Monthly Archives: January 1998
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Ideological conflicts, social issues dominate Baptist meetings (RNS) Conflicts between conservatives and moderates and debates over social issues such as homosexuality highlighted this fall’s annual meetings of Southern Baptist state conventions. In Texas, moderates tightened their control of the nation’s largest state Baptist group, the Baptist General Convention of Texas. […]
NEWS STORY: Methodist high court: Church statement banning same-sex unions is law
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ United Methodist pastors who preside over same-sex unions may be brought before church courts and charged with disobedience, the church’s highest court has ruled. The ruling, which takes effect immediately, states the denomination’s prohibition against performing gay unions, as spelled out in its Social Principles, is tantamount to […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Appeals court says church can keep donations of bankrupt couple (RNS) A federal appeals court in Minneapolis has ruled that a Minnesota church may keep money donated to it by a couple who shortly thereafter declared bankruptcy. In its decision, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based its ruling on […]
NEWS STORY: Canadian agency faults Focus on the Family over program on gays
By Douglas Todd — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ One of the largest Christian ministries in North America has been rebuked by Canada’s broadcast ethics watchdog for airing allegedly questionable commentary about homosexuals. The Focus on the Family show, which airs on hundreds of radio stations in Canada and more than 2,300 in the United […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Alabama school board settles prayer dispute with Jewish family (RNS) An Alabama school board has voted to settle a lawsuit filed by a Jewish family contending their children were teased, mocked and forced to pray by Christian students and teachers. In voting to approve the settlement, the board members also […]
COMMENTARY: New victims for the national addiction to meanness
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 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. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.) UNDATED _ Meanness continues to run rampant in American society. Consider the grim determination […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Arkansas clergy criticize Starr, Congress for releasing testimony (RNS) A dozen Christian and Jewish leaders have called on Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and Congress to admit that it was wrong to release President Clinton’s grand jury testimony. The Rev. Jeanie Burton, senior pastor of the Arkansas Methodist church where first […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service After Good Friday game, cardinal says no to baseball (RNS) Cardinal John O’Connor, the archbishop of New York, plans to boycott the baseball season this year because the major leagues played games on Good Friday.”I love the Yankees. I love the Mets. I love baseball,”the archbishop wrote in his archdiocesan […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Activists for and against abortion condemn doctor’s slaying (RNS) Activists on either side of the abortion issue have condemned the murder Friday (Oct. 23) of an Amherst, N.Y., doctor who conducted abortions. The American Life League was among the anti-abortion groups criticizing the slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian, who was […]
RNS DAILY Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Adventists adopt statements on cloning, sexually transmitted disease (RNS) Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders from around the world, meeting in Foz do Iguaca, Brazil, have adopted major policy statements on the ethical issues of human cloning and the challenge of sexually transmitted degrees. In addition, the leaders heard world church president […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Archbishop Huddleston, apartheid foe, dead at 84 (RNS) Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, the Anglican priest who spent much of his life fighting apartheid and was among the first to alert the world to the system’s abuses, has died in northern England. He was 84. Although no cause of death was immediately […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion Service Scientology charged in connection with woman’s death (RNS) Criminal charges have been filed in Florida against an agency of the Church of Scientology in connection with the 1995 death of a 36-year-old woman who was in its care following an apparent nervous breakdown. The church’s Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Fla., […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Spanish Jews hold first public Hanukkah ritual in five centuries (RNS) The Jewish community of Spain held a public celebration of Hanukkah Sunday (Dec. 20) for the first time in more than five centuries. Members of the small community lit candles at the same location in Girona, Spain, where their […]
Religion editors’ calendar for June and July
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service June 2-5 Catholic Press Association, annual meeting, New Orleans. Contact: 516-471-4730. June 2-6 International Union of Gospel Missions, annual convention, Grand Rapids, Mich. Contact: Phil Rydman, 816-471-8020. June 4-6 The Center for Progressive Christianity, national forum, Seattle. Contact: Jim Adams, 617-441-0928. June 5-7 Union of American Hebrew Congregations, board of […]
COMMENTARY: Violence against women _ it’s worse than we thought
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service. (Marie M. Fortune is a minister in the United Church of Christ. She is Executive Director of the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence in Seattle and author of Keeping the Faith: Guidelines for Christian Women Facing Abuse.) UNDATED _ In the midst of much ado about […]
