Monthly Archives: February 2009
Supreme Court rules against Summum monument
By Daniel Burke — February 25, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that a small religious group cannot force a city in Utah to place a granite marker in a local park that already is home to a Ten Commandments display.
Holocaust denying bishop scuffles with reporter
By Daniel Burke — February 25, 2009
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A British bishop whose denial of the Holocaust embroiled the pope in controversy left Argentina Tuesday after the government ordered him out, calling his statements “an insult” to humanity. A local television station showed Richard Williamson angrily pushing the reporter as he hurried to catch his flight to London.
Musical show of unity upsets many in Israel
By Daniel Burke — February 25, 2009
A selection committee liked the idea of having both Arab and Jewish citizens in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. But coinciding as it did with Israel’s Gaza war and the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, the ultranationalist politician who threatens Israeli Arabs with a loyalty oath, the committee’s choice was labeled by many […]
Fight grows in Europe to safeguard a secular Sabbath
By Kevin Eckstrom — February 25, 2009
Massive opposition from an unlikely front of leftist trade unions, members of Sarkozy’s own conservative party, and Catholic bishops prompted the government to back down from the plan.
No longer male and female?
By Daniel Burke — February 25, 2009
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has written a column about her trip to Egypt for the meeting of Anglican primates from around the world. The veiling of Egpytian women, along with the primates’ discussion about sexuality, led her to think about gender roles in the U.S. and abroad. Jefferts Schori says: “The most intriguing […]
For reporter, abuse scandal prompted a crisis of faith
By Tracy Gordon — February 25, 2009
(UNDATED) What if you felt God called you to a task — and then you lost your faith while carrying out that very task? That’s what happened to William Lobdell, a former evangelical Christian and aspiring Catholic, while he covered religion as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. His new memoir, “Losing My Religion: […]
COMMENTARY: Catholic church needs luck of the Irish
By Phyllis Zagano — February 25, 2009
(UNDATED) Lent has barely begun and already retail stores are reminding us that we all can be Irish on March 17, when the Catholic Church celebrates St. Patrick, Ireland’s most storied saint. It doesn’t matter that he was really British. Legends and myths abound about Patrick, a 5th century bishop who probably could have driven […]
A new tradition for Obama’s presidential events: opening with a prayer
By Kevin Eckstrom — February 25, 2009
Though invocations have long been commonplace at presidential inaugurations and certain events like graduations or religious services at which presidents are guests, the practice of commissioning and vetting prayers for presidential rallies is unprecedented in modern history, according to religion and politics experts.
Denver archbishop warns against âÂ?Â?spirit of adulationâÂ?Â? surrounding Obama
By Kevin Eckstrom — February 25, 2009
Canadians packed St. Basil’s Church in Toronto on Monday evening to hear Archbishop Charles Chaput speak about how Catholics should live out their faith in the public square. He warned that in the U.S., Catholics need to act on their faith and be on guard against “a spirit of adulation bordering on servility” that exists […]
NOFANP
By Mark Silk — February 25, 2009
Last July 1, when he announced that he would continue President Bush’s faith-based office in the White House on bigger and better terms, Barack Obama said: But what we saw instead was that the Office never fulfilled its promise. Support for social services to the poor and the needy have been consistently underfunded. Rather than […]
Approved Prayers
By Mark Silk — February 25, 2009
Dan Gilgoff has sleuthed out that the White House Office of Public Liaison has been vetting the invocations that have been solicited to open the president’s speeches on the economy around the country. Is this something to be disturbed by? Not surprisingly, Barry Lynn thinks it is: “The only thing worse than having these prayers […]
Recession and God
By Kevin Eckstrom — February 25, 2009
Father Jim Martin tells the Colbert Report why people are drawing closer to God in the current economic climate. Moneyquote: “I think one thing to understand is that when people feel more vulnerable like in times of recession and poverty, their defenses are lowered and so it’s easier for God to sort of break through. […]
One denomination to another…
By Daniel Burke — February 25, 2009
While not surprising, the negative reaction of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to fellow Lutherans in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America proposing to allow non-celibate gay clergy, is significant. With 2.5 million members, the LCMS is the second largest Lutheran denomination in North America (the ELCA has about 4.8 million), but it doesn’t consider […]
Supreme Court to consider case of cross monument in Mojave Desert
By Tracy Gordon — February 25, 2009
(RNS) The Supreme Court decided Monday (Feb. 23) to consider a case about a controversial eight-foot cross that was erected as a war memorial on federal property in California. The legal battle surrounding the memorial in the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, Calif., has pitted veterans groups against advocates for church-state separation. The […]
Documentary shows churchâÂ?Â?s role in forgiveness after genocide
By Tracy Gordon — February 25, 2009
(RNS) During a three-month period in 1994, Rwandan government militias organized a massive killing spree in which machetes, clubs and other weapons were provided to Hutu tribal members to kill members of the minority Tutsi tribe. Many of the murderers were neighbors of those they killed. “A million people hacked to death in 100 days,” […]
