Monthly Archives: January 1997
NEWS STORY: Christian Coalition unveils legislative agenda for new Congress
By Ira Rifkin — January 31, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The Christian Coalition, the leading advocacy group of the religious right, Thursday (Jan. 30) unveiled an ambitious agenda for the new 105th Congress, featuring a legislative package intended to combat poverty and crime while getting minorities and Democrats to work with it. The package includes proposals for a […]
COMMENTARY: The real mission of the church
By RNS Blog Editor — January 30, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.) UNDATED _ A recent incident involving one of my inmate congregants sheds light on the need for the church to concentrate […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 30, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service Court says landlords can refuse renting to unmarried couples (RNS) A federal court in Alaska has ruled that landlords who believe that sex outside of marriage is a sin may refuse to rent their properties to unmarried couples. In a case involving three landlords who argued that renting to unmarried […]
NEWS STORY: Episcopal seminary relaxes policy on sexual behavior
By David Briggs — January 30, 1997
c. 1997 Religious News Service UNDATED _ An Episcopal Church seminary with deep roots in the evangelical wing of the denomination has relaxed its 25-year-old policy barring students and faculty from sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. The board of trustees of Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., voted Jan. 22 to tuck their […]
NEWS FEATURE: Buddhism American-style leaves out the Buddha
By Ira Rifkin — January 29, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service BOSTON _ For the last 20 years, Catherine Barley has been seriously engaged in what she calls a”mish-mash”of meditative practices gleaned from a variety of Buddhist schools of thought. She engages in sitting meditation, walking meditation, chanting meditation and mindfulness meditation. The latter is a technique intended to keep her […]
NEWS STORY: Taped jailhouse religious confession ruled illegal
By RNS Blog Editor — January 29, 1997
c. 1997 religion News Service SAN FRANCISCO _ A federal appeals court has ruled that jail officials in Eugene, Ore., violated the religious rights of a local Roman Catholic priest by secretly taping the sacramental confession a murder suspect had given the clergyman. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court […]
NEWS FEATURE: A new Age of Aquarius dawns
By RNS Blog Editor — January 25, 1997
c. 1997 RELIGION NEWS SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO _ Three decades after a hippie musical heralded the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, a pair of Californians, using the Internet as a bulletin board, staged a global event Thursday (Jan. 23) to mark the dawning of the real Age of Aquarius. Under the banner of the”GaiaMind […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 25, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service Pope to visit Sarajevo, possibly Lebanon (RNS) The Vatican announced Wednesday (Jan. 22) that Pope John Paul II would realize his dream of praying in Sarajevo, possibly this spring, and said it is preparing the groundwork for a separate papal pilgrimage to Lebanon, which would mark the pope’s first visit […]
COMMENTARY: Why good kids do bad things
By Dale Hanson Bourke — January 25, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is author of “Turn Toward the Wind” and publisher of Religion News Service. She is the mother of two boys.) UNDATED It hardly surprises us anymore when a kid from a poor, inner-city neighborhood goes astray. A steady diet of poverty and violence often seems to beget […]
NEWS STORY: Abortion opponents call for quick action on late-term procedure ban
By RNS Blog Editor — January 25, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON Tens of thousands of abortion opponents gathered Wednesday (Jan. 22) in the shadow of the White House to condemn President Clinton’s veto of a ban on a controversial abortion procedure and to urge its quick congressional reconsideration. Not far away, supporters of abortion rights also met, although less visibly. […]
NEWS FEATURE: Exhibit shows importance of African-American sacred music in American life
By RNS Blog Editor — January 24, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ A life-size cutout of singer Marian Anderson looms large in a new exhibit at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Rightly so. Even when not listening to her soaring, powerful contralto, Anderson’s story is not only gripping but emblematic of American life. Here was a singer rejected from a […]
NEWS STORY: Alabama lays claim to longest Christian-Jewish dialogue
By RNS Blog Editor — January 22, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ It’s not at all unusual in this age of religious pluralism for clergy members of various faiths to get together and hash our their differences while looking for points of agreement. It is uncommon, however, for laity to do so, especially when such dialogue extends beyond a […]
A pollster’s `index of leading spiritual indicators’
By RNS Blog Editor — January 20, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ George Barna, president of the Barna Research Group and author of more than 20 books, has been polling Americans on their spiritual beliefs for more than a decade. In his latest book,”The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators”(Word), Barna offers a statistical report on the state of religion in […]
NEWS FEATURE: MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr.: An inconvenient hero, King dared the world to do more than dre
By RNS Blog Editor — January 17, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service Now that he is safely dead Let us praise him … Dead men make such convenient heroes: They cannot rise to challenge the images we would fashion from their lives. Carl Wendell Himes Jr., 1977 UNDATED _ In the 29 years that have elapsed since his assassination, the Rev. Martin […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 16, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service Church-state group chides Gingrich for seeking to be”national pastor” (RNS) House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose recent speeches have been peppered with religious language and what the Georgia Republican says is the need of the nation to be”submissive to God’s will,”has been criticized by a church-state separation group for his remarks.”You […]
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