Monthly Archives: March 2009
Top Vatican official rededicates Mass. menorah
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
BRAINTREE, Mass. — The Vatican’s top liaison to Jews helped rededicate a menorah in memory of Holocaust victims Wednesday amid fallout from the Holy See’s botched decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop. Cardinal Walter Kasper joined Holocaust survivors and local Roman Catholic leaders at the ceremony for the Yom Hashoah Menorah at […]
Vatican official criticizes US bishops on abortion
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
Archbishop Raymond Burke, the former St. Louis prelate who now leads the Vatican supreme court, said President Barack Obama “could be an agent of death” if his support for abortion rights becomes a model for leaders in other countries.
Needy gather at Clinton church
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
On the third Friday of every month, volunteers begin unloading huge sacks of produce, juice and snacks from a food bank truck at a Clinton church, offering supplies to mothers, the elderly and those who’ve fallen on hard times.
Condom uproar latest message problem for pope
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI has gone on YouTube and his speeches appear in Chinese on the Vatican Web site, but judging from the uproar over a Holocaust-denying bishop and his pronouncement that condoms deepen the AIDS crisis, he’s clearly struggling with his message.
Crystal Cathedral: Poser tweets as Schuller
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — Televangelist Robert H. Schuller has reached millions worldwide with his weekly “Hour of Power” TV broadcasts, but when it comes to the Internet, he had a high-tech headache: an online impostor
For Catholic ball fans, an uneasy choice on Good Friday
By Tracy Gordon — March 26, 2009
(UNDATED) In a profound conflict of sacred and secular traditions, thousands of Christians who are urged to solemnly commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday (April 10) afternoon are being tempted by an alternative spring ritual: the cry of “Play ball.” Four Major League Baseball teams — the Detroit Tigers, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City […]
COMMENTARY: Let my people go
By Tracy Gordon — March 26, 2009
(UNDATED) My favorite holiday is the eight-day festival of Passover that begins this year on April 8 at sundown with one of the world’s oldest continuous religious rituals: the annual Seder meal. The celebratory Seder features holiday prayers and songs, the recounting the ancient Hebrews’ exodus from Egyptian servitude, and of course special foods like […]
The Vermonter
By Mark Silk — March 26, 2009
Vermont Republican governor Jim Douglas’s decision to veto the state legislature’s impending bill permitting gay marriage has been taken by the bill’s supporters, including the Burlington Free Press, as some kind of violation of legislative due process, a bombshell defacing the gentle lawmaking landscape of the Green Mountain State. Sure, it’s a departure for Douglas […]
Rushdoonyite Democrat
By Mark Silk — March 26, 2009
So Southern California moneybags Howard Ahmanson, the Christian Reconstructionist supporter of the Discovery Institute and Proposition 8, has withdrawn the hem of his garment from the Republican Party and joined the Democrats. “The Democratic Party in California,” he writes, “is now so big and diverse and all-inclusive that it has ABSOLUTELY NO PRINCIPLES WHATSOEVER.” Dismissing […]
They like us. They really really like us.
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
Full disclosure: as a journalist, I have no official opinions on any number of issues. But the anti-democratic banana republic style of governance imposed on the citizens of Washington DC aint one of them. As you non-Washingtons are (hopefully) aware, those of us who live in the nation’s capital don’t have a full vote in […]
Presbyterian court rules against lesbian minister
By Tracy Gordon — March 26, 2009
(RNS) A San Francisco woman’s quest to overturn a ban on non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy in the Presbyterian Church (USA) was denied on a technicality by a regional church court. Lisa Larges, 45, declared a conscientious objection to denominational standards that require celibacy for gay and lesbian clergy. On Wednesday (March 25) the Permanent […]
Four types of meditation
By Tracy Gordon — March 26, 2009
CLEVELAND — There are many different kinds of meditation, and all elicit what Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard University, has named the relaxation response. The relaxation response is in opposition to the body’s stress or fight-or-flight response, and may help improve health conditions that are aggravated […]
More paper cuts
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
First the Rocky Mountain News, then the Seattle P-I, and now this … United Church News, the official dead-tree news organ of the United Church of Christ, will fold later this year. The last edition is supposed to roll off the presses sometime around September. “This was a difficult decision for board members, because it […]
U.N. urged to reject bar on defamation of religion
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
GENEVA (Reuters) – Some 200 secular, religious and media groups from around the world on Wednesday urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to reject a call from Islamic countries for a global fight against “defamation of religion.”
PhD program explores Christian spirituality
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 26, 2009
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A new doctorate program at a conservative Baptist seminary will explore the life lessons of the Bible at a time when self-help spirituality is being popularized by celebrities like Oprah.
