October 31, 2008

Irshad Manji was the host for The Friday Edition of The Current this week, where we aired from New York City.

It's Friday, October 31st.

President Bush called Philadelphia Phillies president David Montgomery yesterday to congratulate the Phillies on their World Series victory.

Currently, the Phillies immediately denied any ties to the Bush administration.

This is The Current.


Is God a Republication?

Here in the United States, there's a strict separation of church and state. But the line between politics and religion is a lot fuzzier.That's been especially true under the Bush Administration, which has embraced the Religious Right over the last eight years.

The religious right's power had been growing before that to the point where it seemed to overshadow -- or even knock out -- any relationship between the religious left and the Democrats. And Democrats like Leah Daughtry, the CEO of the Democratic National Convention, takes exception to the idea that the religious left had ever left politics.

But if that's the case, then why do so many people -- faithful and otherwise -- still associate being religious with being a Republican.

Reverend Jim Wallis has some thoughts on that. He's the author of The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America and God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. He is also the Editor-In-Chief of Sojourners magazine and Jim Wallis was in Washington.

Now Reverend Jim Wallis said he thinks the way Barack Obama talks about his faith is different from other Democratic leaders. But there was a time -- not that long ago in fact -- when Democratic Presidential candidates proudly put their religious convictions front and centre.

So when did Democrats start to shy away from that kind of candid talk about faith? To help us answer that, we're joined now by Randall Balmer, a professor of American Religious History at Columbia University and the author of God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. Randell Balmer was with Irshad in New York City.

Broken Dreams

New York City -- the place where we broadcasted this day's show from-- is uniquely vulnerable to the American economic crisis that's wreaking havoc all over the world.

For starters, Wall Street is a quick subway ride from where Irshad Manji was sitting. So when it implodes, she notices. Then, there are the 31,000 jobs expected to disappear from the city's financial sector this year, as a result of the crisis. On top of that, there's the trickle-down effect. If you take that many high-paid jobs out of a local economy -- even one the size of Manhattan -- there are consequences. Restaurants, tailors, taxi drivers they all feel it.

Add it all up and it looks like about 165,000 private sector jobs are about to be lost.
But it's only when you go back to where this whole crisis began, that you really appreciate the scope of New York City's problems. Just like the rest of the country, New Yorkers snapped up those exotic, low-interest mortgages that helped fuel Wall Street's bulls. And now, just like the rest of the country, thousands of New Yorkers are facing the very real possibility of losing their homes, despite the news this week that the Treasure Department is developing a $40 billion aid package that would reduce monthly mortgage payments.

The CBC's Deen Karim spent a couple of days in some of the neighbourhoods where foreclosures are on the horizon. And he joined Irshad Manji to tell us about it.

Hope, Not Fear

The work I've been doing as the Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University is all about mentoring students and encouraging them to challenge orthodoxy and stand up to the resulting backlash. Challenging orthodoxy is something that, well, it comes pretty naturally to Irshad. But standing up to a backlash is a skill I've had to develop over the years.

Edgar M. Bronfman is the CEO of Seagram Company Limited and the Chairman of Hillel's International Board of Governors. He's had many more years than Ishrad to work on finding the moral courage to speak his mind in the face of established religious convictions. It's a skill he's going to have to rely on again as the author of the controversial new book, Hope, Not Fear: A Path to Jewish Renaissance. And Edgar M. Bronfman was with Irshad in New York City as well.

Phone-a-friend

Here at The Current, Friday host's are often asked to open up our little black books and phone a friend. Irshad Manji is lucky enough to call Leslie Stahl a friend. She's been a correspondent for the news program, 60 Minutes for the last 17 years.

Before that, she was a Washington Correspondent and covered both the Carter and Reagan administrations. And on a more personal note, she's probably the reason Irshad moved to New York City. Leslie Stahl joined The Current from her office in New York City.

Last Word

For the close of the show, we left you with a nod to Halloween ... sort of. In this Last Word you'll hear an excerpt from Irshad's commentary in the New York Times, which was published on this day.


MUSIC

Artist: Chris Velan
Cut: CD10 What We Do
CD: Twitter, Buzz, Howl
Label: Maple Music