Monthly Archives: January 1999
NEWS STORY: Pope urges bridges in Georgia after saying Christianity will explode in Asia
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Pope John Paul II Monday (Nov. 8) met Orthodox Christian resistance in Georgia after boldly proclaiming in the face of Hindu hostility in India that Christianity was poised to sweep across Asia in the new millennium. Arriving in Tbilisi, capital of impoverished Georgia, John Paul called for”new bridges”between […]
NEWS STORY: Fired policewoman says wearing pants violates religious beliefs
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ A veteran detective fired by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office for refusing to wear uniform pants says the dress code requirement violates her Christian religious beliefs. Lark Huber wore skirts while a plainclothes detective, but earlier this year was moved to a patrol position that her bosses […]
HOLIDAY FEATURE: The good books
By Steve Rabey — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _”Some books are to be tasted,”wrote Francis Bacon, the English philosopher and statesman,”others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Every year at this time, millions of books are bought, wrapped and given as gifts. During 1999, the publishing industry has been busy producing new […]
NEWS FEATURE: Sabbath vs. the millennium: Jews debate which to celebrate
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ For Jews, the”December Dilemma”usually means getting through Christmas without being overwhelmed by the holiday’s pervasiveness. This year there’s more: What to do about New Year’s Eve and millennium madness. That’s because Dec. 31 falls on a Friday night, the start of the Jewish Sabbath. Traditional Jewish Sabbath observance […]
COMMENTARY:
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.) (UNDATED) Last week Americans got a chance to see just how corrupt and hypocritical the […]
NEWS FEATURE: T.D. Jakes takes his ministry, message to the prisons
By B. Denise Hawkins — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ With an estimated 150,000 inmates watching from behind the secured walls of 120 prisons across the nation, Bishop T.D. Jakes seemed determined to deliver a message of survival that would set their souls free.”For those of you behind prison walls tonight, you may feel cursed, you may be […]
COMMENTARY: Discovering a new generation of Jesus Freaks
By Dale Hanson Bourke — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS.) ORLANDO, Fla. _ For the past several years, Christian messages aimed at teens have been deliberately user-friendly. Teen Bibles shed the somber black and burgundy for splashes of color and names like”The Message”or”Quest.” T-shirts went from depicting the gruesome crucifixion scenes to imitating […]
NEWS FEATURE: Vegas star Lola Falana shuns show business, embraces religion
By Bruce Nolan — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ The big, doelike eyes are still long-lashed and beautiful. But the sleek Bob Mackie gowns that helped shape Lola Falana’s sexually charged Las Vegas stage persona 15 years ago have given way to a plain white cotton shift and sandals. A heavy crucifix around her neck has […]
Relief worker charged with vehicular manslaughter awaits trial
By Christa Brown — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service TBILISI, Georgia _ An American Catholic Relief Services worker facing charges of vehicular manslaughter believes this week’s papal visit to this former Soviet republic may help his case.”I work for a Catholic organization and I would hope that it would be brought to his attention,”said Loren Wille, 54, of Golden, […]
NEWS FEATURE: Europe’s leper colonies dwindling
By Chris Smith — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service TICHILESTI, Romania _ When he worships in the Orthodox chapel here in his small, isolated village in eastern Romania, Cristache Tatulea finds special significance in certain Scriptures.”I can’t read the Bible because I don’t see well,”said Tatulea, 67.”But I heard in church about how Jesus Christ helped the lepers, and […]
NEWS FEATURE: Israel’s non-Orthodox movements make a Jewish High Holy Days pitch
By Elaine Fletcher — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _”There is more than one way to be a Jew”proclaim the billboards decorated with a multi-colored Star of David, which have appeared around central Israel in recent days. The slogan is the theme of a controversial new campaign by Israel’s tiny Masorti (Conservative) and Reform Jewish movements to draw […]
NEWS FEATURE: Sabbath vs. the millennium: Jews debate which to celebrate
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ For Jews, the”December Dilemma”usually means getting through Christmas without being overwhelmed by the holiday’s pervasiveness. This year there’s more: What to do about New Year’s Eve and millennium madness. That’s because Dec. 31 falls on a Friday night, the start of the Jewish Sabbath. Traditional Jewish Sabbath observance […]
NEWS STORY: Scandal-plagued Seventh-day Adventist president resigns
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Robert S. Folkenberg resigned as president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Monday (Feb. 8), saying the controversy over allegations about his business relations with a Sacramento, Calif., man”is distracting from God’s work.” Folkenberg, 58, has been president of the 10-million-member international church since 1990 and was credited with”visionary”leadership […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service June 14, 1999 Pope to visit ailing Armenia patriarch (RNS) _ Pope John Paul II will make a hastily arranged”ecumenical pilgrimage”to Armenia to visit the seriously ill Orthodox Patriarch Karekin I at the end of his current trip to Poland, the Vatican said Monday (June 14). In a virtually unprecedented […]
COMMENTARY: Assuming the burden of human rights
By Dale Hanson Bourke — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of Religion News Service.) PARIS _ Jesse Jackson is preaching. At least he is supposed to be preaching. Standing in the majestic pulpit at the nondenominational American Church in Paris, he eyes the empty press section and the reserved VIP rows that seem to taunt […]
