Monthly Archives: August 2004
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 25, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Third Day to Perform at Republican National Convention (RNS) The Christian rock band Third Day will be among the performers at the Republican National Convention. Third Day, which has won Grammy and Dove Awards, will share a prime-time slot with Vice President Dick Cheney on Sept. 1 at New York’s […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 25, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Third Day to Perform at Republican National Convention (RNS) The Christian rock band Third Day will be among the performers at the Republican National Convention. Third Day, which has won Grammy and Dove Awards, will share a prime-time slot with Vice President Dick Cheney on Sept. 1 at New York’s […]
NEWS STORY: Stem Cell Research Emerges as Key Issue in New Poll
By Kein Eckstrom — August 25, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ A majority of American voters now support embryonic stem cell research, according to a new poll released Tuesday (Aug. 24), including 56 percent of “swing voters” who could be wooed by John Kerry’s embrace of the research. Support for the research has inched up nine points in two […]
NEWS FEATURE: After Three Years Some Groups Still Aiding Sept. 11 Victims
By Adelle M. Banks — August 25, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The United Services Group, a New York City humanitarian consortium that helped victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, closed up shop on July 31. But that doesn’t mean the long-term relief work is anywhere near over. Stephen Solender, who served as chief executive officer of the group coordinating a […]
COMMENTARY: How Would Jesus Vote?
By Tom Ehrich — August 25, 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. Visit his Web site at http://www.onajourney.org.) (UNDATED) Campaign 2004 takes me back to college and another election year. We were smart, well-informed, not conspicuously wise, shallow in experience but enthusiastic […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 24, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Bishops Advise Catholic Voters on Political Choices WASHINGTON (RNS) The nation’s Catholic bishops have distributed 10 questions that voters should ask political candidates, but cautioned they “should not isolate a particular element of Catholic doctrine” and ignore other issues. On Friday (Aug. 20), the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops distributed […]
NEWS FEATURE: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust: Author Explores `Gospel According to Disney’
By Kein Eckstrom — August 24, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In 1940, if you were a wood carver in a Disney animated film who needed to bring life to a puppet named Pinocchio, you would look to the heavens and wish upon a star _ where dreams, not prayers, come true. But, if it’s 2002 and you’re a little […]
NEWS STORY: Evangelist to Jews Drops Lawsuit Against University
By RNS Blog Editor — August 24, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) An evangelist who was once asked to leave the University of New Orleans for distributing controversial religious material has dropped her lawsuit against the school after it adopted a policy that permits her to resume her work. Michelle Beadle, who describes herself as a Jew who believes in the […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 21, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Chinese Detain L.A.-Based Buddhist Leader, Catholic Priests (RNS) A Los Angeles-based Buddhist leader and eight underground Catholic priests have been detained by the Chinese government in what human rights groups call an apparent crackdown on religious freedom. Yu Tianjian, a “living Buddha” who has been the abbot of Dari Rulai […]
NEWS FEATURE: Pastor Climbed Out of the Bottle, Into the Pulpit
By RNS Blog Editor — August 21, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service FLINT, Mich. Thomas Tarpley was only 4 when he got drunk on homemade wine. By the time he was in his mid-20s, the high school dropout had tried just about every kind of booze and drugs as a full-blown alcoholic. Today, Tarpley, 62, is pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church […]
COMMENTARY: Sorrow’s Bystanders
By Frances Kennedy — August 21, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (Eugene Cullen Kennedy, a longtime observer of the Roman Catholic Church, is professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago and author of “Cardinal Bernardin’s Stations of the Cross,” published by St. Martin’s Press.) (UNDATED) On a recent Sunday, Fox Television aired a program on the possibility of the […]
COMMENTARY: Old and New Religious Crusades at a Theater Near You
By James Rudin — August 20, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.) (UNDATED) Next year 20th Century Fox will release a $130 million epic film about Christians battling Muslims in the Middle East. Sound contemporary? Is the movie based on the current armed struggle in […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 20, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Sudan Crisis Is Worst Disaster on Planet, a Top Bishop Says (RNS) The refugee and military crisis in Sudan is without question the most dire humanitarian situation anywhere in the world, according to a top Catholic bishop who recently returned from a visit to the war-torn country. Bishop John Ricard […]
NEWS FEATURE: Former Football Saint Takes Hit, Bounces Back With Higher Power
By Bruce Nolan — August 20, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ Danny Abramowicz never does things halfway. As an undersized but furiously competitive end on the football team at Xavier University in Ohio in the mid-1960s, he “worked out like a maniac.” Doing isometric exercises at his mother-in-law’s house one day, he accidentally ripped out several feet of […]
NEWS FEATURE: Book Asks: What Kind of Civil Religion Will We Have?
By Cecile Holmes — August 20, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In her new book “Broken We Kneel: Reflections on Faith and Citizenship” (Jossey-Bass), Diana Butler Bass calls believers to examine U.S. actions and policies in light of Christian teaching and tradition. As the nation’s two major political parties try to link ideologies and presidential candidates to having the right […]
