Monthly Archives: May 2005
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Uzbekistan Added to, India Dropped From List of Persecutors of Religion WASHINGTON (RNS) An independent federal watchdog group announced Wednesday (May 11) that Uzbekistan has been added to and India dropped from its annual list of countries that have “engaged in or tolerated systematic and egregious violations” of religious freedom. […]
Bob Dylan’s Legacy as a Political, Religious and Musical Figure
By RNS Blog Editor — May 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly (UNDATED) How many personas does Bob Dylan have? How many pages are there in a book? Or days in a year? Or, perhaps most important, how many songs in a story? “A folk song,” Dylan writes in his recent book, “Chronicles: Volume One” (Simon & Schuster), “has over a […]
Reports Say Pope Is Close to Naming American to Top Vatican Post
By Kein Eckstrom — May 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Media reports indicate Pope Benedict XVI is moving closer to naming an American, Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco, to his old job as chief enforcer and guardian of Catholic faith and doctrine. As first reported by Religion News Service on May 3, Levada appears to be the top […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 11, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Air Force Assigns Task Force to Assess Religious Climate at Academy (RNS) The Air Force has asked a new task force to report to it by May 23 about the religious climate at the U.S. Air Force Academy after a church-state watchdog group released a detailed report of allegations of […]
Religious High Schools Grapple With Evolution, Intelligent Design
By RNS Blog Editor — May 11, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The debate over evolution has exploded in Kansas, Michigan and Pennsylvania as public schools consider teaching intelligent design, a competing idea that proposes natural systems were planned by a higher power. But the controversy is not limited to public education. At the country’s more than 8,500 religious high schools, […]
COMMENTARY: What’s Really Undermining the Modern American Family
By Tom Ehrich — May 11, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) For the good of the family, let’s bury the usual hatchets, step back from our accustomed religious barricades, and think about what would truly make a difference in family life. The modern family isn’t being undermined by liberal or conservative judges, by Roe v. Wade, by stem cell research, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 11, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Rome Judge Convicts Vatican Radio Officials in Pollution Case ROME (RNS) A Rome judge on Monday (May 9) found two Vatican Radio officials guilty of allowing transmitters to emit dangerously high levels of electromagnetic pollution, and gave them suspended prison sentences. Judge Luisa Martoni gave Cardinal Roberto Tucci, president of […]
Has Cheerleading Become Too Sexy?
By RNS Blog Editor — May 11, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Pity the cheerleaders. After all that enthusiasm, and decades of striving to be recognized as dedicated athletes, an old stereotype is back: They’re just too sexy. Or so says Al Edwards, a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives. His bill would have the state regulate sexually suggestive moves […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Critics Call Editor’s Ouster an Ominous Sign for U.S. Church
By Kein Eckstrom — May 10, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Is the Rev. Tom Reese, the respected editor of a Jesuit magazine, the latest casualty in a simmering battle between the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the United States? From most accounts, Reese was ousted as editor of America magazine on Friday (May 6) because some U.S. bishops […]
Muslims Praise New Film on the Crusades
By RNS Blog Editor — May 10, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Despite initial controversy surrounding “The Kingdom of Heaven,” Ridley Scott’s new film about the Crusades, it is getting generally positive reviews from Muslims in the United States and in Arab countries. “It was really nice to go into a movie and feel so dignified, not feeling that you have […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 10, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Researchers: More Than 1,200 Megachurches in the United States (RNS) Protestant megachurches _ those with weekly attendance exceeding 2,000 _ may be far more prevalent than originally thought. Researchers at the Connecticut-based Hartford Institute for Religion Research and the Dallas-based Leadership Network say they have discovered that the number of […]
COMMENTARY: Pharmacists’ `Conscience Clauses’ Are Rx for Trouble
By Richard Allen — May 10, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Pharmacists have pangs of conscience like everyone else. Maybe they feel guilty dishing out pricey uppers, downers and painkillers people don’t really need. Or maybe they feel guilty dispensing birth control. So here comes another skirmish in the culture wars: a battle over whether pharmacists and pharmacies may refuse […]
COMMENTARY: Sixty Years Ago, America Gave This 8-Year-Old Brit Some Refuge
By RNS Blog Editor — May 7, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service LONDON _ As we mark the 60th anniversary of the ending of World War II, may I, as an Englishman, express gratitude to the American people. Not only for what you did to preserve freedom in the world but for a less well=recognized example of American generosity. Sixty years ago […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 7, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Editors: Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America is CQ Judge Tosses Sex-Ed Program That Dismissed Baptist Views Toward Gays (RNS) A federal judge has ordered a Maryland school district to revise its sex education curriculum after he said it seemed to favor religions that take a positive view of […]
FILM REVIEW: In This Film on the Crusades, the Christians Are the Bad Guys
By Stephen Whitty — May 7, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) For years, Muslim, Christian and Jew have lived in an uneasy peace. Tensions have been contained. Religious freedoms have been granted. Cultures have coexisted. But there are always those who do not see a profit in peace. And urged on by extremists, their easily influenced forces march blindly and […]
