Virginia Episcopalians prepare to take back their churches: RC Bishops and Obama in church-state face off over birth control: Is marriage equality in the United States inevitable?: The 10 Best Gospel Songs.
Virginia Episcopalians prepare to take back their churches
The Washington Post – For the past five years, the remaining members of several Episcopal congregations in Northern Virginia have been worshiping in borrowed basements and empty houses while praying to return to the prominent sanctuaries where they married, baptized their children and buried their parents.
Now, after a prolonged and bitter legal battle with former members who broke away and took with them more than $40 million worth of church property, the Episcopal Church and the members who stayed with the denomination are on the verge of taking back their buildings, which include some the faith’s largest, most prominent churches in the region.
After a judge’s ruling last month in favor of the Episcopal Church, settlement talks are underway for a massive property swap that would bring to an end the most expensive litigation — and perhaps the most watched — in Episcopal Church history. While the breakaway congregations still can appeal, both sides said they are trying to work out the details of the property turnover.
More at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/after-prolonged-legal-battle-virginia-episcopalians-prepare-to-reclaim-property/2012/02/08/gIQAhfJI7Q_story.html
RC Bishops and Obama in church-state face off over birth control
USA Today – President Obama’s effort to accommodate the Roman Catholic Church by altering his administration’s rule on birth control coverage has not appeased the church, congressional Republicans or GOP candidates trying to take his job next year. Their continued anger over a requirement that nearly all employers offer free insurance coverage for contraception — even with changes Obama announced Friday for faith-based institutions that object on religious grounds — guarantees that the issue will percolate throughout the presidential election season.
Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, summed it up this way: “It’s the unstoppable force meets the immovable object.”
More at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-02-12/obama-bishops-contraceptives/53065070/1?csp=34news
Reaction from the Catholic community to the Obama administration’s decision to revise its birth control policy was swift and mixed. – NPR
More at: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/10/146710901/catholics-have-mixed-reaction-to-birth-control-reversal?ft=1&f=1016
Is marriage equality in the United States inevitable?
The Los Angeles Times – With more openly gay people and strong support for same-sex unions among the young, the war is over even as the fighting continues.
Harvard Professor Michael Klarman argues that the outcome of the struggle for marriage equality is already won, even as the fighting goes on –
Why is gay marriage inevitable? First, the basic insight of the gay rights movement over the last four decades has proved powerfully correct: As more gays and lesbians have come out of the closet, the social environment has become more gay friendly. In turn, as the social environment has become more hospitable, more gays and lesbians have felt free to come out of the closet. This social dynamic is powerfully reinforcing and unlikely to be reversed. ….
The number of Americans reporting that they know somebody who is openly gay tripled between 1985 and 2000, reaching 75%. One study in 2004 found that among those who reported knowing someone who is gay, 65% favored either gay marriage or civil unions, while only 35% of those who reported not knowing any gay people supported them.
A second reason that gay marriage seems inevitable is that young people so strongly support it. One study by political scientists found a gap of 44 percentage points between the oldest and youngest survey respondents in their attitudes toward gay marriage. A 2011 poll found that 70% of those age 18 to 34 supported gay marriage. It is hard to imagine a scenario in which young people’s support for gay marriage dissipates as they grow older.
Michael J. Klarman is a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of “Same-Sex Marriage Litigation and Political Backlash,” to be published this fall.
The 10 Best Gospel Songs: The Soul Of American Music
Huffington Post – Gospel music is the most American of American music and the veritable soundtrack of black America. Born in the trauma of the 1930s, nurtured in the dramatic shifts of the 1940s and 50s, validated during the uncertainties of the 1960s and 70s, and complicated amid the technological advances of the 1980s and 90s, it has wonderfully articulated the hopes, fears, struggles, and joys of generations of blacks.
Wallace Best, Professor at Princeton, defines the top 10 = As the root of R&B, Soul, and Rock, it is perhaps the most influential American musical genre, having launched the careers of countless singers past and present. Gospel music is the most authentically black cultural expression and the most glorious music on earth with a sound and a feeling all its own.
Coming up with a list of the best gospel songs is a near impossible task, so this list of 10 represent the most significant in terms of music and lyrical quality, originality, innovation, and most important, how they conform to the classic understanding of gospel music, which is “good news.” They not only have the gospel sound, but also the “spirit” of gospel!
More at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wallace-best-phd/the-sound-and-glory-of-gospel-music_b_1272093.html?ref=arts&ir=Arts