Monthly Archives: January 1997
NEWS STORY: State funeral, private burial set for Mother Teresa
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News UNDATED _ As tributes to the life of Mother Teresa, the Nobel Peace Prize-winner who became an enduring symbol of compassion for the least among us, continue to pour forth from around the world, the government of India announced the nun would have a state funeral on Saturday (Sept. 13) in […]
NEWS FEATURE: Common Ground: In song, racial ethnic divide is overcome
By William Bole — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WESTMINSTER, Md. _ Kim Nichols recalls when she and her younger sisters, Kellie and Krissy, ventured into a black church one fall Sunday in 1994.”It was a life-changing experience,”said Nichols, 23.”It was joyful. It was overwhelming.” It was the hand-clapping, foot-stomping sounds of gospel music that inspired the Nichols Sisters, […]
NEWS STORY: Nobel winner encouraged by shift in U.S. stance on East Timor
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service BERKELEY, Calif. _ Jose Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his work as an East Timor independence activist, says he is encouraged after recent high-level meetings with Clinton administration officials that U.S. policy toward East Timor may be shifting. Ramos-Horta, who shared the coveted prize with Timorese […]
COMMENTARY: Jiang: More American than many Americans
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J. and a fellow of the Gallup International Institute.) UNDATED _ Henry Luce must be spinning in his grave. To the late […]
NEWS FEATURE: Making radical changes to keep the unchurched interested
By Kristen Campbell — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service FAIRHOPE, Ala. _ So. You’ve got the family, the job, the house, the cat, the dog, the two-car garage and … what’s the meaning of life again? You’re not quite sure, but you remember, when you were little you sat inside hallowed halls where stained glass filtered the sunlight, and […]
NEWS STORY: State Department says China persecutes Christians
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The State Department Tuesday (July 22) accused China of severely limiting the religious rights of Christians and, in some instances, actively persecuting members of Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. The report, prepared at the request of Congress, addressed the situation faced by Christians in 78 nations in which […]
NEWS STORY: Relief group: Korean famine total may be 1 million
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ World Vision, the evangelical international relief agency, says a survey it has taken along the North Korea-China border suggests somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million Koreans have died as a result of the devastating combined impact of floods and famine in the country.”The tragedy is that there have […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service Clinton asks Yeltsin to veto proposed religion law (RNS) President Clinton has asked Russian President Boris Yeltsin to veto a proposed law that would slap severe restrictions on the activities of foreign missionaries and religious groups not”traditional”to Russia. Clinton asked Yeltsin to reject the measure when the two leaders met […]
NEWS FEATURE: Scientists being won over in the spirit-health debate
By B. Denise Hawkins — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ When 70 of the nation’s leading medical and social science researchers set out to study how spirituality and health intersect, the panel’s coordinator decided to open its first meeting with prayer. Many _ but not all _ of his colleagues bristled at the imposition of group prayer, and […]
NEWS STORY: Focolare leader makes religious history at Muslim mosque
By Bart Worden — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ When Chiara Lubich, leader of one of the largest Roman Catholic lay groups in the world, padded across the mosque floor in Harlem through a crowd of worshipers and took the podium Sunday (May 18) evening, she etched herself a place in American religious history. Lubich, the […]
American Buddhist activist blends spirituality, social concern
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service YONKERS, N.Y. _ In a neighborhood whose commanding view of the Hudson River adds natural beauty to an otherwise glum array of boarded buildings and littered streets, a new, American-style Buddhism is blossoming, fed by the bitterness of inner-city grit and the sweetness of chocolate brownies. It’s a Buddhism based […]
NEWS STORY: Falwell says religious right”asleep”during ‘96 election
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The Rev. Jerry Falwell, whose Moral Majority helped establish the religious right as a political force in the 1980s, says the movement was”asleep against the switch”in the 1996 election and he’s making some tentative moves to reinsert himself in the country’s political dialogue. On Thursday (Feb. 13), Falwell […]
NEWS STORY: Ralph Reed to leave the Christian Coalition
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Ralph Reed, the boyish-looking executive director who turned the Christian Coalition into the religious right’s preeminent political force, announced Wednesday (April 23) he will leave the organization to form a new campaign consulting firm and to work with charitable groups. In announcing his resignation after more than seven […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service Orthodox patriarch leads first Serbian religious march in 50 years (RNS) In a show of solidarity with pro-democracy demonstrators, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church led more than 100,000 marchers through Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Monday (Jan. 27), in the city’s largest religious procession since World War II. Patriarch Pavle, head […]
NEWS STORY:
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ With an anxious but by no means unified religious community standing in the wings, the Supreme Court Wednesday (Jan. 8) heard arguments on whether laws barring doctor-assisted suicide are legal, setting the stage for a possible landmark ruling involving the most profound issues of life and death. For […]
