Joseph Knippenberg

I’m an interested non-Catholic observer of Catholic social thought.  To fulfill an obligation to my friends at the Georgia Family Council , I wrote up some thoughts about the yeserday’s note from the Vatican about global financial institutions.  Beyond the responses already . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday, the Democratic National Committee announced the appointment of Rev. Derrick Harkins as Director of Faith Outrreach.  The Washington Post story about the appointment describes Rev. Harkins as “a popular D.C. pastor with a shaved head and a remarkable résume .”  . . . . Continue Reading »

I have already opened my big fat mouth about this a couple of times here, but I’m finding it hard to resist another attempt to make myself clear. For me, the political issue has nothing to do with whether Mormons are or are not Christians . The Presidency is not a religious office , though it . . . . Continue Reading »

While some of my closest friends are Catholics, I’m not, so I wouldn’t have had a vote in this poll to determine America’s ten greatest Catholic intellectuals.  The current list: The Catholic Hall of Fame’s Greatest American Catholic intellectuals, in the order of their . . . . Continue Reading »

Our friend Matt Franck is absolutely right that those of our friends who use the “no religious test” clause of the Constitution to condemn religious bigotry have got it absolutely wrong.  There are many evils associated with religious bigotry, but the solution is not to assume that . . . . Continue Reading »

There’s a good bit more than I noted in my first post . Consider, for example, these posts by Tom Beaudoin , who teaches theology at Fordham University (home to some of the Jesuit mentors of my youth).  Here he speculates about the religious (or more properly, perhaps, . . . . Continue Reading »

I was just a bit surprised when I first heard that Ron Paul had won the straw poll at this year’s Values Voters conference, sponsored by the Family Research Council .  After all, Paul would seem to be more than a bit too libertarian for most social conservatives. But all became clear . . . . Continue Reading »

Christianity Today ‘s Tobin Grant writes that the Sojourners —Jim Wallis’ left-wing evangelicals—have (not surprisingly) hitched their wagon to the Occupy Wall Street star. You can read some evidence of their interest here  and here . Of course, they’re not the only . . . . Continue Reading »

The always provocative and often misguided Jacques Berlinerblau thinks that Sarah Palin’s approach to public service is profoundly mistaken.  He takes as his point of departure this statement: “When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country .”  Here are . . . . Continue Reading »

Michael Gerson’s most recent column —”Who’s Afraid of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism”—is a must read.  He takes as his point of departure some polling data that suggests a durable unwillingness to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate, a reluctance that has . . . . Continue Reading »