Monthly Archives: August 1996
TOP STORY: PBS GETS RELIGION: Public TV’s fall lineup is heavy on God and virtue
By RNS Blog Editor — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Children’s cartoons about virtue. A 10-part series on the Book of Genesis, complete with a companion book and discussions of the subject in communities across America. A documentary on the historic roots of the religious right. These three series to air in Public Broadcasting Service markets this fall continue […]
TOP STORY: Common ground for Buddhists and Catholics abloom with new ideas
By Chris Smith — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service TRAPPIST, Ky. _ In search of common ground between the Buddhist and Catholic traditions of prayer and meditation, monks, nuns and religious scholars have come together at a monastery here in the rolling hills of rural Kentucky. The spiritual terrain they are exploring is fertile indeed, seeded with everything from […]
COMMENTARY: Violence and vulnerability remain our constant companions
By James Rudin — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) FRUITLAND, Tenn. _ I recently visited the Salem Baptist Church in rural Fruitland, Tenn., as part of an interreligious delegation that was assembled by the National Council of Churches. Salem Baptist is one of the many black […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Blockbuster Music forms partnership to promote Christian music (RNS) Blockbuster Music has formed a partnership with McSpadden-Smith Music, a Nashville-based entertainment company, to promote contemporary Christian music in Blockbuster’s stores nationwide.”This is a new and exciting opportunity for contemporary Christian music record labels,”Ron Smith, a partner in McSpadden-Smith, told The […]
What do American Jews believe in? Often, it’s not Judaism
By Karen Long — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Participating in a panel discussion in Cleveland on the ethical and legal implications of new genetic tests to predict breast cancer in Jewish women, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff fielded a rude question. A law professor in the audience stood up and announced that she was confused. She bluntly said […]
COMMENTARY: Religious extremists threaten archaeology in Israel
By RNS Blog Editor — August 22, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Hershel Shanks is founder and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and author, most recently, of”Jerusalem, An Archaeological Biography,”published by Random House.) (UNDATED) A little-noticed result of the recent elections in Israel, which significantly strengthened the religious parties’ representation in the Israeli parliament, involves a serious threat to archaeology in a […]
MEDIA STORY: HOLLYWOOD AND THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT: A cinematic battle between the reprehensible and the
By Steve Rabey — August 22, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It’s been a thrilling, chilling blockbuster movie season this summer, as films like “Twister,” “The Rock,” and “Independence Day” played to packed theaters and toyed with Americans’ fears about attacks from the violence of nature, well-armed terrorists, and space aliens. But the latest high-octane action-adventure film exposes a threat […]
TOP STORY: CLINTON AND THE RELIGIOUS LEFT: Welfare bill may lead many on `religious left’ to s
By Carl Anderson — August 22, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ For Hillary Clinton, it takes a village to raise a child. But for some religious advocates of the poor, it takes a president to protect the most vulnerable among them _ and Bill Clinton has failed the test. As the Democrats gather in Chicago Monday (Aug. 26) to […]
COMMENTARY: Religious extremists threaten archaeology in Israel
By RNS Blog Editor — August 22, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Hershel Shanks is founder and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and author, most recently, of”Jerusalem, An Archaeological Biography,”published by Random House.) (UNDATED) A little-noticed result of the recent elections in Israel, which significantly strengthened the religious parties’ representation in the Israeli parliament, involves a serious threat to archaeology in a […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Kuwaiti Christian convicted of apostasy flees to U.S. (RNS) Hussein Qambar Ali, a Christian convert from Islam who was convicted of apostasy in Kuwait earlier this year, fled to the United States Saturday (Aug. 17) and is deciding whether to seek religious asylum here. Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Solidarity […]
COMMENTARY: A word in favor of friendship _ and against gay marriage
By RNS Blog Editor — August 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Eli Hecht is vice president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. He is the director of Chabad of South Bay in Lomita, Calif., and has been involved in counseling and outreach programs for more than 25 years.) (UNDATED) Friendships come in many forms. Some people consider their teachers, partners […]
TOP STORY: A POLITICAL NUN: Sole nun in South Africa’s Parliament fights to vote her conscienc
By RNS Blog Editor — August 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service EDENVALE, South Africa _ The mere mention of the year she spent in solitary confinement in an apartheid-era prison makes Sister Bernard Ncube’s lively eyes go blank and sends her gazing into a spiritual and psychological wilderness. The memory of that 1987 experience, she tells a visitor, always launches her […]
Born-again baseball star battles cancer with strong will
By RNS Blog Editor — August 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ The transaction notice moved May 10 on the news wire: “Los Angeles Dodgers CF Brett Butler will miss the remainder of the season.” A possibility, perhaps. But Brett Butler has spent most of his life proving people wrong, and he loves this kind of stuff. So it’s […]
TOP STORY: THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Assignment Africa: AME bishops travel far from hom
By Adelle M. Banks — August 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (WASHINGTON) On his last Sunday as pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop William P. DeVeaux baptized a baby, showed off his church’s basement expansion and preached a poignant sermon of farewell.”If God loves you and you understand that, it will be all right,”he assured his congregation.”It’s love that […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NCC workers protest layoffs, subcontracting work (RNS) Concerned about staff layoffs and the subcontracting of work to outside firms, the employees’ union at the National Council of Churches, the ecumenical agency of 33 Protestant and Orthodox denominations, has asked for outside arbitration. On Aug. 8, the NCC, headquartered in New […]
