Monthly Archives: January 1999
NEWS SIDEBAR: Vintage `Dunn-isms’
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The Rev. James M. Dunn, retiring executive of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, is called the”cowboy poet of religious liberty”by his colleague the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Here are some examples of what Dunn has […]
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 […]
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: Alban Institute marks 25 years of aiding congregations
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The Rev. Carol Johnston stood before a small group of religious leaders in a church conference room and addressed one of the taboo topics of faith: money. Going beyond the overt challenge of filling offering baskets to the underlying financial thoughts of congregants, she discussed her studies of […]
NEWS FEATURE: Saints’ popularity diminishing among younger Catholics
By Kein Eckstrom — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service STUART, Fla. _ When Peggy Meissner wanted to sell her home here, she buried a small statue of St. Joseph in the yard and prayed for his assistance. She says it worked. Whenever Dan Hadlock, also of Stuart, finds himself in a bind, he shoots a prayer off to St. […]
COMMENTARY: Working and grazing
By Tom Ehrich — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. He lives in Durham, N.C.) LA MADDALENA, ITALY _ Almost overnight, this island north of Sardegna changed character; the tourists arrived. Every beach is jammed. Cars and tour buses crawl through narrow streets. Sidewalks swarm with slow-moving amblers. […]
NEWS FEATURE: America’s favorite cowgirl reflects on the faith that sustained her
By Kein Eckstrom — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ It was a decision that Dale Evans knew would affect her career, but to her, the answer was obvious. She and her husband, cowboy legend Roy Rogers, were hosting an hourlong variety show for ABC at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. Evans was scheduled to close […]
NEWS STORY: Bishops urge Catholics to link charity, justice in fighting poverty
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops ended their annual four-day fall meeting Thursday (Nov. 18) calling on people of faith to become involved in ending poverty and hunger and rejecting the”me-first”politics pervasive in contemporary culture and society.”Charity’s minimal demand is justice,”said Bishop Joseph Sullivan, auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, N.Y., […]
COMMENTARY: Haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Presents
By Kathleen O'Brien — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Kathleen O’Brien is a columnist for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.) UNDATED _ I have a friend who is an important part of my life. We talk several times a week, and I can’t count the number of times she’s bailed me out of problems big and small. My heart […]
COMMENTARY: Urban links between power and respect
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 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 _ The cover of a recent issue of Sports Illustrated features a famous photograph of Muhammad Ali standing over a […]
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 […]
COMMENTARY: With hate, it’s always `the Jews’
By James Rudin — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) Three Sacremento area synagogues were recently set on fire within a 45-minute period, and one of them, Congregation B’nai Israel, suffered more than $800,000 in damages, mostly to its library. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but […]
NEWS STORY: Bishops vote to tighten their authority over Catholic colleges
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Turning aside fears they would increase tensions between the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and its theologians, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops voted Wednesday (Nov. 17) to approve a plan to tighten their control over the nation’s 230 Catholic colleges and universities, including requiring theologians to receive […]
COMMENTARY: Heeding anti-cult warnings
By James Rudin — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the National Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) On Nov. 18, 1978, nearly 1,000 people were murdered in the People’s Temple commune in Jonestown, Guyana. Among the victims was Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., who had come to the cult compound to investigate charges […]
NEWS FEATURE: James Dunn: Religious liberty’s ardent advocate stepping down from post
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The Rev. James M. Dunn, a religious liberty advocate who has worked the corridors of Washington power for two decades to defend the separation of church and state, says he doesn’t get fired up about”In God We Trust”on coins or”Under God”in the Pledge of Allegiance. Instead, he says, […]
