Monthly Archives: October 2007
indigestion over the Last Supper
By Kevin Eckstrom — October 30, 2007
Miller Brewing Co. has apologized for agreeing to sponsor San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair -specifically an ad that parodied the Last Supper with various and sundry sex toys. The annual Folsom Street event is the type of sexuality-on-public-display (“Get a Room!”) that makes many roll their eyes at the city by the bay. Organizers have […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 30, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Calif. rehabs inmates by fighting wildfires EL CAJON, Calif. (RNS) Former drug addict Christopher Williams is one of about 2,600 California felony prisoners currently battling the state’s monstrous wildfires. In years past, Williams said he could go long stretches without sleep while high on methamphetamine. On the fire line, trying […]
New film argues that Bible doesn’t condemn homosexuality
By RNS Blog Editor — October 30, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) “For the Bible Tells Me So,” a documentary that seeks to make the case that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, is making the rounds at film festivals and screening in select cities. The 97-minute film weaves biblical analysis with the stories of five Christian families who learn that […]
Pope’s plays find new life on off-Broadway stage
By Benedicta Cipolla — October 30, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ In 1987, Peter Dobbins wandered into a Christian bookstore in Dallas and picked up the collected plays of Karol Wojtyla, the Polish playwright-turned-priest who went on to become Pope John Paul II. Someday, Dobbins thought, he’d like to bring them to life on stage. After percolating for […]
Scaring the hell out of sinners …
By Kevin Eckstrom — October 29, 2007
Heather Donckel’s report on the Christian dilemma over Halloween-boycott it, ignore it or accept it-can be found over at USA Today. Money quote: “Sometimes we have to use extreme measures to save (God’s) people,” Cindy Cathcart said. “After all, if someone were in a burning house, would you quietly say, `Come out, you will die’? […]
Three isn’t a crowd … it’s just the start
By Kevin Eckstrom — October 29, 2007
Andrea Useem’s story on polyamory was picked up by the Seattle Times and can be found here. Also, Andrea’s Reporter’s Notebook can be found here.
Abp. Gregory Reveals Prostate Cancer
By Kevin Eckstrom — October 29, 2007
Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory, arguably the highest-ranking black man in the U.S. Catholic Church, best known for steering the church through the clergy sex abuse crisis, tells his staff he has prostate cancer. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more.
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 27, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Okla. archbishop, priests resist anti-immigration law OKLAHOMA CITY (RNS) Archbishop Eusebius Beltran and a council of priests have joined a “Pledge of Resistance” against one of the nation’s broadest state laws restricting illegal immigration. The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizens Act, set to take effect Nov. 1, will make it criminal […]
Surrendering to God _ and the cops _ at church
By Lucky Severson — October 27, 2007
c. 2007 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly MEMPHIS, Tenn. _ Nineteen-year-old Edacious recently came to New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, but not to worship. Instead, she came to surrender. There was a warrant for her arrest on marijuana charges and she had come to church to turn herself in. Hundreds of others with outstanding warrants also […]
Humane Society recruits believers for animal rights
By Herbert G. McCann — October 27, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Advocates at the Humane Society of the United States have long suspected God was on their side, and now they’re hoping his followers will join them. They’re focusing their fight on the most vulnerable creatures: factory farm hens and pigs crammed into cages so tight they can’t move, and […]
For polyamorists, three’s not a crowd; it’s just the start
By Andrea Useem — October 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) By day, he’s an Atlanta real estate investor, a self-described political conservative, a member of a Methodist church, the son of a Southern Baptist pastor. After hours, he’s known as “Mr. Big,” a columnist for PolyamoryOnline.org. His family _ a wife and five children _ lives with another couple, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Faith groups hold screenings of anti-torture film (RNS) Jewish, Muslim and Christian houses of worship nationwide are sponsoring more than 500 screenings of a documentary investigating U.S. maltreatment of detainees as part of a new initiative led by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Congregations in all 50 states will […]
Unitarians try to raise profile with new ad campaign
By Shona Crabtree — October 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Proud of their liberal views, spiritual skepticism and religious diversity _ counting atheists, neo-pagans and Buddhists in their ranks _ Unitarian Universalists are not known as heavy-duty evangelizers. But with just 250,000 members nationwide and growth relatively stagnant at 1 percent a year, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is […]
COMMENTARY: `Who shall be confronted by fire and who by water …’
By James Rudin — October 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Last month on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the haunting, insightful prayer “Oonatanah Tokef” was recited in synagogues. That ancient prayer includes these words: “… who among us in the New Year shall live and who shall die … who shall be confronted by fire and who by water […]
Some Christians torn on what to make of Halloween
By RNS Blog Editor — October 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Cindy Cathcart was angry with God and on the brink of divorce and suicide on Oct. 30, 1998, when her nephew dragged her to “Hell House.” Though raised Lutheran, she had repeatedly refused her sister’s invitations to come to church and had no desire for a relationship with God. […]
