Monthly Archives: April 2004
NEWS FEATURE: When Doing Good Clashes: Fledgling Ministry Challenges Animal Testing
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service WAYNE, N.J. _ Last weekend an estimated 500,000 people across the United States took to the streets and raised over $90 million for the March of Dimes’ WalkAmerica campaign. But for Jan Fredericks, the annual event, the largest walk for charity in the country, is offensive. At the Sunday (April […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Top U.S. Bishop Says Denying Communion Is Last Resort (RNS) The nation’s top Roman Catholic bishop said denying the sacrament of communion to a dissenting Catholic politician should be the last option considered, “not the first response.” Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic […]
NEWS FEATURE: With Campus Diversity, College Chaplains Rethinking Their Role
By Bridget MacDonald — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) There was a time, more than half a century ago, when the chaplain at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., was a crusader for the faith in his various roles: campus preacher, religion instructor and pastor for keeping the majority of students true to their Methodist roots. Today the Rev. […]
COMMENTARY: Ruffled Feathers
By Tom Ehrich — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.) (UNDATED) A reader of my weekly newspaper column blisters me with abusive language and names me among those demons who vex his faith world and need to be silenced. He […]
NEWS FEATURE: In Wake of Abuse Scandal, Protestants Look More Closely at Hiring Policies
By Rudy Larini — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service KEARNY, N.J. _ Ron Green was puzzled when a pastor he had once met briefly at a retreat called and asked to meet him at the Oakwood Baptist Church in Kearny, where Green was office manager. Oakwood’s new leader, Bruce Roberts, had been away for more than a week, having […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Supreme Court Allows Military Institute Prayer Ruling to Stand WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to consider an appeal of a lower court ruling that mealtime prayers at Virginia Military Institute are unconstitutional, drawing praise and criticism from opposing sides of the church-state debate. Justice Antonin Scalia […]
NEWS STORY: Arab-Americans Hold Politicians’ Attention
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Not so long ago, Awni Abu-Hadba felt invisible. The Palestine-born jeweler, who moved to Paterson, N.J., as a young man in 1971, remembers asking the city’s mayor for a favor. He will never forget the mayor’s response: “Your community doesn’t vote, so why should I help?” Today Abu-Hadba is […]
NEWS STORY: Religious Supporters of Women’s Rights Pray Before Marching
By Adelle M. Banks — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Standing at a worship service shortly before the official start of the March for Women’s Lives, pastry cook Theresa Helfrey held two signs stapled together, one declaring the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s call for justice and another supporting NARAL, a prominent abortion rights organization. She said the juxtaposition of […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Christian Leaders Say Bush Environmental Policy is Immoral (RNS) One hundred Christian leaders told President Bush in a pointed Earth Day rebuke on Thursday (April 22) that they have “grave moral concern” about his clean air policy. The letter, coordinated by the National Council of Churches, accused Bush of weakening […]
COMMENTARY: What’s a Missionary to Do? Fixing Lives One Child at a Time
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (Dr. Gary Roark is an anesthesiologist and director of clinical services at the Beit Trust CURE Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, a teaching hospital for disabled children. He, his wife, Karina, and two children Erica, 14, and Daniel, 10, were sent to Malawi by CURE International. (http://www.cureinternational.org)) BLANTYRE, Malawi _ Blantyre […]
NEWS STORY: Priests Convey Concerns to Archbishop
By Terry Byrne — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service ATLANTA _ Catholic priests, demoralized by the past two years of the clergy sex abuse scandal, asked a leading archbishop to convey their concerns about priests’ rights to the church hierarchy. Some 240 priests who gathered here for the annual National Federation of Priests’ Councils convention grilled Archbishop Timothy Dolan […]
NEWS STORY: Abortion Rights Supporters Gather for Prayer in Advance of Sunday March
By Adelle M. Banks — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ People of faith who support reproductive rights for women gathered Friday (April 23) for an interfaith prayer breakfast, timed as a preview to the March for Women’s Lives that is expected to draw crowds to the nation’s capital Sunday. More than 300 clergy and other supporters of Planned […]
NEWS STORY: Vatican Issues Guidelines on Communion `Abuses,’ Implies Kerry Unworthy
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican’s highest authority on worship and the sacraments, issuing comprehensive new instructions against liturgical abuses, indicated Friday (April 23) that Sen. John Kerry should be refused Communion because he supports abortion rights. Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline […]
NEWS FEATURE: Megachurch Wants to `Grow’ a City
By RNS Blog Editor — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio _ Pastor Rainnell Vernon is not just trying to grow a church. He’s also trying to grow a city. Less than four years after the ambitious young pastor was bounced from a Cleveland church for butting heads with more traditional leaders, the lively church he started in […]
NEWS STORY: Capitol Hill Catholics Compare Voting Records With Church Teaching
By Kein Eckstrom — April 30, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Intense focus on Sen. John Kerry’s Catholic credentials in his race for the White House has spilled over onto Capitol Hill as lawmakers from both parties debate whose voting records are more “in sync” with Catholic teaching. Two Democratic House members _ Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and Rick […]
