Faith leaders comment on Obama
Religious leaders and representatives of faith-based organizations are weighing in on the election of Sen. Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president.
The National Council of Churches has responded today with a letter to the new president elect:
Dear Mr. President Elect,
Blessings on you, and congratulations. Now that the electorate has made its decision, we at the National Council of Churches urge all Americans to come together to uphold you with our hands, our hearts and our prayers.
Only rarely in our history has a president-elect faced immediate challenges of such fierce magnitude. The leaders of this Council pledge to you our unstinting support in the difficult days to come. All of us are dependent on God’s loving mercy, and we will regularly pray for you and others elected to high leadership. May your wisdom and discernment serve you well, and may your health never wane.
To read the complete letter, click here: Letter
The Rev. Billy Graham, who is nearing his 90th birthday on Friday, also has a statement, shared through a news release sent today:
“President Elect Barack Obama faces many challenges, and I urge everyone to join me in pledging our support and prayers as he begins the difficult task ahead.”
Meanwhile, The Associated Press is reporting that the Vatican said today that it hopes that Barack Obama will work to promote peace and justice in the world.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, chief spokesman for the Vatican and for Pope Benedict XVI told The Associated Press that the Vatican hoped Obama would “work for the cause of rights and justice, finding suitable ways to promote peace in the world, fostering people’s development and dignity while respecting essential human and spiritual values.”
Other statements come from leaders that are not as conciliatory:
The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, released the following statement regarding the Presidential election:
“Americans have made a grave mistake in electing Barack Obama to the presidency. He said during the campaign that he does not know when a human being starts to have human rights. How can one govern from that starting point of ignorance? Governing is about protecting human rights; to do it successfully, you have to know where they come from, and when they begin. The President-elect has already failed that test miserably.”I’ll post more comments and statements as they arrive.Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
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Pope poll
As he prepares for his upcoming visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI might be interested to know that many Americans see him in a positive light.
By a ratio of four and a half to one (58 percent to 13 percent), people surveyed during a recent poll said that they had a favorable or very favorable view of the pope.
The poll was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus and conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion between Feb. 25 and March 5. Carl Anderson, supreme knight for the Knights of Columbus, recently discussed the poll results at the National Press Club.
According to the poll 42 percent of Americans said that they would like to attend one of the pope’s public appearances while he is in the United States and 66 percent of Catholics said they would like to attend one of the events.
Pope Benedict is set to visit New York City and Washington D.C. April 15-20.
According to the recent poll, 72 percent or more of the respondents want to hear the pope talk about allowing God to be a part of their daily lives (73 percent), finding spiritual fulfillment by sharing their time and talent (71 percent) and how they can make a positive difference in the world, their state and communities (70 percent).
Nearly two-thirds (64 percent), according to the poll, expressed an interest in hearing the pope talk about how they can have a society where spiritual values play an important role.
“The bottom line is that, despite years of very negative stories about the Catholic Church scandals, and dissenting view of the Pope as some sort of ‘panzercardinal’ determined to pursue the unorthodox to the ends of the earth, the American people have a very sensible and balanced view of Benedict and the Church,” Anderson said in a prepared statement on March 25.
“And they are very open to hearing his views on matters of how they might live their faith and put it into action in their daily lives.”
Anderson unveiled a new Web site, www.papaltrip.org for those interested in learning more about the pope’s upcoming visit. The site offers detailed information about the pope’s trip, along with historical material about previous popes and their experiences with the Catholic church in the United States.
Sin-sational list getting longer?
Any whisper coming from the Vatican about any particular subject might as well be shouted from the rooftops. If the communique gets twisted or misinterpreted, there can be all sorts of reports made on the issue before it all gets sorted out.
Such was the case when a Vatican official recently gave his opinion about ”new sins of the modern era” to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
All of a sudden there were reports that the Vatican had published a new list of the seven deadly sins of modern times that included such things as economic inequality and genetic manipulation.
Soon, however, a wire report turned up, saying that an interview with Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, regent of the tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, (the Vatican body which oversees confessions and plenary indulgences) was misinterepreted in the media as an official Vatican update to the seven deadly sins laid out by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century.
Too late — conversations and stories about the so-called new list of sins were already taking place.
For a quick update, the mortal sins known as the Seven Deadly Sins are gluttony, sloth, anger, envy, pride, avarice and lust.
Girotti, in the newspaper interview, said he could see sinful attitudes in relation to individual and social rights. Making his list of new sins to watch out for are drug use, which he said “debilitates the psyche and darkens the intelligence”; abortion; pedophila; environmental pollution; social injustice causing the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer; and genetic science manipulation.
Whether or not these were meant to be “updates” or additions to list of sins that threaten the soul, one thing is clear: The list of sins always captures folks’ attention.
I’ve asked myself what sins I would add to the list, along with justifiable punishments. In a study I did last year for a blog series on the Seven Deadly Sins, I found that the original list had an accompanying list of horrible punishments to go along with them.
For instance, if you were guilty of gluttony, you would be forced to eat rats, snakes, spiders and toads. If you were guilty of wrath, you would be torn apart limb from limb (ouch!).
What would you list as a sin that is not already one of the seven deadly? Take it a little further: What punishment would you mete out for the sin that you added on the list?
Let me know, by sending an e-mail to chinton@oklahoman.com or send a note by regular mail to Carla Hinton, P.O. Box 25125, Oklahoma City, OK 73125.
