About michaeltracey

Journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. Follow me on Twitter at @mtracey.

Franklin Graham Takes on the I.R.S.

May 16, 2013 By michaeltracey 8 Comments

Franklin Graham must have rejoiced at the news that I.R.S. officials improperly targeted conservative activist groups for audits.

By way of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — an outfit which not only pays zero taxes, but effectively receives a public subsidy to carry out its ministerial activities — Franklin has worked out quite a felicitous financial arrangement for his fiefdom.

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Filed Under: General, Politics 8 Comments

Why Twitter is Helping the Pope Improve His Image

May 3, 2013 By michaeltracey 61 Comments

Pope Francis‘ pronouncement yesteday on Twitter might come as a bit of surprise:

My thoughts turn to all who are unemployed, often as a result of a self-centred mindset bent on profit at any cost.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) May 2, 2013

Benedict XVI made similar gestures during his reign, which predated the now-routine practice of official papal tweeting, but this message seems different in tone. I note a distinct absence of appeals to the supernatural; Francis does not claim that unemployment jeopardizes man’s capacity to walk with God, avoid sin, etc. He likely would have expanded on these points in a forum that allowed for elaboration, yes, but the name of the game on Twitter is concision, and careful thought went into the tweet’s precise composition.

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Filed Under: General 61 Comments

Will the New Pope ‘Collapse’ the Catholic Church?

March 13, 2013 By michaeltracey 52 Comments

Rather than immediately rushing to analyze Pope Francis‘ views regarding homosexuality — as if they should be any surprise — I have found it illuminating to follow the commentary of traditionalist Catholics on today’s events.

Michael Brendan Dougherty, writing in Slate, has a quite dour appraisal:

Filed Under: General 52 Comments

Mark Sanford’s Shallow Spiritualism

March 13, 2013 By michaeltracey 11 Comments

Mark Sanford is the former governor of South Carolina who infamously disappeared for several days in 2009 to visit his Argentine lover in Buenos Aires; his befuddled staffers were left to proffer a number of excuses for his sudden absence, most memorably that he’d decided to “hike the Appalachian trail.”