News & Reporting

The Obama campaign has begun issuing a weekly 'American Values Report,' with the first edition out last Friday. The report is sent as a PDF file via email, so God-o-Meter can't post the whole thing here. But it has chosen a few choice excerpts from the 9-page document, which an Obama aide says was sent to "several thousand" recipients.

The report includes "Meet Barack" and "Meet Michelle" features, information to "Help us Draft a Platform," how to "Become an American Values Supporter!" and how to "Participate in the Values Question of the Week." It also includes "Spotlight On People of Faith" interviews:

Grant Gallicho - Associate Editor of Commonweal Magazine

What's your personal faith background?

They not only taught me what it means to be Catholic, to be a person for others, they modeled it.

I was born in Chicago to a Catholic father and a Lutheran mother. After moving from a Lutheran kindergarten to first grade at St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge, IL, I found myself unable to keep up with my classmates' Monday-morning chatter about Sunday Mass. My family went to Mass, but not all that often. I felt left out, so I nagged, and got my way. We became weekly Massgoers.

I went to Notre Dame High School for Boys in Niles, IL–then run by the Holy Cross Priests (founders of the University of Notre Dame). And four years later I headed to Fordham University in the Bronx–run by the Jesuits, to the chagrin of some of my Holy Cross teachers (eventually they recovered). I owe both communities a tremendous debt. They not only taught me what it means to be Catholic, to be a person for others, they modeled it. I can only approximate their examples–and weakly at that. But absent those formative years, it's difficult to imagine I'd want to try. So, lots of Catholic schooling, capped off with two years completing a master of arts in theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School–theological boot camp, I like to call it.

Please describe your experiences with faith and ...

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