Monthly Archives: July 2008
Prominent Southern Baptist pastor retires under fire
By Adelle M. Banks — July 30, 2008
The Rev. Jerry Sutton, a one-time Southern Baptist presidential candidate and embattled pastor of a Nashville, Tenn., church, has sealed an early retirement deal with his congregation after disputes that lasted more than a year. The Tennessean reports that the congregation approved a $314,000 retirement package for Sutton on Sunday. Two Rivers Baptist Church was […]
COMMENTARY: Coming home from vacation
By Tom Ehrich — July 30, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Last week, while walking a trail in Central Park, I felt so free and easy that I decided to run, rather than walk. I ran only a mile, but it was a revelation to discover that, after a 10-year vacation from running, I could still do it. […]
Tenn. church killings seen as a hate crime
By Kevin Eckstrom — July 29, 2008
An unemployed man accused of opening fire with a shotgun and killing two people at a Unitarian Universalist church apparently targeted the congregation out of hatred for its support of liberal social policies, police said Monday.
Children of God
By Kevin Eckstrom — July 29, 2008
Two weeks ago, the photographer Stephanie Sinclair was given rare and intimate access to some of the young women who have found themselves at the center of the often-bilious battle between the state of Texas and the F.L.D.S. What’s interesting is that in a case that is, at heart, about doctrinaire male authority, and supposed […]
Census reports more unmarried couples living together
By Kevin Eckstrom — July 29, 2008
The number of opposite-sex couples who live together, less than a million 30 years, hit 6.4 million in 2007, show federal data released Monday. Cohabiting couples now make up almost 10% of all opposite-sex U.S. couples, married and unmarried.
Obama says Muslim issue is ‘no-win situation’
By Kevin Eckstrom — July 29, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that responding to incorrect assertions that he’s a Muslim has put him in a “no-win situation.”
Is it pronounced skiz-m or siz-m?
By Kevin Eckstrom — July 29, 2008
Steven Colbert asks, and our pal Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times does her best to answer:
Small-town cop tracks struggle in spiritual journal
By Tracy Gordon — July 29, 2008
LEXINGTON, Ill.-Spencer Johansen has been the popular police chief of this rural Illinois town, population 1,900, for 18 years and always thought he’d retire here. But then some seemingly inexplicable things started happening. “I missed a couple of court dates, nothing major, they were just minor traffic cases,” he said. “But … that wasn’t like […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service Student apologizes for swiping Obama’s prayer JERUSALEM (RNS) An Israeli yeshiva student has apologized for removing a personal prayer that Sen. Barack Obama inserted into the Western Wall during a visit to Israel last week. “I’m sorry. It was a kind of prank,” the student, identified only by the Hebrew […]
Church hosts drive-through prayer ministry
By Tracy Gordon — July 29, 2008
MT. MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. -Hold the pickles, mustard, ketchup, tomatoes, buns, burgers and french fries.
Dallas pastor C.A.W. Clark Sr. dead at 93
By Tracy Gordon — July 29, 2008
The Rev. C.A.W. Clark Sr., a Baptist minister described as “one of the great black preachers of the 20th century,” died Sunday (July 27) at the age of 93.
Soldiers coerced at Baptist church, watchdog group says
By Tracy Gordon — July 29, 2008
WASHINGTON– A church-state watchdog group has asked the Pentagon to investigate a Missouri Army base that sends trainees to a fundamentalist Baptist church on off days.
Student apologizes for swiping Obama’s prayer
By Tracy Gordon — July 29, 2008
JERUSALEM-An Israeli yeshiva student has apologized for removing a personal prayer that Sen. Barack Obama inserted into the Western Wall during a visit to Israel last week.
We’re sorry (for what they did)
By Kevin Eckstrom — July 29, 2008
This just in, from the department of people apologizing for the actions of others … Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, who heads the tiny Confessing Movement in the United Church of Christ, has apologized for the “division and confusion” caused when a UCC church in Boston hosted (and former Massachusetts UCC President Rev. Nancy Taylor approved) a […]
Small-town cop tracks struggle in spiritual journal
By Judy Valente — July 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly LEXINGTON, Ill. _ Spencer Johansen has been the popular police chief of this rural Illinois town (population 1,900) for 18 years and always thought he’d retire here as the police chief. But then some seemingly inexplicable things started happening. “I missed a couple of court dates, nothing major, they […]
