March 3, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
For Black Superdelegates, Pressure to Back Obama
Shailagh Murray/Washington Post (03/03/2008)
While Obama's candidacy has often united blacks and whites at the ballot box, it has driven a wedge through the black political establishment, exposing a rift between a new generation, whose members see their political horizons as limitless, and their predecessors, who have struggled to establish a following outside of heavily African American areas.

Abortion, Economics Key Issues For Young Voters
Adina Young and Casey Labrack/washingtonpost.com (03/03/2008)
A candidate's position on abortion could be the issue that gets young voters into the voting booth this year.

Candidates reaching out to evangelical Democrats in Texas
Wayne Slater/Dallas Morning News (03/02/2008)
A poll by the organization Faith in Public Life found that one in three white evangelical voters who participated in Super Tuesday primaries in Missouri and Tennessee voted Democratic. Texas is home to many evangelical voters, including Democrats in culturally conservative East Texas and churchgoing black voters in urban centers and Hispanics in South Texas.

McCain Seeks Distance From Pastor
Associated Press (03/01/2008: http://ap.google.com)
PHOENIX — John McCain is refusing to renounce the endorsement of a prominent Texas televangelist who Democrats say peddles anti-Catholic and other intolerant speech. Instead, the Republican presidential candidate issued a statement Friday afternoon saying he had unspecified disagreements with the San Antonio megachurch leader, John Hagee. Hagee endorsed him at a news conference Wednesday in San Antonio.

White House aide resigns over plagiarism
Associated Press (02/29/2008: news.yahoo.com)
WASHINGTON - A White House official who served as President Bush's middleman with conservatives and Christian groups resigned Friday after admitting to plagiarism. Twenty columns he wrote for an Indiana newspaper were determined to have material copied from other sources without attribution. Timothy Goeglein, who has worked for Bush since 2001, acknowledged that he lifted material from a Dartmouth College publication and presented it as his own work in a column about education for The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind. The newspaper took a closer look at his other columns and found many more instances of plagiarism.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
State Supreme Court takes up same-sex marriage
Bob Egelko/San Francisco Chronicle (03/03/2008)
As gay-rights groups call for marital equality and opponents warn of a public backlash, societal decay and religious conflict, the California Supreme Court is prepared for an epic three-hour hearing Tuesday on the constitutionality of the state law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Iowans lean in favor of civil unions
Jason Clayworth/Des Moines Register (03/01/2008)
Most Iowans believe marriage should be only between one man and one woman, but a majority of Iowa adults also support the creation of civil unions granting benefits to gay couples similar to those offered to heterosexuals in marriage, according to a new Iowa Poll.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
To Tithe Or Not To Tithe?
Martha Teichner/CBS News (03/01/2008)
Giving is central to most religions, a principle of faith. Americans donate $295 billion a year to charity, with just under a third of it - $97 billion - to religious organizations. On average, Christians are giving about 2.5 percent of their income to churches, not ten, and no matter how much good it does, tithing is controversial.

Thousands await Pope's first U.S. visit
Associated Press (02/29/2008: usatoday.com)
The Archdiocese of Washington is distributing about 46,000 tickets for the event, and has set aside 14,000 seats for Catholic dioceses nationwide, archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said.

NONPROFITS
Crunch Predicted in Nonprofit Sector
Philip Rucker/Washington Post (03/03/2008)
The nonprofit sector is facing what experts call an unprecedented crisis in leadership, with organizations in the Washington region and across the country struggling to recruit and retain talented staff.

CONGREGATIONS AND FAITH GROUPS
Church that was beacon for Paul Revere now lit by LEDs
Mark Jewell/Associated Press (03/03/2008: usatoday.com)
BOSTON — One LED if by land, and two if by sea? The Old North Church, a beacon for Paul Revere's famous warning of the movement of British forces, and a symbol of the American Revolution, has gone high-tech with the installation of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.