Monthly Archives: April 2007
Editors: This is an updated version of story that moved April 16: : Scholar Finds Indian Roots to Go
By RNS Blog Editor — April 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Jazz musician and Yale music scholar Willie Ruff, who uncovered the links between 18th century Scottish singing and black gospel music, has connected another group to the style: American Indians. A descendant of an Oklahoma tribe contacted him after learning about a 2005 Yale conference on line singing, an […]
Polish-American Parish Rooting for Late Pope’s Canonization
By RNS Blog Editor — April 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Pope John Paul II is on the fast track to sainthood, thanks to churches such as St. Stanislaus in Cleveland. Located in this city’s Slavic Village neighborhood, St. Stanislaus already has one shrine containing a mitre worn by John Paul. The parish further honored the late pope’s memory […]
COMMENTARY: No Time for Simple Answers
By Dick Staub — April 20, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When Americans gaze on the bodies of 32 students murdered on their idyllic Virginia Tech campus, our attention is momentarily diverted from reality TV to reality. We would rather not be confronted with the latter because our shared national mythology is that of Walt Disney, who repeatedly brought us […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 20, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Church of God in Christ Names New Presiding Bishop (RNS) The Church of God in Christ has chosen the pastor of a Los Angeles megachurch to be its new presiding bishop. Bishop Charles E. Blake was appointed April 10 as the seventh presiding bishop of the predominantly black Pentecostal denomination, […]
Southern Baptists Confront Their Own Sexual Abuse Scandal
By Adelle M. Banks — April 20, 2007
Southern Baptist Convention leaders have condemned abuse in churches but say their polity prevents them from taking action to track abusers.
Secret Files on Abusive Priests in Oregon Will be Released
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — April 20, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., has agreed to release secret files on abusive priests as part of its $75 million plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection. The files, which won’t be made public until May, will paint the most detailed picture to date of what archdiocese officials […]
When Obedience is Next to Godliness
By Laura Turner — April 20, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Struggling to train an unruly dog in your jam-packed life and think you’ve exhausted all resources? Maybe it’s time to take a deep breath and start acting like a monk. For nearly 40 years, an order of Eastern Orthodox monks at the New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, N.Y., have […]
Got a Catholic Question? Boy, 7, Has the Answers
By Laura Turner — April 19, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Among the faithful gathered at the 7 a.m. Mass at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill, one face in the front pew always stands out. James Higgins, 7, has been attending daily Mass since he was 3 years old. His parents, Stephen and Lauren, never have to […]
Pitcher or Pope?
By RNS Blog Editor — April 19, 2007
Got a Catholic Question? Boy, 7, Has the Answers RNS’ Philip Turner profiles seven-year-old James Higgins, a Catholic boy who has attended daily Mass since he was three, and who has an encylopedic knowledge of the church and its history, in this week’s full-text article, linked above. Quote: “I have it in my heart to […]
GOP Candidates Wooing 10 Influential Religious Conservatives
By Daniel Burke — April 19, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ One day last January, Tamara Scott was leading her children through music lessons in her Norwalk, Iowa, home when the phone rang. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was on the line, wanting to talk politics. The children giggled when they heard Scott exchange her stern “Mom voice” for a […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 19, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Evangelicals Ponder Roots of Virginia Tech Violence WASHINGTON (RNS) A number of prominent evangelicals conducted some public soul-searching Wednesday (April 28) as they groped for answers to Monday’s mass killing of 32 students and staff at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. “The Bible says `mourn with those who mourn’ and […]
Supreme Court Upholds `Partial-Birth Abortion’ Law
By Adelle M. Banks — April 19, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (April 18) upheld a controversial law that bans a procedure that critics call “partial-birth abortion.” The ruling on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 was hailed by abortion opponents as a step toward reducing abortions, and decried […]
10 Minutes With … Leslie Montgomery
By Adelle M. Banks — April 19, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In her book, “The Faith of Condoleezza Rice,” author Leslie Montgomery explores the spiritual side of the U.S. secretary of state. Montgomery traced how Rice grew up in Birmingham, Ala., in the faith-filled home of her parents during the turbulent civil rights movement. Based on interviews with those close […]
COMMENTARY: Into the Great Wide Open
By Cathleen Falsani — April 19, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service BIG SKY, Mont. _ Go outside. Sometime today, walk out into the fresh air and just be for a few minutes. I realize, of course, that many of us are in the capricious it’s-summer-it’s-winter-it’s-summer-it’s-winter season that passes for spring in some places, and that outside is perhaps not the most […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 18, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Appeals Court Upholds Federal Law, Kosher Food for Inmate (RNS) An appeals court has affirmed a federal law protecting the religious rights of inmates, denying the state of Virginia’s second request that it be declared unconstitutional. The Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Ira […]
