Monthly Archives: December 2005
HUMOR: Religion Can Be Funny
By RNS Blog Editor — December 31, 2005
c. 2005 The Joyful Noiseletter (UNDATED) Words to start the New Year A New Year’s blessing: “May the sun shine on your day. May the clouds pass over your troubles. May the stars twinkle on your evening. And may the misty moonlight brighten your journey as you make your way to Heaven.” _ Rev. John […]
Authors Take Lighthearted Look at Hell
By Nancy Haught — December 31, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The world has been going to hell in a handbasket for 4,000 years. That’s about the time someone gouged the epic hero Gilgamesh’s name into a ream of clay tablets and began, at least in writing, the human preoccupation with the netherworld. So say two writers, Chuck Crisafulli and […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 31, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Few Priests Sign Petition Against Massachusetts’ Gay Marriage Law SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (RNS) Despite the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church urging support for a petition against same-sex marriage, only 20 percent of priests who work in one Bay State diocese signed the petition, according to a Web site tracking the […]
Outgoing Baylor University Interim President
By Tracy Gordon — December 30, 2005
Quote of the Day: Baylor University Interim President Bill Underwood “If we are to be a great Christian university, we cannot be afraid to pursue the course of truth, wherever that course might lead. Indeed, if our pursuit of truth leads us to question our existing view of God, it may just be that God […]
Like a Thief in the Night …
By Kevin Eckstrom — December 30, 2005
For one Philadelphia priest, Jesus’ prediction that he would return like “a thief in the night” has hit home a little too close for comfort. The Philadelphia Daily News has the story here.
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 30, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Lawyers Predict Potential Backlash to Secret Surveillance of Muslims (RNS) Lawyers requesting the federal government turn over addresses of sites it had monitored surreptitiously say if records show religious profiling occurred, American Muslims will be more wary of cooperating with the war on terror. “If this demonstrates that Muslim sites […]
Hanukkah an Opportunity to Address Pitfalls of Gambling
By RNS Blog Editor — December 30, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) At a time when gambling has become increasingly popular, with poker matches online and on television, some in the Jewish community say Hanukkah can be an opportunity to address the addictive dangers of wagering. Among the festivities associated with the eight-day holiday is the children’s game of dreidel, a […]
COMMENTARY: Don’t Teach Religion in Science Classes
By RNS Blog Editor — December 30, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The recent ruling by federal Judge John E. Jones III that it is unconstitutional for public schools in Dover, Pa., to offer intelligent design as a scientifically valid alternative to evolution is a graphic reminder that our schools are the most visible battlegrounds in today’s culture wars. The divisive […]
St. Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of the Left?
By RNS Blog Editor — December 30, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service ASSISI, Italy _ He is a champion of animal rights to some and a hero of anti-globalism to others. There are even those who consider him heaven’s first vegetarian. Whether any of these causes actually crossed the 13th century mind of St. Francis of Assisi is doubtful. Centuries later, however, […]
Mainline Churches Lose Overall on Budget but Emerge With Clearer Voice
By Kein Eckstrom — December 30, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ When mainline Protestant leaders came here last March to denounce President Bush’s proposed budget as “unjust,” they were received much like the Old Testament prophets they look to for inspiration. Another lonely voice, crying out in the wilderness. By year’s end, the budget they rejected as immoral had […]
Religion Year in Review: Death Loomed Large in 2005
By Kein Eckstrom — December 30, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) They say death waits for no one and makes no appointments. There was little or no warning for the 1,000 people killed by Hurricane Katrina, the 70,000 dead in October’s Pakistan earthquake, or the 181,000 lives claimed by the Asian tsunami that hit in late 2004, overshadowing the dawn […]
Now Jewish Girls Have Their Very Own Little Heroines
By RNS Blog Editor — December 29, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Miriam, 10, is a Russian Jewish girl who in 1914 has her entire life uprooted when her family decides to flee from persecution and pogroms to America. Reyna, 12, is Chinese, part of a small population of Chinese “Israelites,” who live in Kaifeng on the Yellow River. Through her […]
Rock Star’s Activism Inspires Muslims Worldwide
By RNS Blog Editor — December 29, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) One of Salman Ahmad’s earliest gigs was a talent show at King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, where he was studying to be a doctor. Moments after he strummed his first chords, Islamic fundamentalists barged in, smashed Ahmad’s guitar and drum set, and broke up the show. Ahmad […]
COMMENTARY: 2005: A Year of Continued Religious Persecution
By RNS Blog Editor — December 29, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Faith-based organizations and people of faith stepped up to the plate in record numbers in 2005. The Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina along the U.S. Gulf Coast prompted millions of dollars in donations, thousands of volunteers, an unprecedented mobilization of food, shelter and medicine, and countless prayers lifted […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 29, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Pope Says God Considers Embryo `Full and Complete’ Human Life VATICAN CITY (RNS) The embryo is a “full and complete” human being even though it is “shapeless,” Pope Benedict XVI said on Wednesday (Dec. 28), underscoring Roman Catholic teaching that regards abortion and the destruction of embryos for stem cell […]
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