By Richard C. Dujardin
The Providence Journal
December 29, 2007
http://www.projo.com/religion/content/lb_religion_2007_12-29-07_VK8CFLA_v16.aa9bfe.html
It was a year that saw heroic pro-democracy protests in Myanmar led by Buddhist monks, and a new push by Anglican prelates in Africa to force their counterparts in the U.S. Episcopal Church to repent for having allowed the ordination of an openly gay bishop.
It was a year when the pope opened the door for a wider use of the Latin Mass, and when religious leaders took stands on both sides of the issue of illegal immigration.
But by far the biggest development in religion in the U.S. in 2007 was how political candidates on both the left and right began to work on new scripts in an attempt to plumb votes among the faithful
Until now, it had become almost taken for granted that Republicans were more adept at capturing the religious vote, winning more support from those Americans who go to church at least every week. By contrast, the Democrats had, for several decades, found more success with people who go to church less often or not at all.
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| David Newman, president of the Holocaust Survivors of Rhode Island, filed suit against the Jewish Federation, over the building of a Holocaust memorial. Photo by Andrew Dickerman |
But this year, taking a lesson from past election debacles and from surveys the last time around that suggested that voters are concerned with moral values, the leading Democratic candidates set on a new strategy, with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama talking about their faith in a way Democratic candidates have seldom done before, hoping to convince the faithful that their positions on a wide range of issues, especially economics and justice, are part of a moral framework that springs from Gospel values and the teachings of Christ.
Republicans, meantime, face their own unusual set of dilemmas. The nation's evangelicals, a core constituency for Republicans, had been one group that could be counted on because of their strong opposition to abortion and gay marriage. But in 2007, younger evangelicals were widening their list of concerns to include poverty and global warming. But if that wasn't enough, the evangelicals seemed especially ambivalent about their choices this year; uncertain, for example, whether they could support a candidate such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a man of apparently deep faith with whom they could share values but not theology.
Some pundits have remarked that it is indeed a sign of how much the nation has changed over the last 40 years, noting that when Mitt's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, ran for president in 1968, his Mormon faith seldom came up. Religion had been an issue, for sure, when John F. Kennedy was making his run for president in 1960 and felt compelled to assure Protestant clergy that as president he would not be taking orders for the Vatican.
These days, Catholic clergy could only wish that Catholic politicians would listen to them a bit more. On the eve of a visit to Rhode Island by Republican Rudy Giuliani, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin made headlines by criticizing the former mayor's "I'm personally opposed but will not impose my view" approach to abortion. The bishop declared that the former mayor sounded like Pontius Pilate, who believed Jesus was innocent but still handed him over to be crucified.
By year's end, it was suggested that some of the malaise in the evangelical camp was melting away with a surge in support for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher with conservative social values who also preaches a populist message. Also this year came the deaths of a number of current and former television evangelists including Jerry Falwell and Tammy Faye Messner, the ex-wife of TV evangelist Jim Bakker.
On the local front, Episcopal Bishop Geralyn Wolf, wearing a cream-colored wedding dress and a garland about her hair, married New York businessman Thomas Charles Bair Jr. in a colorful and spirited April wedding at Providence's Cathedral of St. John. Her wedding provided a brief respite from some of the grave concerns the U.S. Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion have been through recently in the wake of the continued controversy stemming from the consecration of an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as a bishop in New Hampshire five years ago.
A promise by Episcopal Church leaders to exercise "restraint" on gay issues failed to satisfy Anglican prelates in Africa and elsewhere who made clear they want nothing short of an apology and pledge not to allow any more gay consecrations or blessings of gay unions. With some congregations voting either to break away or align themselves with the Africans, Bishop Wolf this fall became one of eight "bridge-building" Episcopal bishops who agreed to provide pastoral oversight to congregations that wanted to remain in the Episcopal Church but who were having trouble relating to their own bishops.
Among other local developments:
•Parishes in Pawtucket, East Providence and elsewhere joined Providence's Holy Name parish in offering periodic celebrations of the traditional Latin Mass, taking advantage of a letter from Pope Benedict XVI allowing priests to celebrate the old rite anywhere in the world if parishioners request it, without having to seek permission of the local bishop.
•The Holocaust Survivors of Rhode Island filed suit against the state's Jewish Federation after the Providence Board of Park Commissioners, led by Mayor David Cicilline, voted to transfer the job of building a Holocaust memorial to the federation after taking it away from the survivors group.
•Voice of the Faithful, the Catholic lay group born out of the sexual abuse crisis, held its national convention in Providence, with a keynote speaker and theologian arguing for a priesthood that would be open to married men. Across town, the group BishopsAccountability.org said it had found 125 accusations against clergy of the Diocese of Providence over the last half century, more than double the 56 previously acknowledged. To pay the $14.2 million the diocese had paid to abuse victims, Our Lady of Peace Spiritual Life Center and other properties were put up for sale and sold the 13.5-acre convent and provincial house property of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny in Newport for $4.3 million.
•The Rev. Donald Anderson was installed as the new executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches and the Rev. Lilliana DaValle was installed as executive minister of the American Baptists of Rhode Island.
•The Rev. Donald Cameron lost his job as senior minister of the First Unitarian Church in Providence after admitting that he had plagiarized sermons, including the one he used to get his position as minister.
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