death and dying
COMMENTARY: The new missionary position
By Tracy Gordon — August 18, 2011
(RNS) “Missionary” is one of those words where the meaning depends entirely on who’s saying it — and who’s hearing it. For Christians, it’s a word that conjures up images of selfless believers carrying life-saving religion to faraway places. Yet for many Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Native Americans and others, it recalls overzealous Christians who […]
Russian patriarch denounces Moscow airport bombing
By Tracy Gordon — January 26, 2011
MOSCOW (RNS/ENInews) The head of the Russian Orthodox Church denounced a terrorist attack at Moscow’s busiest airport as “the horrifying scowl of sin,” and said actions once condemned even in war “are today becoming a form of protest.” Patriarch Kirill I spoke after a service to mark the feast of St. Tatyana, which this year […]
Army faces questions over `spiritual fitness’ test
By Tracy Gordon — January 7, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Army is facing questions over a “spiritual fitness” portion of a mandatory questionnaire, with some atheists calling it “invidious and not inclusive” of soldiers who are nonbelievers. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation learned in December that soldiers were being asked to respond to statements such as “I am a spiritual person” […]
After Teen Suicides, Christian Gay Opponents Look Inward
By Kevin Eckstrom — October 14, 2010
Huffington Post (RNS): When Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi killed himself after his roommate allegedly broadcast his sexual encounter with another man, the Rev. R. Albert Mohler wondered if anything could have prevented the 18-year-old’s suicide. Read more.
Pope meets with victims, laments `shame and humiliationâÂ?Â?
By Kevin Eckstrom — September 19, 2010
LONDON (RNS) Following two days of meetings with religious and government leaders, Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday (Sept. 18) turned his attention to his own flock as met with victims of sexual abuse and warned of the dangers of legalized assisted suicide. As on previous occasions, controversy _ this time, in the form of thousands […]
Billboard’s right-to-die message raises eyebrows, concerns in New Jersey
By Tracy Gordon — July 16, 2010
HILLSIDE, N.J. (RNS) The huge black billboard is hard to miss, looming over a stretch of Route 22 like a harbinger of death, or at least the right to die: “My Life, My Death, My Choice, FinalExitNetwork.org” The 15-by-49-foot billboard went up June 28, paid for by Final Exit Network, a nationwide group that provides […]
Ore. psychiatrist to open assisted suicide clinic
By Tracy Gordon — June 26, 2010
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) A psychiatrist who the state has reprimanded for wrongly prescribing drugs says he plans to open a facility in Portland and charge fees to help patients end their lives under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. Stuart G. Weisberg has mailed invitations to local doctors and politicians inviting them to a July 21 […]
Does sexual frustration fuel Islamic violence?
By Tracy Gordon — November 19, 2009
(RNS) Did alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan lose control, at least in part, because he was sexually frustrated? That’s one of the questions being asked in the investigation into the Nov. 5 rampage that left 13 people dead and dozens more injured. According to reports, Hasan visited a nearby strip club in the […]
COMMENTARY: There is no life in state-sanctioned killing
By Phyllis Zagano — October 7, 2009
(RNS) Every so often, the glint of morality — or common sense — flashes across the television screen. Witness a recent episode of the television drama “House.” One doctor tells another: “It is impossible to take another person’s life and remain unchanged.” That’s all I’ll say; I don’t want to ruin the program for you […]
Pope thanks N.M. governor for death penalty repeal
By Tracy Gordon — April 16, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Wednesday (Apr. 15), hours before a Catholic group lit up Rome’s Coliseum to honor New Mexico’s recent abolition of the death penalty. Richardson, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, led a state delegation to Rome for the […]
60 Oregonians died under assisted suicide in 2008
By Tracy Gordon — March 5, 2009
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Sixty Oregonians ended their lives last year by taking a lethal drug dose prescribed under the Death With Dignity Act, state officials reported Tuesday. That’s the highest annual total in the 11-year history of the law, 11 more than in 2007. Deaths from a drug prescribed under the Oregon law now account […]
Man commits suicide at Crystal Cathedral
By Kevin Eckstrom — February 19, 2009
A man walked into the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove today, knelt down at the foot of a cross and fatally shot himself in the head.
Updike’s last abode
By Francis X. Rocca — January 28, 2009
John Updike was a writer who cared about religion, so it seems fitting to note his death here. Admirers of his work will find these images, of the hospice where he died, sad but irresistible, as we wonder how the master would have described his last surroundings. Maybe he left some last pages that will […]
Palestinian Christians share Ramadan spirit
By Michele Chabin — September 26, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Hala Jahshan, a resident of the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, isn’t a Muslim, but like many Holy Land Christians feels enriched by the Ramadan traditions of Muslim neighbors and co-workers. “Palestinian Muslims and Christians live together, we share the same destiny and we join […]
Forever overhead
By Daniel Burke — September 15, 2008
We lost a great writer Friday night when David Foster Wallace, known to fans as DFW, passed away, apparently by suicide. Though he professed to be an admirer of John Donne’s poetry and Kierkegaard’s philosophy, Wallace was not known to be religious. Likewise, in his essays, short stories and novels he rarely addressed religion overtly. […]
