern woman who -- like Alix Shulman -- went off to college in the East. Shulman has spoken of having four abortions, "and not one was the result of carelessness." According to Jill Stanek, Ted Shulman has said two of his mother's abortions were before his birth and two were after.

For whatever reasons, Theodore Shulman -- who goes by Ted -- seemed to fixate on the issue of abortion rights and defined his activism by fierce and often extreme verbal attacks on pro-lifers that often threatened them with a violent end. He liked to allude to himself as the "first pro-choice terrorist" and started a blog called "Operation Counterstrike."

His mission statement says: "Right-to-lifism is murder, and ALL right-to-lifers are bloody-handed accessories. Swear it, believe it, proclaim it, and act on it."

In assisting the FBI over the past few years, Jill Stanek compiled more than 4,000 comments that Shulman posted or tried to post on her site over the last four years or so. One example: "I'm looking forward to watching a documentary entitled 'The Assassination of Jill Stanek'," Shulman wrote on Oct. 27 in a comment using one of his many online aliases.

Stanek told Politics Daily in an e-mail that Shulman's threats to her were not part of the criminal complaint against him.

It's not clear what Shulman may have done to push his actions and rhetoric across the line to alleged criminality. In its website report about Shulman's arrest Operation Rescue includes an audio recording of a threat to Cheryl Sullenger that the group says Shulman left on the group's voicemail:

"Hi Cheryl, I'm calling you to say you need to convert to pro-choice because your Maker is going to send an angel to gather you in very soon, and if you haven't converted to pro-choice by the time you get OFFED you will go to hell and burn!" the message says. "So quick, quick, quick -- convert to pro-choice during the few months you have left on this earth. Do it now!"

In its statement on Shulman, Operation Rescue says that threats to the group and its leader have increased in recent weeks, an increase it links to criticism of Operation Rescue from the liberal MSNBC cable host Rachel Maddow.

Last October, Maddow hosted a documentary, "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller," that examined the assassination on May 31, 2009, of George Tiller, one of just three doctors in the country who performed late-term abortions. While ushering at his church in Wichita, Kansas, Tiller was fatally shot by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion extremist.

Maddow's show linked Operation Rescue, which led daily vigils outside Tiller's clinic for years, to extreme anti-abortion views.

According to pro-life activists, Shulman is also the subject of a federal investigation in Wichita, which could result in additional charges against him.

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Gay Marriage Decision May Not Hurt Obama or Help the Religious Right

David Gibson — 2011-02-25T20:42:00+00:00

Filed under: George W. Bush, House, Republicans, John McCain, Religion, Mike Huckabee, Abortion, Gay Rights, Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, Obama Administration, 2012 President, Culture, Disputations, Congress, Conservatives, Campaigns, Liberals, Tea Party, Barack Obama, John Boehner, 2012 Elections

When the Obama administration announced that it would adopt a matador defense on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the reaction from conservative Christian activists alternated between rage and celebration that the president had basically allowed the political right a slam dunk for the 2012 campaign.

The Justice Department declared that it would no longer argue in court on behalf of a key restriction against gay marriage contained in the law, which effectively gives gay marriage a pass from the executive branch -- and gives the religious right a debating point.

Wisconsin Workers Get Support from Poland's Solidarity Trade Union

David Gibson — 2011-02-25T19:38:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Religion, Disputations, Governors, Conservatives, Unemployment, Jobs, Economy

The Polish trade union Solidarity, whose protests in the early 1980s helped precipitate the downfall of Soviet communism, has embraced the cause of Wisconsin's protesting public workers.

Piotr Duda, head of the 700,000-member "Solidarnosc" trade union, wrote that on behalf of his organization he wanted to "express our solidarity and support for your struggle against the recent assault on trade unions and trade union rights unleashed by Governor Scott Walker," Wisconsin's budget-cutting Republican executive.

"We are witnessing yet another attempt of transferring the costs of the economic crisis and of the failed financial policies to working people and their families," Duda wrote. "As much as some adjustments are necessary, we can not and must not agree that the austerity measures are synonymous with union busting practices, the elimination of bargaining rights and the reduction of social benefits and wages."

"Your victory is our victory as well," Duda concluded, pledging assistance if the public employee unions need it.

Writing at Politics Daily this week, Gerald J. Beyer, an associate professor of Christian social ethics at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, argued that there are parallels between the Solidarity movement in communist Poland and the efforts by public workers in Wisconsin and other states to resist efforts to curtail their collective bargaining rights.

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Poland in 1980 and Wisconsin in 2011: History Rhymes

Gerald J. Beyer — 2011-02-24T22:08:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Republicans, Religion, Budget, Taxes, Governors, Conservatives, Unemployment, Jobs, Tea Party, Analysis

Mentioning the campaign against unions by a Republican governor in 2011 in the same breath as the anti-labor repression by Communist authorities in Poland in 1980 is sure to raise eyebrows. Yet as Mark Twain supposedly said, if history doesn't repeat itself, it sometimes rhymes.

And there are some striking similarities between that Communist-era episode and the ongoing standoff between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the state's public employees. They were not lost on the current president of the Solidarity trade union in Poland, who sent a letter of support for public workers on behalf of the union's 700,000 members.

"We are witnessing yet another attempt of transferring the costs of the economic crisis and of the failed financial policies to working people and their families," wrote Piotr Duda, president of Solidarnosc, the Polish word for Solidarity. "Your victory is our victory as well."

Indeed, both in Communist Poland and in Wisconsin today, the target was unions and their collective bargaining rights. And in both cases, we see the Roman Catholic Church supporting organized labor.

Mitt Romney and a Broadway Show on Mormonism From the 'South Park' Crew

Mark I. Pinsky — 2011-02-24T22:04:00+00:00

Filed under: Religion, 2012 President

Given his risk-averse personality, Mitt Romney is unlikely to schedule his formal entry into the presidential race to coincide with the March 24 Broadway opening of the musical comedy "The Book of Mormon," from the creators of the edgy, animated cable series "South Park."

On the other hand, given the unease about Romney's Mormon faith that Sunbelt evangelicals communicated to pollsters in 2008, it might not be bad timing for the former Massachusetts governor. It could demystify the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a little humor.

You can find faith in the funniest places -- and where you would least expect to, like on Broadway or even on a scatological show like Comedy Central's "South Park."

Yet in researching a book and numerous articles on spirituality and popular culture, I found belief in abundance -- along with some of the most perceptive critiques of organized religion -- in the long-running Fox TV hit "The Simpsons." In a later edition I added chapters and wrote essays about the faith dimension of other animated network sitcoms, including "Futurama," "Family Guy," "King of the Hill" and "American Dad," where God and Jesus frequently show up, often with speaking parts.

However, none of these series comes as close in depth and devastating commentary to the way "South Park's" writers approach religious controversy. The show -- nasty, naughty and nihilistic -- features a quartet of pint-sized, potty-mouthed fourth-graders, as crudely drawn as their words are spoken.

The Catholic Church was relentlessly pounded for the clergy sex abuse scandal and for its doctrine and practices regarding the role of women. Even the church's most prominent (if unctuously hyper-sensitive) defender, William Donahue, leader of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, was literally eviscerated in an episode.

"South Park's" searing, two-episode satire of the Church of Scientology made headlines, as did its head-on assault of media timidity regarding Islam and the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad. Through two regular characters with cerebral palsy -- Jimmy and Timmy -- the show has even explored the delicate issue of theology and disability.

But in its portrayal of Romney's church, the show has broken the most ground, and may do so again. In March, show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (with collaborator Robert Lopez) will premiere "The Book of Mormon" on the Great White Way. The story recounts the trials and travails of two young missionaries in modern-day Uganda, although those involved in the production have been sworn to secrecy about further plot details.

This is not the first time Parker (whose first three girlfriends were Mormon and who attended church summer camps) and Stone have portrayed the denomination. In 1998, Parker directed and co-starred in an independent film, "Orgazmo," in which he played a naïve Mormon missionary who stumbles into a leading role in a porn movie in order to finance his wedding. (Not a promising sign if you're a Mormon official concerned about the new Broadway show.)

Still, Parker (now an agnostic) and Stone (a secular Jew) grew up among Mormons in Colorado and have a soft spot in their heart for the church. In their comic cosmology, the denomination's founding prophet, Joseph Smith, was always included as an equal in "South Park" episodes that featured Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, Ganesh and (yes) Muhammad. In another episode, a preview of Heaven, Mormons are revealed as the only residents, prompting one observer to say, "Boy, did we guess wrong!"

In a 2003 episode called "All About Mormons," Parker and Stone interwove a modern plot about a Mormon family that moves to South Park, with a flashback to the 19th-century origins of the denomination in upstate New York. Both the modern and the vintage sections poked gentle, knowing fun at Mormons, and gave them a total pass on the issue of polygamy -- normally an easy cheap shot.

Mormons from Orlando to Salt Lake City whom I have interviewed think the episode is funny and not at all mean-spirited (or so distorted historically that it should be discounted). Some admit to sharing DVDs with their friends. More to the point, the episode strongly suggests that Mormons may have little to fear from the new musical.

"We wanted to make this not just cynical and Mormon bashing," Parker recently told the New York Times, "but hopeful and happy, because to me that's what musicals are about."

Despite a willingness to find common cause with Mormons on issues like gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research, as many as a third of middle-class evangelicals in Sunbelt suburbs -- the GOP base -- told pollsters in 2008 that they would be uneasy with a presidential candidate many consider to be a non-Christian.

In 2008, American popular culture did little to allay their concerns: HBO's "Big Love" focused on a contemporary, breakaway Mormon sect's embrace of polygamy; the feature film "September Dawn," starring John Voight, highlighted the dark side of Mormon history in Utah -- the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Although "Family Guy" took a shot at church hypocrisy this past Sunday, with any luck "The Book of Mormon" may actually give Romney's candidacy a boost, however unlikely a vehicle it might seem.

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Mike Huckabee Again Defends Obama's Christian Faith and Family Values

David Gibson — 2011-02-24T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Religion, Mike Huckabee, Race Issues, 2012 President, Disputations, Conservatives, Campaigns, Barack Obama, Islam

Even as he has continued to critique Islam, potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is at the same time making a talking point of defending President Obama against charges that he is not a Christian, and in fact on Thursday he hailed Obama as a role model for the "primacy of the American family."

"He has personally articulated, not once but numerous times, his Christian faith. I take him at his word. I have no reason not to. For us to continue to dwell on that is missing the point," Huckabee said in a lunchtime speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

Mike Huckabee Keeps Up Criticism of Islam in America

David Gibson — 2011-02-23T21:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Religion, Mike Huckabee, Terror, 2012 President, Disputations, Conservatives, Barack Obama, Islam

Just days after stirring Muslim ire for ripping Islam as "the antithesis of the gospel of Christ," Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee again sharply critiqued the religion, telling an evangelical magazine that Muslims are receiving special treatment "at the expense of others" -- apparently referring to Christians -- and that is "un-American."

In the interview with Christianity Today, Huckabee was asked about New York Rep. Peter King's controversial plan to hold hearings in March on the alleged radicalization of American Muslims, and Huckabee responded by talking about concerns that Muslims wanted to "impose" the Islamic religious law code known as Sharia on Americans.

Sharia law cannot be used to trump U.S. laws, but conservatives, including Newt Gingrich -- another GOP hopeful for 2012 -- have gained traction with their base by arguing that it can, and Huckabee seemed to be joining that camp.

"We live in a country where people are free to be Muslim. They're not free, however, to impose a Muslim law as if it were civil law," Huckabee, a Baptist and former pastor, said. "If I were to say, okay, everyone must tithe to their local church, people would be outraged."

Huckabee cited a story from 2007 when a campus of the University of Michigan installed foot baths to accommodate Muslim students -- who comprised 10 percent of the student body -- who wanted a safe facility to wash before their daily prayers. At least 18 other universities also have foot baths for Muslims and any others who want to use them.

"I don't remember anyone ever accommodating me and saying we're going to erect a cross so that we can make sure you're comfortable when you walk across campus," Huckabee said. "I find that the accommodation we're making to one religion at the expense of the others is very un-American." (Many universities do have Christian facilities and symbols, such as chapels and crosses, to accommodate believers or as a legacy of their original church affiliation.)

Appearing on a Fox News show over the weekend, Huckabee also took aim at Islam as he criticized two Protestant churches that allowed Muslims to worship in their facilities when mosques in the area were too small or under construction.

"If the purpose of a church is to push forward the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then you have a Muslim group that says that Jesus Christ and all the people that follow him are a bunch of infidels who should be essentially obliterated, I have a hard time understanding that," Huckabee, a Fox host, said while he was a guest on "Fox & Friends." "I mean if a church is nothing more than a facility and a meeting place free for any and all viewpoints, without regard to what it is, then should the church be rented out to show adult movies on the weekend?"

Huckabee added that Islam "is the antithesis of the gospel of Christ." A leading Islamic advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), called Huckabee's remarks "inaccurate and offensive" and asked him to apologize. CAIR said it would also help arrange a meeting between the former Arkansas governor and Muslim leaders "to discuss growing Islamophobia in American society."

Huckabee has not responded to either request.

In his Christianity Today interview, Huckabee did weigh in on the "birther" controversy -- about those who allege President Obama was not born in the United States -- and suspicions among many conservative Christians that Obama is not a Christian or may even be a Muslim. He said Obama is clearly a Christian and dismissed as "inappropriate, wrong-headed, and not helpful to the overall discussion when people try to say he doesn't have a birth certificate or he's a Muslim."

He said people should be focusing on whether Obama's policies are good for the country, "not what did he hear when he sat in church."

"If people went back and heard every sermon I heard when I was a little kid and some of the more fundamentalist pastors were yelling from the pulpit at me, if they took every one of those sermons and lifted out of them certain phrases and things, it could be scandalous, but only out of the context of the bigger picture."

In a similar vein, Huckabee seemed to give his close rival in the Republican sweepstakes, Mitt Romney, a boost when he said evangelicals should not consider Romney's Mormon faith when they weigh their preferences.

"I don't think they should, unless that person advances something truly bizarre," Huckabee said. (Evangelicals remain deeply suspicious of Mormon beliefs despite the fact that the two groups share many conservative values.) Huckabee said he was more interested in whether candidates live up to the teachings of their own faith.

Elsewhere in the interview, Huckabee maintained his standard line about a 2012 presidential run, saying he has not made up his mind. He said he projects a late summer decision, which would likely be three or four months after candidates including Mitt Romney make their official announcements.

He also casts social conservatives like himself as integral to fiscal conservatism and conservatism in general, pushing back at some of the more libertarian-minded conservatives who want to focus on economic issues at the expense of opposition to things like gay marriage and abortion.

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