Monthly Archives: August 1996
POLITICAL STORY: MUSLIMS, JEWS AND THE GOP: For Muslims and Jews, Christian right influence tests lo
By Ira Rifkin — August 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service SAN DIEGO _ Elisia Abrams and Syed R. Mahmood have little in common. Abrams is an 18-year-old Jewish college student from Rockville, Md., while Mahmood is a 52-year-old Muslim marketing consultant living in Union City, Calif. Despite their vastly different life experiences, there are two things they have in common: […]
NEWS STORY: EDUCATION: Ohio town struggles with textbook censorship
By RNS Blog Editor — August 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service HUDSON, Ohio _ A controversy of ideological fervor sprang to life recently that rousted this quaint, New England-flavored village of century-old homes and shaded streets out of its Norman Rockwell existence. Not since the early `80s, when a McDonald’s restaurant threatened to stick its golden arches within sight of the […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NCC delegation finds Christianity”vital and alive”in China (RNS) Members of a National Council of Churches (NCC) delegation who have just returned from China say they found that the Christian church there is growing but facing a number of challenges.”We saw a church very vital and alive,”said the Rev. Joan Brown […]
BODY & SOUL: The multiple mysteries of the ever-evolving self
By RNS Blog Editor — August 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Body & Soul is a regular column exploring the interplay between spirituality and psychology. Pythia Peay is the author of”Putting America on the Couch,”to be published by Riverhead Books in 1997.) (UNDATED) With elegant simplicity, William Shakespeare neatly expressed the challenge of being human:”To thine own self be true.” But […]
TOP STORY: LONELINESS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERALS: In San Diego, it’s not easy being a religious lib
By Ira Rifkin — August 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service SAN DIEGO _ The surf and sun in this seaside city have not been enough to lift the spirits of the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell. For Campbell and other religious liberals, San Diego during the week of the Republican National Convention has been, she said, a “lonely place to be.” […]
TOP STORY: SCHOOLS AND RELIGION: They’re taking their faith to school
By Adelle M. Banks — August 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service CONYERS, Ga. (RNS)-It’s 7:45 Monday morning at Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga., and from the home economics classroom come the sounds of hymns and prayers. Outside, throngs of students pass by with backpacks slung over their shoulders, apparently oblivious that worship is going on within the confines of this […]
TOP STORY: CATHOLIC COMMON GROUND: Chicago Cardinal seeks common ground for Catholics
By Carl Anderson — August 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Warning that the Roman Catholic Church in the United States”has entered a time of peril”because of acrimonious differences between liberals and conservatives, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago called Monday (Aug. 12) on members of the nation’s largest religious body to seek common ground.”I have been troubled that an increasing […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service China warns against what it calls”religious infiltration” (RNS) The Chinese government said Monday (Aug. 12) that hostile foreign forces are using religion to undermine its socialist system and that widespread construction of temples and churches are creating a heavy economic burden.”Hostile international forces resort to ethnic and religious issues to […]
NEWS FEATURE: DOING GOOD: Volunteer doctors make the world a bit more beautiful
By Shaun Casey — August 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NORFOLK, VA. _ The winner of the world’s biggest humanitarian award says it was narcissism, not altruism, that prompted him to do good. Dr. William Magee, founder of Operation Smile, recently accepted a check for $1 million _ the first Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. The Norfolk, Va.-based group sends […]
COMMENTARY: A lesson in how a non-issue gets coverage, while a real story gets buried
By RNS Blog Editor — August 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail at 71421.1551(at)compuserve.com.) (UNDATED) In recent weeks, one political party has […]
NEWS STORY: ISLAM IN THE MILITARY: Navy names its first Muslim chaplain
By Adelle M. Banks — August 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (WASHINGTON) With crescents gleaming on his epaulets to signify his Islamic faith, the first Muslim chaplain in the U.S. Navy has joined the ranks of military chaplains. Lt.j.g. Monje Malak Abd al-Muta’Ali Noel Jr. received his chaplain’s commission at a Pentagon ceremony Aug. 8 attended by Secretary of the Navy […]
TOP STORY: ISLAM IN THE MILITARY: Navy names its first Muslim chaplain
By Adelle M. Banks — August 10, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (WASHINGTON) With crescents gleaming on his epaulets to signify his Islamic faith, the first Muslim chaplain in the U.S. Navy was welcomed Thursday (Aug. 8) into the ranks of military chaplains. Lt.j.g. Monje Malak Abd al-Muta’Ali Noel Jr. received his chaplain’s commission at a Pentagon ceremony attended by Secretary of […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 10, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Federal court bars Medicare, Medicaid payments to Christian Scientists (RNS) A federal judge in St. Paul, Minn., has struck down Medicare and Medicaid payments to Christian Science health practitioners as a violation of the constitutionally required separation of church and state.”Legislative accommodation of religious beliefs is a valuable and worthy […]
COMMENTARY: Nasty proposals to bring out the worst in all of us
By RNS Blog Editor — August 9, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. His home page on the World Wide Web is at http://www.agreeley.com. Or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.) (UNDATED) Ever since the Nixon era, when the Republican Party […]
MEDIA REVIEW: INVASION OF THE DO-GOODERS: New trend for fall television: Saving lost souls
By RNS Blog Editor — August 9, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service PASADENA, Calif. _ On CBS’ “Touched by an Angel,” you don’t get just a spoonful of sugar to help the morals go down. You get it in large economy sizes. Each week, as heavenly co-stars Roma Downey and Della Reese travel the country in search of lost souls to save. […]
