New York democrats pick Muslim socialist for mayor. The Department of Justice defends the Seal of Confession. And Christian music has broken into the mainstream.
New York Democrats Pick Muslim Socialist for Mayor
Americans don’t necessarily vote for their interests any more. Democrats from the center of American capitalism, hailed as the financial capital of the world, have chosen a socialist to run the city. Democrats in the city with the largest population of Jews in the world have chosen an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas Muslim.
New York City Democrats picked state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani in the party’s primary election for mayor. He defeated Andrew Cuomo, NY’s scandal-tainted ex-governor. Unofficially, since the ranked voting results have not been tabulated yet, Mamdani received 43.5% of the first-place votes, with Cuomo receiving 36.4%
With 93 percent of the results in, Mr. Mamdani was the first choice of 43.5 percent of voters. Mr. Cuomo was in second place as the first choice of 36.4 percent of voters. Two other candidates received the rest of the votes.
Normally, the Democratic candidate wins the general election. The Republican candidate, the head of the Guardian Angels anti-crime group Curtis Sliwa, doesn’t have a chance. But the scandal-ridden, unpopular incumbent Eric Adams is running as an Independent. Cuomo is also reportedly planning an Independent run.
The 33-year-old Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist, meaning a Marxist who believes that socialism can be imposed politically–by winning elections, as in this case–rather than by violent revolution. He has supported defunding the police and in this campaign called for a rent freeze, free bus rides, city-owned grocery stores, and a $30 minimum wage. A Muslim, Mamdani is pro-Palestinian, refusing to condemn Hamas and accusing Israel of “genocide.”
Progressive Democrats are energized by his election. “Mamdani managed to win over a broad coalition of voters without sacrificing his values as a progressive,” said USA Today‘s Sara Pequeño, “proving to the Democratic Party and the rest of the country that someone with strong leftist values can, in fact, be a viable candidate.”
Conservative Republicans too are hoping to make Mamdani the face of the Democratic party.
The Department of Justice Defends the Seal of Confession
In their ordination vows, pastors in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod are asked, “will you forgive the sins of those who repent, and will you promise never to divulge the sins confessed to you?” They are to answer, “Yes, I will, with the help of God.”
The Roman Catholic Church is emphatic about the so-called Seal of Confession. According to Canon Law,
The sacramental seal is inviolable. Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion. (Canon 983. §1)
A priest who violates the seal is automatically excommunicated.
Non-sacramental churches often have ethical standards that require confidentiality and the refusal to divulge information conveyed in the course of pastoral counseling.
Generally, civil law supports what it calls the Priest-penitent privilege, exempting clergy of any denomination from having to report or testify to crimes they have learned about in the course of their ministry.
Lately, though, some jurisdictions have been passing laws requiring pastors to report to the authorities any cases of child abuse that they learn about, even in the confessional.
Washington State passed such a law. The archbishop of Seattle said that priests must disobey this law, despite any punishment they might incur, or they will be excommunicated, as canon law requires.
Now the United States Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit contending that the Washington law is unconstitutional. The complaint claims that the law “unlawfully targets clergy and, specifically, Catholic priests, in violation of their fundamental right to freely exercise their religious beliefs guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.”
For once the federal government is actively defending religious liberty!
HT: Steve Bauer
Christian Music Has Broken into the Mainstream
NPR, no less, has put out a story by Emma Madden entitled Christian music is experiencing a pop breakthrough, with the deck, “The genre is rising in mainstream popularity.”
CCM has usually been confined to its own separate niche, but two different recordings (Forrest Frank’s “Your Way’s Better” and Brandon Lake’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah”) have been on the Billboard Hot 100, which tracks the whole range of popular music, for months. That hasn’t happened before.
According to the article, CCM has seen the fourth largest growth in popularity, just after country music. It has overtaken world music, a genre that includes K-pop (Korean boy bands) and Afrobeats, thanks to a surge of interest from younger fans. Here is a telling quote:
“It used to be that Christian music felt like a lesser version of whatever was popular. Like, Harry Styles is popular, so let’s do the Christian version of Harry Styles,” says [head of Sony’s CCM division Holly] Zabka. Lake, whose songs aren’t mere commercial imitations but include relatively experimental compositional choices, like abrupt key changes and whispered middle eights, “can now simply exist on the same level as all the other artists in the world,” she says.
I’m glad to hear that contemporary Christian music is maturing artistically and finding a bigger audience, though I’m not that impressed with these two current hits.
Notice, though, that this isn’t “worship music”–just pop, country, rock, or other kinds of popular music with explicit Christian lyrics. This isn’t anything new. In fact, it used to be commonplace.
The Byrds sang “Turn, Turn, Turn” straight from Ecclesiastes. Eric Clapton and Blind Faith sang “Presence of the Lord.” The Edwin Hawkins Singers had a hit with “Oh, Happy Day” as did soul group The Impressions with “People Get Ready.” And songs about Christianity are everywhere in country music, from classics like Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light” to modern numbers like Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel.”
Whether Christianity breaks into mainstream music or mainstream music breaks into Christianity, it’s fitting that religion has a presence in the culture, even the pop culture. If this is increasing, that’s a healthy sign.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In