Monthly Archives: August 2006
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Focus on the Family to Target Eight Battleground States WASHINGTON (RNS) The conservative evangelical group Focus on the Family will mount a voter registration drive in eight battleground states this fall to “combat voter apathy and encourage Christians to go to the polls,” according to an e-mail sent to supporters. […]
Madonna’s Sin Is Not Blasphemy but Lack of Originality
By RNS Blog Editor — August 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Madonna is back in her favorite place: the news. During her ongoing “Confessions” tour, she appears “crucified” on a mirrored cross, complete with mock crown of thorns. For several weeks this summer, the tour played sold-out arenas across the United States to minimal controversy. Only a handful of protesters […]
Madonna’s Sin Is Not Blasphemy but Lack of Originality
By RNS Blog Editor — August 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Madonna is back in her favorite place: the news. During her ongoing “Confessions” tour, she appears “crucified” on a mirrored cross, complete with mock crown of thorns. For several weeks this summer, the tour played sold-out arenas across the United States to minimal controversy. Only a handful of protesters […]
Catholic Rock Band Has Mass Appeal
By RNS Blog Editor — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service STEUBENVILLE, Ohio _ The five band members, in T-shirts, jeans and shorts, some without shoes, some with cigarettes between fingers, drape themselves across cheap plastic, wicker and metal chairs and wooden porch rails outside the two-story home in a working-class neighborhood. On the street, in front of a scraggly lawn, […]
Catholic Rock Band Has Mass Appeal
By RNS Blog Editor — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service STEUBENVILLE, Ohio _ The five band members, in T-shirts, jeans and shorts, some without shoes, some with cigarettes between fingers, drape themselves across cheap plastic, wicker and metal chairs and wooden porch rails outside the two-story home in a working-class neighborhood. On the street, in front of a scraggly lawn, […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Alliance of Baptists to Appeal Fine for Cuban Travel WASHINGTON (RNS) The Alliance of Baptists plans to appeal a Treasury Department notice alleging that churches affiliated with the group violated rules regarding travel to Cuba and should be fined $34,000. The notice, dated July 5, said itineraries of five churches […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Alliance of Baptists to Appeal Fine for Cuban Travel WASHINGTON (RNS) The Alliance of Baptists plans to appeal a Treasury Department notice alleging that churches affiliated with the group violated rules regarding travel to Cuba and should be fined $34,000. The notice, dated July 5, said itineraries of five churches […]
In the Battle Against AIDS, What’s Really Important?
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 16, 2006
Melinda Gates (the other half of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) has a question. The answers are likely to be provocative, depending on who you ask: Raised in Dallas, Ms. Gates attended high school at the private, Roman Catholic, all-girls Ursuline Academy, which stressed public service. Her remarks at the opening of the conference […]
RNS Clips: 28, Five Degrees and a 4,300-Member Flock
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 16, 2006
Greg Garrison’s recent story on a Birmingham pastor who is probably the youngest megachurch pastor in the country was picked up by Christianity Today and can be found here. “This is a very intimidating position to be in,” Platt said. “There are a lot of factors that only God can get credit for. It doesn’t […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Iran Opens Exhibit of Holocaust Cartoons (RNS) A new exhibit of cartoons depicting the Holocaust has opened in Iran after Muslims were angered earlier this year when a Danish newspaper published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The contest, which received 1,200 entries from around the world, prompted outrage from Abraham […]
Faith Groups Struggle to Find Role in Combating AIDS
By Dale Hanson Bourke — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service TORONTO _ In the long-running tragedy known as the global AIDS pandemic, religion has played various roles. Two decades ago, while doctors and researchers worked to find a cure for the newly recognized disease, religious voices were either silent or heard as oracles of doom and condemnation. At the International […]
U.S. Focus on Abstinence Under Scrutiny at AIDS Summit
By Rachel Cohen — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service TORONTO _ The Bush administration has come under attack at the International AIDS Conference for tying millions of dollars in U.S. funding to the teaching of sexual abstinence in poor nations, a policy that activists said is causing harm instead of saving lives. But the criticism on Monday (Aug. 14) […]
Artist Finds God on Gotham’s Mean Streets
By Christ Herlinger — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ The mean streets of New York might not seem a likely place to discover the sacred. But amid the city’s fabled profane _ the grit of a boulevard or an underpass, the grime of a storefront sidewalk or a subway station _ the sacred exists. You just […]
COMMENTARY: The False Allure of Simple Choices
By Tom Ehrich — August 16, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) What a week. Violence spun out of control in Israel and Lebanon, then receded. Scotland Yard foiled a major terrorist attack on U.S.-bound airplanes. Iraq descended closer to civil war. Iran plowed ahead on developing nuclear weapons. Under cover of that darkness, Washington politicians tried to throw more favors […]
Taylor Touches a Nerve
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 15, 2006
Mark Lewis Taylor’s recent commentary on U.S. church positions on Israel has touched many a nerve. A sampling from the mailbox: Reverend Taylor is either an intellectual cretin or (more likely) a morally degenerate anti-Semite. Sylven Schaffer, San Antonio In the interest of intellectual honesty, I expect an immediate denunciation of Jesus Christ by Rev. […]
