Monthly Archives: October 2005
COMMENTARY: Where Does All Our Sorrow Go?
By RNS Blog Editor — October 20, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Sadness settled on Chippewa Falls, Wis., after a bus carrying the high school band crashed into a jackknifed trailer truck on Sunday (Oct. 16), killing five, including the band leader. Does the music of sorrow rise from the wreckage of that crash like the blues above New Orleans, and […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 20, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Bush Administration: Religious Schools Can Get FEMA Aid WASHINGTON (RNS) Religious schools and faith-based community service organizations that suffered damage during the recent hurricanes are eligible to receive federal disaster grants, the Bush administration said Tuesday (Oct. 18). Despite concerns from groups saying the government shouldn’t finance religiously affiliated groups, […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: `Red States’ Race to Find Medical Options That Spare Embryos, Create Jobs
By RNS Blog Editor — October 20, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Opponents of embryonic stem cell research have long contended the practice should wither because it’s morally wrong, but conservative-leaning states are now sprinting to prove it’s also a big waste of money. The “red states” strategy _ so named for the states’ tendency to vote Republican in national elections […]
Survey Shows Religious Americans Tolerant of Divorce
By Adelle M. Banks — October 20, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Most Americans continue to believe that “God’s plan for marriage is one man, one woman, for life,” but they are still tolerant of those who divorce, a new survey on family and faith shows. A poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research conducted for the PBS program “Religion & […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service New British Rules Increase Cost of Replacing Church Light Bulbs LONDON (RNS) How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? In at least one British church, more than it used to. New British government safety regulations that came into effect last April require “safe landing areas or […]
`Let my palm fronds go’
By RNS Blog Editor — October 19, 2005
Quote of the Day: U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman “I said, `Let my palm fronds go.’ … We’re trying to avoid the Egyptians from looking like the grinch that stole Sukkot.” –U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., commenting on Israeli complaints that prices for palm fronds imported from Egypt have skyrocketed from $2 in 2004 to $20 […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service New British Rules Increase Cost of Replacing Church Light Bulbs LONDON (RNS) How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? In at least one British church, more than it used to. New British government safety regulations that came into effect last April require “safe landing areas or […]
RNS Exclusive: Queen of Darkness Sees the Light in New Book on Christ
By Benedicta Cipolla — October 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The queen of darkness has seen the light. In her latest book, “Christ the Lord,” novelist Anne Rice turns away from the doomed souls of her best-selling tales about vampires and witches in favor of a first-person account of the 7-year-old Jesus. “I was sitting in church talking to […]
No Major Changes Expected on Communion, Politicians
By RNS Blog Editor — October 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ A synod of bishops advising Pope Benedict XVI is not expected to recommend any concrete changes on priestly celibacy or how the church treats divorced Catholics or Catholic politicians, according to a draft of the bishops’ final report. Bishops on Tuesday (Oct. 18) reviewed a first draft […]
COMMENTARY: Yes, There is a First Amendment Wall of Separation
By Tom Ehrich — October 19, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) “Is there such a thing as separation of church and state?” asks a reader. Yes, it is required by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Arguments about “separation of church and state” […]
Pope’s synod of bishops; Anne Rice writes about Jesus
By RNS Blog Editor — October 19, 2005
RNS’s Vatican correspondent Stacy Meichtry is monitoring the first synod of bishops of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate. The meeting began Oct. 2 and will continue through Oct. 23. According to Meichtry: A synod of bishops advising Pope Benedict XVI is not expected to recommend any concrete changes to church policy, according to a draft version […]
Rev. Medley on American Baptist Churches focus
By Tracy Gordon — October 18, 2005
Quote of the Day: American Baptist Churches General Secretary A. Roy Medley “ABC is not collapsing. Our mission focus and call are clear. We intend to focus on them like a laser beam.” -The Rev. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA, speaking about his denomination’s recent challenges, including divisions over […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service New Approach to Stem Cell Research Could End Some Ethical Concerns (RNS) Two new research techniques unveiled in a prestigious scientific journal Monday (Oct. 17) are stirring hopes that embryonic stem cell research might be doable in a way that avoids sticky ethical and religious objections. Teams from Advanced Cell […]
Alleging Detainees Abused, Ex-Guantanamo Bay Chaplain Releases Detailed Book
By Brian Donohue — October 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) For James Yee, it has been a long silence. Arrested on suspicion of espionage in September 2003 and later exonerated, the former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay prison remained under a military gag order until his honorable discharge earlier this year. Now Yee has written “For God and […]
Christian Vegetarians Inspired by Garden of Eden Diet
By RNS Blog Editor — October 18, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ In the biblical book of Leviticus, the Lord is said to tell Moses, “You may eat any land animal that has divided hoofs and that also chews the cud.” In the Gospel of Luke, the father celebrates the return of the prodigal son by ordering the slaughter of […]
