The Religious Center Blog

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/religion_and_workplace_flexibility

 I wanted to highlight a great event we did on Capitol Hill last June on Religion and the Workplace.  Link is above.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/against_us

On September 9 I hosted a great book event with ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent, Jim Sciutto, on his new book about how America is viewed in the Muslim world.  The link is above.

The breadth of Christian religious backgrounds of the four candidates (Pentacostal, UCC, Catholic, Episcopalian/Baptism) is very interesting to me. 

in Post this week

 At the Republican convention, Sarah Palin introduced herself to the world in the speech of a lifetime.  Her family was nearby and joining them was Levi Johnston, the father of the baby that Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is carrying.   Sarah Palin is often compared to Dan Quayle, George H.W.

On September 9 I hosted a terrific event on Capitol Hill with Congressmen Bobby Scott and Mike Castle, several experts on issues impacting kids and 100+ guests on the well being of children.  The link is below:

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/ounce_prevention

As we think about September 11, our thoughts and prayers are with those who lost so much seven years ago.  We must be strong but at some level also gracious.  John Patton writes in his book, Is Human Forgiveness Possible, that “Forgiveness is (at some level) about our discovery of our similarity with others as people in need of forgiveness.”  Forgiveness is about remembering that we are imperfect too.  We are more like those who hurt us than we realize.  

 In his campaign acceptance speech last week, John McCain focused on worker retraining in a way Republican candidates rarely do.  McCain has understood throughout this campaign that how he responds to the plight of workers harmed by the global economy will be critical to his election chances.  In a March 24, 2008, editorial in the Washington Post, McCain's senior policy advisor included modernizing unemployment insurance and training programs as a critical component to McCain's plan to turn around the economy. Now this important issue is urgent.  Last week the Labor Department reported that unemployment has jumped from 5.7% to 6.1%, a five year high, as employers slashed jobs.  If such economic trends continue, McCain will have trouble winning the battleground states and the election.

 One key line that has been underreported from McCain's convention speech is his mention of filling the gap between an unemployed worker’s lost salary and that person’s new wage while that person trains for the new job.  That sentence signals support for an idea supported usually by Democrats of wage insurance - insuring a worker’s income against job loss.  This is a significant phrase for a GOP candidate to utter.

Extraordinarily interesting on church and state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090702460_pf.html