Monthly Archives: January 2010
Religious prejudice in America today
By Mark Silk — January 21, 2010
The most striking finding from Gallup’s new survey of Americans’ feelings about different religions and their adherents is…four times as many people admit to “a great deal” of prejudice against Christians than against either Jews or Buddhists. OK, it’s four percent greatly prejudiced against Christians versus one percent against the other two. You can hold […]
Gunsights for Jesus
By Mark Silk — January 21, 2010
New Zealand has announced that it is removing those pesky Bible codes from the Trijocon weapons sights carried into battle by its troops in Afghanistan. They’re inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions. OMG. I was kind of hoping for a move in the opposite direction. Like, remember Roland’s sword Durendal? Its golden hilt was equipped […]
Trial opens in Oregon faith-healing death
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) As Neil Beagley lay dying on his grandmother’s bed, his parents did not take him to a hospital or call 9-1-1 or make any lifesaving efforts, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday (Jan. 19). “They did nothing because that was their belief,” prosecutor Greg Horner said in his opening statement at the […]
Poll: Majority of U.S. disapproves of marriage to atheists
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
(RNS) Most Americans accept interracial marriage, but many people of faith say they would be troubled by a family member’s decision to marry an atheist, the Pew Research Center reports. Seven in 10 Americans associated with a religion said they would either be bothered, but come to accept such a marriage (43 percent) or not […]
Canadian polygamist sues over `unlawful’ prosecution
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
TORONTO (RNS/ENI) A Canadian man who admits to having multiple wives is suing the government of British Columbia for “unlawful” prosecution after it charged him with practicing polygamy. The polygamy charge was thrown out last September after a judge ruled that the provincial attorney general had no jurisdiction to appoint a special prosecutor in the […]
COMMENTARY: Hope for Haiti
By Phyllis Zagano — January 21, 2010
(RNS) Just when you think nothing worse can happen, it does. They say as many as 200,000 people have died in Haiti; no one knows for sure. We might never know for sure. Viewed from space, Haiti is a rough-cut emerald in an azure sea. On the ground it is, and has been for centuries, […]
Quake shakes, but doesn’t tumble, faith of Haitians
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (RNS) Did God abandon Haiti? No, say its people of faith — and there are many here in a place without much beyond faith. The earthquake was a sign of God’s presence. So, it should be no surprise that on a narrow street choked by debris, outside a church with a shattered ceiling […]
Agencies overwhelmed by efforts to aid Haiti’s orphans
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
(RNS) Alicia Swaringen of Eugene, Ore., received heart-swelling news the morning after last week’s deadly earthquake in Haiti: Sthainder, the 4-year-old boy she planned to adopt, was safe. And then it hit her. The adoption paperwork, amassed over three painstaking years, was in Haiti’s Ministry of Interior, now rubble and dust. What, she wondered, would […]
10 minutes with … Michael Kinnamon
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
(RNS) The Rev. Michael Kinnamon, ordained in 1976 in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is general secretary of the National Council of Churches. Formally organized in 1950, the NCC traces its roots back 100 years to the Federal Council of Churches, an earlier national effort to highlight Christian unity. The NCC unites more than […]
Wednesday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — January 20, 2010
As Haiti was struck once again by a 6.1 magnitude aftershock, U.S. religious groups say they are breaking fundraising records for the troubled Caribbean nation. Still, there are widespread problems, including inadequate infrastructure to deliver aid, the deaths of hundreds of civic leaders, fears of looting and violence, and pre-existing poverty and malnutrition, according an […]
`Creation’ spotlights Darwin’s faith, wife’s fears
By Tracy Gordon — January 20, 2010
(RNS) Heated debate. Loss of faith. Religious discord. Questions about death, the universe, and our place in it. According to a new film, Charles Darwin saw, and wrestled with, all of that and more as the implications of his theory of evolution became clear for society as a whole, but even more so, within his […]
The God Gap Lives
By Mark Silk — January 20, 2010
Not necessarily in Massachusetts–no one did any exit polls–but now that the Bay State has definitively popped the Obama bubble, it’s worth contemplating just how much the electorate has not changed. To this end, a new book by Corwin Smidt and his poli-sci crowd at Calvin College’s Henry Center makes clear that reports of the […]
Civil rights icon says King’s dream has been hijacked
By Tracy Gordon — January 20, 2010
AUBURN, Ala. (RNS) The Rev. Joseph Lowery, an icon of the 1960s civil rights movement, cautioned an Auburn University audience not to “sanitize” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s achievements. Speaking at an event to mark King’s birthday on Friday (Jan. 15), Lowery said some have hijacked King’s dream, using it and ensuing advancements in […]
No female bishop for Scottish Episcopal Church
By Tracy Gordon — January 20, 2010
(RNS/ENI) It is disappointing that a female candidate was not elected Britain’s first female Anglican bishop, but still “encouraging” that a woman was one of the three candidates considered by the Scottish Episcopal Church, said a group that advocates for women’s rights. The Rev. Alison Peden was the first Anglican woman to be short-listed in […]
Middle East bishops lament exodus of Christians
By Tracy Gordon — January 20, 2010
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Lamenting the dwindling number of Christians in the Middle East, the region’s Catholic bishops called for greater religious freedom in Muslim countries, denounced Islamic fundamentalism, and criticized Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinian territories. The statements came in a document, released at the Vatican on Tuesday (Jan. 19), laying out topics of discussion […]