Monthly Archives: March 2007
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Catholic Bishops Condemn Maguire on Birth Control, Gay Marriage (RNS) The U.S. Catholic bishops have denounced as “irresponsible” and “false teaching” a longtime Catholic theologian’s insistence that Catholics are able to dissent from the hierarchy’s opposition to contraceptives, same-sex marriage and abortion. Daniel C. Maguire, a professor of moral theology […]
Is Faith a Genetic Condition or a Natural Phenomenon?
By Bruce Nolan — March 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ The recent debate at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was nominally called “The Future of Atheism.” But the heart of the dialogue explored a related question: Can mankind’s age-old belief in God be explained purely as a stubbornly recurring natural phenomenon, not much different than the common […]
Please Don’t Touch Her, She Will Touch You
By RNS Blog Editor — March 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service SWEET HOME, Ore. _ Lunchtime finds 66-year-old Carl Malburg, a former logger, sitting in a rented minivan in the parking lot outside St. Helen’s Catholic Church, talking on a cell phone to his wife back home in Michigan. As caretaker of the International Virgin Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: For the Celebration of Freedom, These Jews Aren’t Free
By RNS Blog Editor — March 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Very soon Jews from around the world will chant the familiar refrain for Passover _ “Ma Nishtana HaLayla Hazeh” _ “How is this night different from all other nights?” _ as we have done at the Passover seder throughout the ages. During Passover, we will solemnly recount the […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: An Exercise in Christian Realism, Not Spineless Diplomacy
By RNS Blog Editor — March 23, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The late William Sloane Coffin, standing squarely on the tradition of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and preaching from the pulpit of Riverside Church, said: “The axis of evil is not Iraq, North Korea and Iran. A much more formidable trio is environmental degradation, the pandemic of poverty and a world […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 23, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service German Judge Removed After Saying Abuse Allowed in Muslim Marriage BERLIN (RNS) A Frankfurt judge has been removed from a divorce case after arguing that physical abuse in a Muslim marriage is acceptable under the Quran. The divorce case was filed by an unnamed 26-year-old Moroccan woman last May after […]
COMMENTARY: Passover 101
By James Rudin — March 23, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Even though America is saturated with religiosity, recent studies indicate many people lack accurate knowledge about the beliefs and rituals of world religions, including their own. Passover, Judaism’s eight-day festival of freedom, begins April 2. The following test will reveal how much you know about the holiday. If your […]
Woman Drops `Booty Bounce’ for Christian Line Dancing
By Margaret Bernstein — March 23, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Belinda Haywood didn’t want to give up what she loved. She had made her name teaching line dances. Romantic ones like her “Enchanted Evening” routine. Urban young folks clamored for the “Booty Bounce” and the “Shake What Your Mama Gave You.” Her classes drew dozens of people to […]
Cubans Ask: Is It Wrong to Pray for Castro’s Death?
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — March 23, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ Jose Fernandez’s family was one of the lucky ones. When Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, his communist government took only the family’s home, dairy farm and food import business, among other things. Many Cubans, he knows, lost even more. Fernandez arrived in the United […]
Move Over, Oprah
By RNS Blog Editor — March 22, 2007
Muslim Magazines Discover an Untapped Market RNS’ Omar Sacirbey profiles the emerging market for Muslim-focused consumer magazines in the US, in this week’s full-text RNS article, linked above. Quote: Muslim Girl, with circulation approaching 50,000, is the latest of several new magazines catering to Muslim Americans. Although they reach for distinct demographics-teenagers, professionals, mothers and […]
Episcopal Bishops Reject Plan for Foreign Oversight
By Daniel Burke — March 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Episcopal Bishops have brushed off an attempt to grant overseas Anglicans a role in governing the Episcopal Church, saying such a move would be “injurious” and could lead to a permanent division of the U.S. church. At their annual spring retreat in Navasota, Texas, the bishops late Tuesday (March […]
Episcopalians reject foreign oversight; 10 minutes with Mustafa Ceric; Passover menu options; New ho
By RNS Blog Editor — March 22, 2007
Wednesday’s RNS report includes a news story by Daniel Burke about Episcopal bishops rejecting a plan for foreign oversight: Episcopal Bishops late Tuesday (March 20) flatly rejected a plan to give foreign Anglicans a place in governing the Episcopal Church, saying it would be “injurious” to the church. Meeting at their annual spring retreat in […]
COMMENTARY: Seeing God in Ourselves, and in Each Other
By Phyllis Zagano — March 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The Templeton Foundation announced the winner of the $1.5 million Templeton Prize for spirituality the other day, the same award given to Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and the late Brother Roger of the Taize community. Lately, it’s gone to intellectuals who foster dialogue between the war zones of religion […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Presiding Bishop of Church of God in Christ Dead at 67 (RNS) Bishop Gilbert E. Patterson, the presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ, died Tuesday (March 20) of heart failure. He was 67. Patterson was in his second term as presiding bishop of the predominantly black Pentecostal […]
Jews Revive the Sanhedrin With Plans for a Passover Sacrifice
By Dana Evan Kaplan — March 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In a donated apartment concealed among the narrow streets of the Jerusalem suburb of Nahlaot, 13 Orthodox Jewish men meet every Tuesday to debate matters of Jewish law. They are the management team of a larger developing Sanhedrin, or religious court, in Israel. And they plan to sacrifice sheep […]
