By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Mon May 23, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Harold Camping’s doomsday prediction failed in 1994, and once again failed this past Saturday. Let’s just hope that third time’s not a charm. [Reuters]
The Taliban claims responsibility for a suicide bombing in Kabul resulting in six dead. [Boston Globe]
Former Utah Governor and potential Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman declares he is Mormon after previously dodging questions about his religious affiliation. [Atlanta Journal Constitution]
Since the world has not come to an end, it’s time to continue on with our daily lives. Here are 7 shortcuts to to help add some happiness to each day. [Huffington Post]
By RP Staff, on Fri May 20, 2011 at 5:00 PM ET
The mainstream press has been obsessed this week with reporting the rantings of evangelical radio broadcaster Harold Camping who is predicting that the Rapture will begin tomorrow at 6 PM.
The good news is that Camping’s views are not widely accepted by the evangelical community.
The better news is, just in case Camping is correct — remembering that the RP and several contributors to The Recovering Politician are Jewish — this Web site will still be fully functional and providing the latest news and Rapture developments in the days ahead for those of you sinners and non-believers in the RP Nation.
So, Rapture or not, we have a busy week ahead. We’ll start off with a very timely piece from contributing RP Jason Atkinson — an accomplished cylcist — about the fate of his sport considering this upcoming Sunday’s revelations on 60 Minutes about Lance Armstrong’s alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.
RPTV’s My Home Energy Efficiency Rehab will also be back. You’ve caught the energy audit in Parts 1 and 2; now the rehab itself will be featured in Parts 3 and 4. If you care about the environment – or more importantly, you like money – you really should check out these videos and the accompanying links. They really can save you bundles.
Please join us.
If you’re still around, that is…
(Graphic courtesy of G4TV.com , h/t RPette Emily)
By Jonathan Miller, on Fri May 20, 2011 at 2:15 PM ET I began this week by stirring up a bit of controversy when I came out of the political closet to endorse marriage equality. In that same essay, I opined that we are close to a tipping point when it comes to the acceptance of gay marriage by a significant majority of Americans.
We’ll end the week by highlighting two brand new polls which seem to support my theory.
First, check out the survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute (h/t The Dish):
A recent Religion and Politics Tracking Survey, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute, is the third national poll in as many months to find majority support for same-sex marriage: a slim majority (51%) of Americans now favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry, compared to 43% percent who are opposed.
And apparently it’s not just my kids’ generation (the “Millennials”) in support of marriage equality, but mine (“Generation X”) as well:
Sixty-one percent of 18-34 year olds support allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, but so do nearly 6-in-10 (57%) Americans between the ages of 35 and 49.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey similarly found support extending into older age groups, with 59% of Americans ages 35 to 49 agreeing that marriages between gay and lesbian couples should be recognized by the law as valid.
By RP Staff, on Fri May 20, 2011 at 12:30 PM ET Contributing RP Artur Davis has been an outspoken national leader on the subject of the proper role of faith in public policy. Four years ago, he sat down for an interview to summarize his views on this subject. His words rings true today, especially in light of the partisanship and polarization plaguing American politics.
Watch here:
By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Mon May 16, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Mark your calendars, according to Harold Camping of Family Radio, a Christian network worth more than $100 million, this Saturday, May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day. [NPR]
“Our milk doesn’t expire until May 22”–one of the 21 reasons why this Saturday is not going to be the end of the world. [Huffpost Comedy]
Complaining and being angry at God may be a sign of a deep faith. [Kansas City Star]
Illinois considers endorsing a character education program based on a code of conduct created by the founder of Scientology. [Chicago Tribune]
The Presbyterian Church (USA) joins the growing list of mainline Protestant denominations to approve the ordination of GLBT clergy. [NY Times]
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon May 16, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET Today, I’m thrilled to announce that I have joined the contributing team of writers at one of the most popular and prominent Web sites in the country — The Huffington Post.
I will write regularly on national issues for their site and cross-post those pieces here at The Recovering Politician.
My first piece is a big one: I’m coming out of the closet to support gay marriage. As you will read, it is a very important personal moment for me, but also a challenge to others to make the same admission, or to consider changing their mind on the issue.
I conclude by urging the nation’s most prominent fence-sitter to join me publicly on the side of marriage equality.
Here is an excerpt from my essay:
Yep, I’m for gay marriage.
I’ve lived a lie for most of my adult life. As a statewide elected official in Kentucky — an inner notch of the Bible Belt — I understood that coming out of the closet for gay marriage was tantamount to political suicide: an overwhelming majority of my constituents opposed it.
But now as a recovering politician, I feel both liberated and morally compelled to holler from the cyber-rooftops: I’m proud as hell, and I’m not going to fake it any more!
Growing up in Kentucky, gay marriage was never a topic of discussion.
But late nights of philosophical experimentation in college helped me discover that I’d been for marriage equality all my life. With a father who’d marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., and a mother who’d been a statewide force for women’s rights, the notion that we were all created equal was absurdly obvious. As a Jew growing up in the South, I knew what it was like to feel discriminated, to be other. And that same faith taught me to “love your neighbor as yourself” and to “judge not, lest you be judged,” making marriage equality a natural extension of my core beliefs.
Click here to read the rest of “Yep, I’m for Gay Marriage.”
Of course, as always, I would like to hear your comments, particularly if you disagree with my position and/or you wish to critique the timing or substance of my admission.
Please use the comments section below to share your opinions and stories.
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed May 11, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET My piece yesterday about Jew-ish Gentiles in pop culture (The most popular non-Jeff Smith post our site’s long, storied history!) sparked considerable discussion.
My challenge to identify a “should-be-Chosen-person that I failed to choose” was met ably by John Newton who suggested Anne Bancroft, who was raised Catholic, but who brilliantly and realistically played Jewish characters (such as in Keeping the Faith) on screen. But as Diane Hertz Warsoff noted, Bancroft ultimately converted to Judaism when she married Mel Brooks. (Who’d have thunk he was Jewish?!?)
However, surely her iconic character, Mrs. Robinson, qualifies. We can be confident that Benjamin Braddock’s Cougar was not a Jewess, as her authorized biographers (both real Jews) noted: Jesus loves her more than she would know. Wo Wo Wo.
Another reader, Mark Schneider, made a terrific discovery. Apparently, I am not the only person who has theorized that Batman/Bruce Wayne is a Jew-ish character.
Check out this 2005 piece, “Bat-Mentsch” by Alan Oirich in the Jewish World Review:
The Dark Knight, as he has come to be called, is not generally considered to have such transparently Jewish beginnings as, say, Superman whose escape from Krypton was based on the story of Moses in exodus, or Fantastic Four’s The Thing, who was officially outed as a member of the Jewish people in a comic book a couple of years ago.
But there have always been some Jewish underpinnings to Batman, and the newly released origin film “Batman Begins” addresses some of them in a way that previous films about the character never came near. If Superman is a Moses, a Samson, then the newly begun Batman is An Abraham, A Pinchas, a Maccabee…
Read the rest here.
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue May 10, 2011 at 11:15 AM ET Regular RP readers know that I’m quite taken with aping Nick Hornby and serving up my own pop culture Top Five lists (See, e.g., my Five Favorite Breakup Songs and my Five Favorite Hoops Books).
But today, I venture off on a mission implausible that risks alienation, if not excommunication, by my co-religionists at the Anti-Defamation League and the Global Zionist Conspiracy.
So, please allow me a brief expository digression…
Five years ago, when I launched my national tour for The Compassionate Community — the book in which I discuss my political career as a devout Jew living in an inner notch of the Bible Belt — I ventured often into the rural hills and hollers of my home state, speaking to audiences in which I was the only one present who lights the Sabbath candles. I’d speak passionately about my Jewish faith, quote the Talmud and the Rabbis; but, inevitably, there would be someone who’d come up to me afterwards to proclaim: “You are such a good Christian!”
I’m confident that each time this occured, the well-intentioned speaker was using a secular definition of “Christian” (along the lines of “someone who tries to emulate Christ”) as opposed to making a religious statement. (And I’m certain that they were NOT comparing me to the unholy hoopster “Christian“.) So I took it as a hopeful complement.
 Flashback to my college dorm room two decades earlier. My then-roommate (and current Friend of RP) Ron Granieri, came to campus with an encyclopedic knowledge of my faith, customs and moral code, quite impressive for a Roman Catholic from upstate New York. And because he was a compassionate soul with a wicked sense of humor, our other roommate — a future rabbi, natch — annointed him as Jew-ish, since he was still technically not a Jew. (Ron was unwilling to go through the formal conversion process, which not only would have required him to renounce his own devout beliefs; but much worse, to endure a ritual circumcision.)
So in honor of our un-cut and non-kosher, but still quite Jew-ish Ron, I hereby consecrate the following list of the Five Most Jew-ish Gentiles in Pop Culture:
– – – – – – – –
  5. (tie) Tina Fey and Liz Lemon
Her dark eyes, Semitic features, the bookish specs, her ascerbic wit, the close association with the media elite in New York City…How could it be possible that Tina Fey isn’t actually Jewish? And her alter ego, Liz Lemon, takes it a step further –Liz’s inexhaustible self-deprecating neuroses identify her as the modern-day Woody Allen. But alas, Fey is Greek Orthodox; and Lemon, when asked about her faith, replied: “I pretty much just do whatever Oprah tells me to.” Jewish boys and girls are just going to have to wait even longer to finally find a Jewish role model in the world of comedy.
 4. Bruce Springsteen
If his New Jersey roots, passion for social justice and 70’s-era matching Jew-fro and Hassidic beard weren’t enough, his surname is Springsteen, for Chri…uh… Moses’ sake! But sorry… the Boss was raised in a very devout Catholic household. (The fact that “Mary” is the name of the woman in every other Springsteen song should have given it away.) It is no coincidence that I learned that the Boss was not one of us precisely at the same time as when my Christian friends were apprised that Santa Claus wasn’t really coming to town.
 3. Batman
Batman (Secret identity: Bruce Wayne) was the ultimate Jew-ish superhero. He lived in Gotham, an unsubtle proxy for the city with the world’s largest Jewish population. He was a wealthy industrialist, yet felt apart from the rest of society, much like many successful Jews in the mid-20th century. Most significantly, unlike his fellow comrades in the Superfriends Justice League of America, Batman did not slay his foes using any extra-human, Christ-like powers — Instead, he used his bookish cunning and wile. Yet, there is never any mention of Wayne’s Semitic affiliation in any DC comic book. Unfortunately as well, the experts deem him either a lapsed Catholic or a lapsed Episcopalian. There is good news, however, Hebraic Bat Fans: The new Batwoman is Jewish. And a lesbian. Holy Sephardic Sapphism, Batman!
Read the rest of…
The RP: The Five Most Jew-ish Gentiles in Pop Culture
By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Mon May 9, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
In the wake of Osama Bin Laden’s death, there was jubilee and celebration across the nation. Some celebrated the death of a man responsible for great evil. Some celebrated a sense of closure and justice for the 9/11 attacks. Others celebrated the hard work and commitment of our service women and men. There are many, however, that feel conflicting emotions over the news. Here are some responses from people of different faith traditions:
One Buddhist asks, “How do you kill your enemy in a way that puts a stop to violence rather than escalates it?” [SusanPiver.com]
A Jewish Rabbi suggests “the proper reaction is sobriety, not revelry.” [Jewish Journal]
Speaking as a dad, one Christian pastor does not believe “rejoicing as if we just won the World Series” is the faithful way to respond to Bin Laden’s death. [Huffington Post]
Progressive Muslim group expresses great relief at the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden. [Washington Post]
By Artur Davis, on Mon May 2, 2011 at 3:30 PM ET The world is safer and more free with the news that Osama Bin Laden is dead. Al Qaeda is demoralized, and its marginalization is on display in a vivid manner for young men and women in the Arab world trying to decide if modernity or jihad is the best principle to organize their ambitions.
I am not as quick to compare the moment with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, or the collapse of the Soviet Union, as some commentators have rushed to do. It elevates Bin Laden to compare his virtual, quasi-state of malcontents and jihadists to Soviet totalitarianism at its peak. At the same time, it underestimates the reach and the viral quality of radical fundamentalism to assume that Bin Laden’s demise is the equivalent of military divisions dissolving or nuclear codes being disarmed.
The best way to quantify the event, I believe, is not analogy but a nod to American power wisely and assertively deployed over two administrations and ten years. Both the Bush and Obama Administration deserve tribute for a patient dismantling of Al Qaeda over that period of time: it has been appropriately lethal and effective and has required the stretching of pre 9/11 sensibilities. At times, it has veered off course–the embrace of torture as a tactic comes to mind–but not many Americans believed on the night of 9/11 that another decade would pass without a terror attack on American soil.
I have no illusion that the exhilaration in America today has permanent political significance. Our attention span is so fleeting. It also seems to me mildly profane to turn the moment into partisan chortling over how Obama accomplished what Bush did not. But I liked seeing the exultation on television in the last 12 hours–and I loved the fact that is multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and that reaction is not splintered along the dividing lines that are all over the political landscape.
I admire both Obama’s unadorned reference to “justice” last night–that is exactly how my faith describes the rooting out of evil– and George W. Bush’s September 2001 shouts above the rubble at Ground Zero that “the people who destroyed these buildings are about to hear all of us.” After a decade of evasion, Osama Bin Laden finally heard us in the frenzy of BlackHawks descending and our bullets finding their mark. The echoes of that sound are just what a dispirited nation needed to hear.
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