Monthly Archives: December 2004
NEWS STORY: Concerned About Ethics, Companies Curb Holiday Gifts
By RNS Blog Editor — December 14, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the wake of recent corporate ethics scandals, more companies are curbing holiday gifts for business purposes, either by setting spending limits, encouraging charitable donations, or banning presents outright. “They don’t want to be perceived as buying customers’ business,” said Dan Sondhelm, an Internet shopping guru with Butterflymall.com, a […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 11, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Official Says Faith-Based Initiative _ and Suits _ to Continue WASHINGTON (RNS) The director of the White House office dealing with faith-based initiatives said President Bush remains committed to supporting government funding of religious social service programs even as the administration fends off lawsuits against its efforts. “The president will […]
NEWS FEATURE: A Scholar Sees Lessons for America in St. Paul’s Challenge to Rome
By Nancy Haught — December 11, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The Roman Empire lies in ruins in more than one place. In Priene, Turkey, huge chunks of stone lie like blocks scattered on a playroom floor. Toppled pillars, some carved in letters a foot high, proclaim that Caesar, the Roman emperor, was the son of a god. The Caesars […]
NEWS FEATURE: Chaplains Bring Harps to This Side of Heaven
By RNS Blog Editor — December 11, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ As 98-year-old Viola Garfield looked up from her bed at Faush Manor Apartments, she could have thought she was in heaven. On either side of her bed were two women wearing red sweaters and strumming small harps. As they played, she recognized the words from “Amazing Grace” […]
COMMENTARY: All I Want for Christmas …
By Dale Hanson Bourke — December 11, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of “The Skeptics Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis.”) (UNDATED) On the same day CNN/Money ran an online report detailing some of the most “outrageous” holiday toys available for spoiled children, the United Nations issued its report on how most of the world’s children […]
NEWS FEATURE: New Book Ponders God in the Cosmos
By RNS Blog Editor — December 10, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Could it be, even scientists have wondered, that all of the cosmos was perfectly shaped to sustain life? Simply turning the pages of a new book, “Reflections on the Nature of God” (Templeton Foundation Press), plunges the reader deeper into this question. Editor Michael Reagan, founder of Lionheart Books […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 10, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Former Bishops’ President Named to Lead Archdiocese of Atlanta (RNS) The Illinois bishop who guided the U.S. Catholic Church through a bruising clergy sexual abuse scandal received a major promotion from Pope John Paul II on Thursday (Dec. 9) when he was named the archbishop of Atlanta. Bishop Wilton Gregory […]
COMMENTARY: Perfection that Steroids Can Not Bring
By Frances Kennedy — December 10, 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) Many wonder at the stubborn resistance to the idea of Christmas this year. “Winter […]
NEWS STORY: Progressive Faith Leaders Regroup, Look to Future
By Kein Eckstrom — December 10, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Religious leaders who mounted an unsuccessful bid to resurrect progressive values in the 2004 elections said Thursday (Dec. 9) they refuse to yield the “moral high ground” to conservative Christians who helped President Bush win a second term. More than two dozen Jewish and Christian progressive faith leaders […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Ukraine’s Political Divide Mirrored in Religious Differences
By RNS Blog Editor — December 10, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The political crisis that has gripped Ukraine for the past three weeks in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election runoff _ pitting the Moscow-leaning establishment of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych against his Washington-leaning challenger, Viktor Yushchenko _ is mirrored in the country’s religious divisions. Although the churches have […]
NEWS STORY: Religious Groups Mull Options as Canadian Court OKs Gay Marriage
By RNS Blog Editor — December 10, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service OTTAWA _ Religious and pro-family groups who oppose gay marriage tried to make the best of Thursday’s (Dec. 9) Supreme Court ruling that paves the way for Canada to become the third country to allow nationwide recognition of gay marriages. The court’s opinion, in a clarification sought by Prime Minister […]
COMMENTARY: Now Boarding, Women and Children First
By RNS Blog Editor — December 10, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Advisor, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.) (UNDATED) As president of the Union for Reform Judaism, my rabbinical colleague Eric Yoffie spends much of his time traveling throughout the United States. With remarkable insight, Yoffie has observed that more genuine […]
NEWS STORY: Nine Months After Madrid Bombings, Life Remains Hard for Spain’s Muslims
By RNS Blog Editor — December 10, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service MADRID, Spain _ The Sunday crowd flows slow as molasses through El Rastro flea market, past towering piles of cheap North African pottery and secondhand clothes. Past bakeries where Madrilenos line up for steaming loaves, and the corner of Ribera de Curtidores street where an Algerian band plays rousing Berber […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 9, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service Poll: Faith Sometimes Drives Support for AIDS, Poverty Relief (RNS) A new poll shows that religious beliefs form a foundation for many Americans’ support of stepped-up efforts to combat global AIDS and reduce poverty around the world. While 86 percent of Americans believe the next presidential term should include a […]
NEWS STORY: Pope Prays for Peace on 150th Anniversary of Immaculate Conception Dogma
By RNS Blog Editor — December 9, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II prayed to the Virgin Mary for peace in Iraq and throughout the world on Wednesday (Dec. 8) at solemn ceremonies marking the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The ailing 84-year-old pontiff presided over a Mass […]
