First up from The God Machine this week is a special Roman Catholic mass, held every year around this time, in which the church subtly lobbies Supreme Court justices on how they should rule on specific social issues.
Don’t you wish you had the opportunity to personally lobby the members of the U.S. Supreme Court on issues that concern you?
It’s rare that anyone gets that chance. The nine members of the court are supposed to be somewhat aloof and to isolate themselves from the pressure groups and high-powered lobbyists who regularly cruise the halls of Congress, seeking to button-hole members of the House of Representatives or Senate.
But once a year, many of the justices sit through a lecture where they are patiently instructed on how to vote on a number of important constitutional issues. This event takes places in the context of a worship service. It is called the “Red Mass.”
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., working with the John Carroll Society, sponsors this special service, so named for the red vestments the presiding member of the clergy wears. The annual event takes place the Sunday before the first Monday in October, the opening of the Supreme Court’s new term.
This year’s Red Mass was held a week ago, and drew six sitting justices of the high court — Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Kennedy, and Breyer. They heard Archbishop Timothy Dolan tout the importance of a “mutually enriching alliance” between religion and democracy, and allude to the church’s opposition to abortion, stem-cell research, and euthanasia, blasting “a culture where life itself can be treated as a commodity, seen as a means to an end, or as an inconvenience when tiny or infirm, in a society where rights are reduced to whatever we have the urge to do instead of what we ought to do in a civil society.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who did not attend, mentioned that she sat through one Red Mass shortly after being named to the high court. “I went one year, and I will never go again, because this sermon was outrageously anti-abortion,” Ginsburg said.
Justices can attend any religious services they want, but in a country that separates church and state, it’s an awkward annual tradition, isn’t it?
Other items from the God Machine this week:
* About 50 Boulder High School students have decided to protest the daily reading of the Pledge of Allegiance and recited their own version, omitting “one nation, under God.” According to one report, “The students say the phrase violates the constitutional separation of church and state. They also say the daily reading of the pledge over the school public address system at the start of the second class takes away from education time and is ignored or mocked by some students.”
* There appears to be an unusual trend in the number of Americans who describe themselves as Christian. Research conducted by David Kinnaman of Barna.org found that among those over the age of 61, 77% of Americans identify themselves as Christian, 23% do not. Among those between the ages of 42 and 50, the numbers drop a little to 73% Christian, 27% not. But among those between the ages of 16 and 29, only 60% identify themselves as Christian, 40% do not.
* Speaking of young people, evangelical Protestants between the ages of 18 and 29 are straying from the Republican Party, a trend that has been slowly unfolding since Bush took office in 2001. “An examination of the younger generation [those ages 18 to 29] provides evidence that white evangelicals may be undergoing some significant political changes,” said Dan Cox, a researcher with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “The question is whether these changes will result in a shift in white evangelical votes in 2008 and beyond.”
* And finally, I found this press release from the far-right Christian Defense Coalition too funny not to mention: “Recent numbers shows US casualties at their lowest level in over a year and civilian deaths drop nearly 50% after Christian leaders held prayer vigils in Baghdad this summer. In July of 2007, the Christian Defense Coalition led a historic prayer delegation to Baghdad to meet with Prime Minister al-Maliki and pray for the war in Iraq…. Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, comments, ‘These dramatic new numbers, showing the reduction of violence in Iraq, clearly demonstrate that prayer can impact events on the world stage.'” In other words, don’t credit the surge; credit the Christian Defense Coalition. Got it.