Monthly Archives: April 2011
Transit worker fired for burning Quran gets job back
By Tiffany McCallen — April 25, 2011
TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) The New Jersey Transit employee fired for burning pages of the Quran at the site of a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero will get his job back. Derek Fenton, who sparked a national firestorm during his protest on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks last September, will be reassigned […]
Church-state ties on full display at royal wedding
By Tiffany McCallen — April 25, 2011
CANTERBURY, England (RNS) When Prince William and Kate Middleton walk down the aisle at Westminster Abbey on Friday (April 29), Britain’s unique and historic ties between church and state will be on full display. Some here think — even hope — it could also be the last powerful stroll for church and state in this […]
Believers warn neighbors of impending doom on May 21
By Tiffany McCallen — April 25, 2011
(RNS) Give these billboards credit: They don’t hedge their bet. Judgment Day is coming May 21, 2011-not sometime this decade, not sometime this year, but precisely on May 21. The hundreds of billboards warning unrepentant commuters of their impending doom are courtesy of a California radio station led by 89-year-old Howard Camping, who initially predicted […]
Monday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — April 25, 2011
President Obama and the first family celebrated Easter at a Washington church built by freed slaves in 1863. Since Obama mostly attends services on Christmas and Easter, does that make him our Chreaster in Chief? Pope Benedict XVI urged an end to fighting in Libya and used his Easter Sunday message to call for diplomacy […]
Pope says comatose can still feel `presence’ of family
By Tracy Gordon — April 22, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI told a mother that her comatose son can feel her “presence” and “love,” even if he is “unable to understand the details” or her “words.” Benedict answered questions in a rare Good Friday (April 22) appearance on the Italian State TV program “A Sua Immagine” (In His Image). The […]
`Simple churches’ find a foothold across U.S.
By Tracy Gordon — April 22, 2011
(RNS) This weekend, Jeanne O’Hair, her friends and family will raise their voices in Easter hymns “as the spirit leads us,” she says, in her “house church” — O’Hair’s living room in Brea, Calif. In a metal outbuilding at a shuttered horse track near San Antonio, Jeff Bishop says he will celebrate at his “simple […]
Some Christians have different view of `moral’ budget
By Tracy Gordon — April 22, 2011
Friday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 22, 2011
Best wishes for a Good Friday to our Christian friends and a happy Earth Day to our eco-conscious friends, including our eco-conscious Christian friends. CNN attends a blasphemy trial for Jesus in Richmond, Va., which was intended to call attention to the state’s death penalty system. At least 24 Filipino men were nailed to crosses […]
Kiryas Joel, Shonda
By Mark Silk — April 22, 2011
Should it be a shonda fur di goyim–something to be ashamed of before the gentiles–that according to the 2010 Census the poorest community in America (over 10,000 pop.) is a village in New York State composed almost entirely of Jews? Well, yes. But not because American Jews, the wealthiest religious body in the U.S., have […]
David Brooks, theological rigorist
By Mark Silk — April 22, 2011
David Brooks, the Last Puritan Columnist, loved “The Book of Mormon,” but then had guilty second thoughts about its message that religions have weird doctrines but can do “enormous good as long as people take religious teaching metaphorically and not literally; as long as people understand that all religions ultimately preach love and service underneath […]
Supreme Court limits prisoners’ right to sue
By Tracy Gordon — April 21, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) Prison inmates who are deprived of their religious rights cannot sue states for monetary damages, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday (April 20). Inmate Harvey Leroy Sossamon III said a Texas state prison illegally prevented him from attending religious services. Sossamon had been on cell restriction for disciplinary reasons at the time. Sossamon […]
Just how long did Jesus stay in the tomb?
By Tracy Gordon — April 21, 2011
Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead on "the third day," in the words of the ancient Nicene Creed. But if Jesus died at 3 p.m. Friday and vacated his tomb by dawn Sunday morning -- about 40 hours later -- how does that make three days?
Thursday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — April 21, 2011
A Jehovah’s Witness in Kansas is suing the state to pay for a “bloodless” liver transplant because JW’s won’t allow the blood transfusions involved in a state-funded Medicaid liver transplant. USA Today says many U.S. Christians will be celebrating a “simple Easter” this year, many of them beyond the four walls of a church. The […]
Mormon men delaying the walk down the aisle
By Tracy Gordon — April 21, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) John Evans is in no hurry to get married. The 25-year-old returned LDS missionary lives with his parents, works full time, takes night classes toward an English degree and, with law school looming, is building up his savings. Evans goes on dates, but they tend to be expensive so he prefers […]
Looking into Philly
By Mark Silk — April 21, 2011
According to Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane, Wash., when they come together in Seattle in June for their semi-annual meeting, the U.S. Catholic bishops will be looking into whether there was “some sort of the breakdown of the system” that led to the D.A.’s investigation of more than two dozen priests in the archdiocese […]
