For the past 70 years the Al Smith Dinner has raised money for children in honor of the honorable Catholic politician Al Smith.

Smith was elected the Governor of New York four times and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928.

Smith's unlikely climb to the White House was crushed by a combination of bad timing (Herbert Hoover, the Republican, rode a wave of seeming prosperity to victory) and the simple fact that America was unready to choose a Catholic.

The 1928 campaign was marked by poisonous anti-Catholicism across much of the country, as Smith was battered by contempt for Catholics and charges of being in the thrall of the popes.

Virtually every moment of the 2016 presidential election has been turned into a bitter and depressing political struggle.

Some hoped that the long history of the Al Smith Dinners might induce both candidates to avoid the kind of scorched earth politics they have embraced now for the whole campaign.

That aspiration was largely dashed by both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in their speeches on Thursday night. Read more

But unlike Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in the recent past, such as Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush, who were comfortable discussing their religious beliefs, the major party nominees in 2016 have shown an uneasiness when asked about spiritual matters.

Trump, a Presbyterian, and Clinton, a Methodist, have also at times run afoul of their respective denominations for things they have said on the campaign trail and for their positions on issues such as abortion, immigration and same-sex "marriage."

Clinton, who formally accepted her party's nomination at last month's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, rarely talks about her faith on the campaign trail.

But occasionally, Clinton, the former first lady, U.S. senator from New York and U.S. secretary of state, offers a glimpse into her spiritual life.

Asked about her faith at a Democratic town-hall event a week before the Iowa caucuses in January, Clinton delivered a rather impassioned reply,where she drew from the Bible and reflected on the Sermon on the Mount.

Said Clinton, "I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. I am a Methodist. I have been raised Methodist.

"I feel very grateful for the instructions and support I received starting in my family, but through my church; and I think that any of us who are Christian have a constantly constant conversation in our own heads about what we are called to do and how we are asked to do it, and I think it is absolutely appropriate for people to have very strong convictions and, also, though, to discuss those with other people of faith.

"Because different experiences can lead to different conclusions about what is consonant with our faith and how best to exercise it." Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Register, article by Register correspondent Brian Fraga from Fall River, Massachusetts.
• Image: Christianity Today

As the Christian right has evidently vacated all pretense of seeking a candidate who embodies Christian values, Clinton can step into the space that they have vacated. She can pledge to be the candidate who will be guided by her faith.

She is a Methodist and has deep religious roots that she can draw on.

Coming of age in the 1960s, Clinton turned to theology to make sense of the political and social turmoil unfolding around her.

She read theologians Paul Tillich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr as she wrestled with how Christians ought to engage the world, pursue justice and reform society.

In recent weeks and months, Clinton has returned to those roots on the campaign trail. In February, as she celebrated her victory in the South Carolina primary and began to pivot to the general election, she countered Donald Trump's politics of division by turning to Scripture.

In contrast with Trump, who had fumbled an effort to quote "two Corinthians," she centered her call for unity in 1 Corinthians 13: "Love never fails. … Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Clinton acknowledged that it might sound odd for a presidential candidate to be calling for "more lovingkindness in America," but she insisted that these were "words to live by, not only for ourselves, but also for our country."

And earlier this month, in the aftermath of the killing of five police officers in Dallas, Clinton spoke to the African Methodist Episcopal Church's general conference in Philadelphia. Borrowing from the book of Proverbs, she implored her audience to listen to one another, to seek common ground, to "incline our ears to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding." Continue reading

Sources

• The Washington Post — article by Kristin Kobes Du Mez, chair of the history department at Calvin College.
• Image: Fortune

Pates, chairman of the US Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said, "In Catholic teaching, the use of force must always be a last resort,"

"Iran's bellicose statements, its failure to be transparent about its nuclear program and its possible acquisition of nuclear weapons are serious matters, but in themselves they do not justify military action."

Based on the Church's teaching on war and peace, the Bishops' Conference is urging the U.S. Government to continue to explore all available options to resolve the conflict with Iran through diplomatic, rather than military, means said Pates.

Some of the options he identified are:

• effective and targeted sanctions
• incentives for Iran to engage in diplomacy
• the exhaustion of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The Church's position against nuclear non-proliferation is clear," Pates continued.

"We believe nuclear weapons violate the just war norms of proportionality and discrimination in the use of force. Our Bishops' Conference has earlier indicated our strong objection to Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons as it would further destabilize that volatile region and undermine nonproliferation efforts. We have often criticized Iran's lack of transparency and cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors."

Sources

• CNA
• US Catholic Bishops Conference (Press Release)
• Image: Counter Propaganda News

"Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights," said in a speech marking Human Rights Day at the United Nations' human rights body in Geneva.

Clinton said religious objections and cultural values to homosexuality should not stand in the way of vigorous United Nations action to promote the homosexual rights agenda.

The global acceptance of "gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people" is "one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time," likening the effort to ending racial, sexual, or religious discrimination, said Clinton.

She noted that perhaps the "most challenging issue arises when people cite religious or cultural values as a reason to violate or not to protect the human rights of GLBT citizens."

These objections, she said, are "not unlike the justification offered for violent practices towards women like honor killings, widow burning, or female genital mutilation."

She stated worldwide "opinions are still evolving" on homosexuality as they did with slavery, and "what was once justified as sanctioned by God is now properly reviled as an unconscionable violation of human rights."

"In each of these cases, we came to learn that no [religious] practice or tradition trumps the human rights that belong to all of us," she said.

According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, homosexual acts are punishable by death in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen, as well as in parts of Nigeria under shari'a law.

Countries whose laws allow for imprisonment of 10 years or more for homosexuality include Libya, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and Guyana, it says.

In announcing the launch of a US$3m Global Equality Fund to assist civil organizations that promote equal rights for gays abroad, Clinton held out a challenge to other governments to join US efforts against gender discrimination.

Sources

• LA Times
• CNS News
• LifeSite News