Monthly Archives: April 2009
Harry Jackson in the spotlight
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 29, 2009
Bishop Harry Jackson from suburban Maryland crossed over into Washington yesterday to advocate against a pending City Council resolution that would recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Jackson, chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, styles himself as the de facto leader of the black conservative/evangelical movement, and despite his low-key national profile, he probably is […]
Back pain recovery may help British cardinal’s sainthood
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 29, 2009
The recovery that Jack Sullivan, 70, has been describing for almost eight years, a drama that unfolded in August 2001, is on the verge of being deemed a miracle by the Catholic Church, and the unassuming church deacon and father of three is at the center of a campaign to make the late British Cardinal […]
10 minutes with … Francis Collins
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2009
WASHINGTON — A year after stepping down as director of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis Collins is embarking on a new venture, one that may be even harder than deciphering DNA. Collin’s new BioLogos Foundation, which launched on Tuesday (April 28), aims to be a bridge in the debate over science and religion and […]
COMMENTARY: Bruce Cockburn, global tourguide
By Cathleen Falsani — April 29, 2009
(UNDATED) Mali. Mozambique. Central America. The Himalayas. Kosovo. I’ve never been to any of these exotic locales, but I feel as if I have because of the more than 30 years of music made by Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn. He is, in a very real way, a citizen of the world. Apart from being one […]
Someone get this man a halo
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 29, 2009
With all the hubbub over Mary Ann Glendon saying “no thanks” to the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, Jim Martin up at America magazine has a modest proposal: give the honor to him. Among his many qualifications (according to him): — I would accept it. I mean, if someone’s going to give me an […]
Doctrinaire
By Mark Silk — April 29, 2009
Today’s Gallup poll on The First Hundred Days suggests that Obama has shrunk his religion gap. Whereas 41 percent of weekly worship attenders and 61 percent of seldom or never attenders supported him just before the election, now the numbers are 69 57 percent and 57 69 percent respectively. Thus the gap between the two […]
Friedmania
By Mark Silk — April 29, 2009
Defending the Obama approach to torture, Tom Friedman claims that 1) prosecuting the malefactors (up to and including George W. Bush) would “rip our country apart”; and 2) torturing was justified because only torture was capable of deterring al Qaeda, an enemy like no other we have ever had. The first claim is guesswork, but […]
Pot priests will not get hearing in Canada’s top court
By Tracy Gordon — April 29, 2009
HAMILTON, Ontario (RNS) Two self-styled ministers who say that smoking marijuana is a church sacrament have lost their bid to use and distribute marijuana while they are free on bail and appealing their drug convictions. Michael Baldasaro, 59, was sentenced to two years, and Walter Tucker, 75, received a one-year sentence, after they were convicted […]
Forget the swine flu. Beware of klismaphilia.
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 29, 2009
The House is set to take up debate this week on hate-crimes legislation that would, for the first time, add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (along with race, color, religion, national origin, gender) to the list of criminal motivations that are subject to additional prosecution. Gay rights groups have long made the hate-crimes bill a […]
Day in the life
By Daniel Burke — April 29, 2009
So what does a Dalai Lama do all day? The Times of London asked him. Hint: there’s a lot of meditation, some study and even some time on the treadmill (he prays/meditates while he jogs). Read it all here. In other news, Fox caught up with the Dalai Lama while he was traveling through California […]
Shopping till they drop
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 29, 2009
Perhaps President Obama is reading up on yesterday’s survey that tried to tease out why Americans float from one church to the next as he and the first family keep shopping for a D.C. church home. (For the record, by our unofficial count, he’s only visited one D.C. church since moving into the White House, […]
Pope visits Italian quake victims
By Tracy Gordon — April 28, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI visited homeless earthquake victims and damaged buildings in central Italy on Tuesday (Apr. 28). “The whole church is here with me, beside your suffering, a participant in your pain,” Benedict told tent-dwelling survivors outside the city of L’Aquila, about 70 miles east of Rome. A 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which struck […]
Southern Baptists’ baptisms dip to lowest in two decades
By Tracy Gordon — April 28, 2009
(RNS) The number of baptisms by Southern Baptists — who consider the rite a gauge of their evangelism success and a key element of their faith — has dropped to the lowest rate in two decades. The denomination, which also saw a slight decrease in membership numbers, recorded 342,198 baptisms in 2008, a decrease of […]
Methodist court rejects moves to support gay marriage, OKs Bush library
By Tracy Gordon — April 28, 2009
(RNS) The United Methodist Church’s highest court has ruled that clergy may not officiate at same-sex unions, even in states where such marriages are legal, and gave the final OK for the George W. Bush Library to be built at Southern Methodist University. The church’s nine-member Judicial Council rejected separate resolutions passed by the California-Nevada […]
Rather than fight bishops, Reiki teacher steps down
By Tracy Gordon — April 28, 2009
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — To Jan Atwood, Reiki is all about healing, not theological battles. That’s why the teacher and practitioner of the Japanese healing technique has resigned from a retreat center run by Dominican nuns after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told Catholic institutions they should not be practicing it. Atwood will step […]
