Monthly Archives: April 2007
Forbes Leaves Riverside Pulpit Pulling No Punches
By Chris Herlinger — April 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Make no mistake: Take the Rev. James A. Forbes Jr. away from a pulpit and he is not himself. Forbes’s old friend, the late, eminent African-American church historian James Melvin Washington, used to kid the senior minister of Manhattan’s Riverside Church by saying Forbes “would preach to […]
COMMENTARY: Abortion Debate Brings Anti-Catholicism Into Focus
By Phyllis Zagano — April 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Every so often the undercurrent in the abortion debate snaps clearly into anti-Catholic focus. Witness Rosie O’Donnell’s angry comment about Catholic Supreme Court Justices on the popular ABC women’s program “The View.” Ms. O’Donnell was upset by the high Court’s recent 5-4 decision outlawing partial-birth abortion. The five majority-vote […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Employee Objects to Fingerprint Scanner, Citing `End Time’ Beliefs RESERVE, La. (RNS) A public school employee has been suspended for refusing to use a biometric time clock that scans fingerprints, claiming the process violates his religious beliefs. The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board has scheduled a hearing on […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Religious Groups Seek Reforms As Congress Considers Farm Bill (RNS) More than a dozen religious groups are calling on Congress to reduce hunger and help rural farmers as the House holds hearings on the reauthorization of the U.S. farm bill. “Passing a new farm bill is an important opportunity to […]
Films, Book Explore Mormons’ Darkest Hour
By Bridget MacDonald — April 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) One hundred fifty years ago, a glorious September morning in the Utah mountains morphed into Mormonism’s darkest hour when a skittish militia opened fire on a wagon train, leaving more than 120 men, women and children dead in a flowery field. Now the “Mountain Meadows Massacre” is becoming more […]
Seminarian `Martyrs’ Shoot for Evangelism and Unity
By Frances X. Rocca — April 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ If there is a training ground for leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in America, it is the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Every year, bishops from across the U.S. send their most promising candidates for the priesthood to study at the college; active alumni include […]
COMMENTARY: Scalia’s Sermon: Judges Should Put Realism, History First
By RNS Blog Editor — April 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) “Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.” Not Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. At least, not when he’s at his day job deciding cases. Dreaming things that never were and saying “why not” is for lawmakers […]
COMMENTARY: What Does It Take to Start a Church?
By Tom Ehrich — April 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A friend wants to start a church. Let’s help her do it. First, the word “church.” Should she use it? That wasn’t Jesus’ word. He envisioned “friends” going out to serve, not an institution drawing members out of the world. It was persecution that led Jesus’ followers to gather […]
Sufi Poet Rumi Rides Wave of Popularity 800 Years After His Birth
By Omar Sacirbey — April 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Mohammad Nooraee knew exactly what he needed when Brandeis University students asked him to distill the essence of Sufism, an Islamic mystical tradition, one recent Sunday afternoon. Nooraee, director of the Nimatullahi Sufi order in Boston, needed “Grapes,” a poem by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, the 13th century poet and […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Unbaptized Infants No Longer in Limbo, Vatican Says VATICAN CITY (RNS) Clarifying Catholic thinking on one of the most perplexing theological enigmas, Pope Benedict XVI has endorsed a Vatican report offering hope that unbaptised infants can reach heaven. In a report published Friday (April 20), the International Theological Commission concluded […]
VA Approves Wiccan Symbol for Gravestones
By RNS Blog Editor — April 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has approved the pentacle, a religious symbol used by Wiccans, as an official symbol for veterans’ gravestones, according to a settlement announced Monday (April 23). “The Wiccan pentacle will henceforth have the same status as the other emblems of belief on VA’s […]
Black Churches Face Challenges in Maintaining Strong Musical Tradition
By RNS Blog Editor — April 24, 2007
c. 2007 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly MEMPHIS, Tenn. _ Music, for many, is at the heart of the black worship experience. “Music comes as a softener of people,” said the Rev. Frank Thomas, pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tenn. “It allows me to gradually open myself to receive the word. That’s why […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service College for Christian Home-Schoolers Gains Accreditation (RNS) Patrick Henry College, the Virginia institution known for preparing Christian home-schooled students for careers in public service, has received full accreditation. The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools granted the accreditation Tuesday (April 17), the Purcellville, Va.-based college announced. “We are thrilled […]
Anglican Bishops to Meet in New Orleans Amid Schism
By RNS Blog Editor — April 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ When the head of the worldwide Anglican church meets with Episcopal bishops from across the country in New Orleans this fall, it will briefly position the Crescent City at the center of the Anglican universe, but for an unlikely reason. The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. […]
Editors: A similar story appeared on Beliefnet (www.beliefnet.com). Use the Beliefnet credit line.:
By RNS Blog Editor — April 21, 2007
c. 2007 Beliefnet (UNDATED) As much as we want to, we can’t keep our college kids safe in the nest. But they’re finding their own ways to cope with tragedy. My heart is heavy as I read and hear more and more devastating details of the carnage and loss that took place at Virginia Tech. […]
