Monthly Archives: June 2011
Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan: the prehistory
By Mark Silk — June 20, 2011
Now that the Ryan-Rand temblor has subsided–with a nice little Sirico–Winters–Donohue aftershock–I’d recommend taking a look at “Godless Capitalism: Ayn Rand and the Conservative Movement,” a 2004 article by UVA historian Jennifer Burns that shows just how longstanding The Rand Problem has been for American conservatives. William F. Buckley, it seems, took an instant dislike […]
Books of Job
By Mark Silk — June 19, 2011
I just came back from seeing Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life. As recent cinematic meditations on the Book of Job go, I’ll take the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man any day. Deeper, way less pretentious, and a whole lot funnier. OK, so I’m Jewish.
Left-leaning Christians to rally around `Wild Goose’
By Tracy Gordon — June 18, 2011
DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) It’s summer. It’s hot. It’s the South. That must mean it’s time for an old-fashioned camp meeting. Next week (June 23-26), the bygone staple of the tent revival will be reincarnated on a bucolic North Carolina farm as The Wild Goose Festival. Nearly 10 years in the making, the festival is an […]
Oregon strips faith-healing parents of legal defenses
By Tracy Gordon — June 18, 2011
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Gov. John Kitzhaber has signed a new law that removes the remnants of Oregon’s legal protection for parents who rely solely on faith healing instead of traditional medical care for their children. Kitzhaber signed the bill without comment on June 9, two days after jurors found Timothy and Rebecca Wyland guilty of […]
Friday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — June 17, 2011
So maybe it really does work after all: The missing relic of St. Anthony (the patron saint of lost items) that was stolen from a church in Long Beach, Calif., has been found. Catholic bishops wrap up their meeting in Seattle today after voting yesterday to approve their sex abuse policies without any major or […]
Rowan Williams sparks a political row in England
By Tracy Gordon — June 17, 2011
CANTERBURY, England (RNS) Nearly a millennium ago, four unruly knights crossed the English Channel from France and confronted the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, over his feud with King Henry II. Before the knights smashed the future saint’s skull in front of monks at an altar inside Canterbury Cathedral, Henry is said to have wondered […]
Liberate GW’s Letter to the Jews!
By Mark Silk — June 17, 2011
Props to the Forward for tracking down the whereabouts of the original of George Washington’s justly celebrated letter to the Jews of Newport, written after receiving a welcome from their leader Moses Seixas during his visit to Rhode Island with Thomas Jefferson in August of 1790. Not so much to the International B’nai B’rith, which […]
Bishop calls Ala. immigration law nation’s ‘meanest’
By Tiffany McCallen — June 16, 2011
(BIRMINGHAM) A new Alabama law that makes it a crime to offer rides to undocumented immigrants is the “meanest” immigration law in the country, according to a United Methodist bishop and respected theologian. Bishop William Willimon of the North Alabama Conference called the bill, which was recently signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley, an […]
Baptists support legalization but not ‘amnesty’
By Tiffany McCallen — June 16, 2011
(RNS) Southern Baptists adopted a resolution Wednesday (June 15) that supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants but clearly states they reject “amnesty.” After heated debate at their annual meeting in Phoenix, the Baptists approved a statement that called for secure borders and “a just and compassionate path to legal status, with appropriate restitutionary […]
Bishops leave sex abuse policies largely intact
By Tiffany McCallen — June 16, 2011
BELLEVUE, Wash. (RNS) The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to maintain current church policies on the sexual abuse of children, making only minor tweaks to guidelines that critics say contain large loopholes. The bishops voted 187-5, with four abstentions, to make only slight revisions to their Charter for the Protection of Children […]
Black churches push prostate cancer awareness
By Tiffany McCallen — June 16, 2011
(RNS) Thomas A. Farrington isn’t looking for cards or a tie this Father’s Day. What he really wants, he says, is for other black men sitting in the pews with a prostate cancer diagnosis to know they’re not alone. Two years ago, Farrington, the founder of the Boston-based Prostate Health Education Network (PHEN), launched Father’s […]
Thursday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — June 16, 2011
House Homeland Security Chief Peter King held his second hearing on radical Islam yesterday, this time focusing on prisons, and the Detroit News says it ended much like his first hearing: split largely along partisan lines. Or, as the GOP-friendly Washington Times headlined it: “Radical Muslims recruit criminals in U.S. prisons.” In case there was […]
How to solve the bishop accountability problem
By Mark Silk — June 16, 2011
Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear recognizes that the problem with the USCCB’s 2002 norms for policies dealing with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy is that they provide no way to deal with bishops who fail to adopt the norms or who, having adopted, fail to abide by them. Into the […]
After controversy, Baptists affirm belief in `eternal, conscious’ hell
By Tracy Gordon — June 15, 2011
(RNS) Southern Baptists on Wednesday (June 14) called hell an “eternal, conscious punishment” for those who do not accept Jesus, rebutting a controversial book from Michigan pastor Rob Bell that questions traditional views of hell. Citing Bell’s book “Love Wins,” the resolution urges Southern Baptists “to proclaim faithfully the depth and gravity of sin against […]
Bishops open meeting to review sex abuse rules
By Tracy Gordon — June 15, 2011
BELLEVUE, Wash. (RNS) The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops began a review of church sex abuse policies here on Wednesday (June 15), bypassing several recent reports that raise questions about whether the rules are effective at removing abusive priests. The bishops’ brief public discussion seemed a mere prelude to private debates taking place throuhgout the week […]
