Monthly Archives: January 1998
NEWS STORY: Bill offered to restore religious safeguards overturned by High Court
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ With a rare display of broad political and religious unity, federal legislation was introduced Tuesday (June 9) to replace a religion protection law overturned by the Supreme Court last year. Supporters say this time their effort will pass constitutional muster. The new measure _ the Religious Liberty Protection […]
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 […]
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 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., […]
NEWS FEATURE: Archbishop’s directive silences church concerts
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service HARTFORD, Conn. _ Last March, a crowd of several hundred people packed the pews of St. Patrick-St. Anthony Church in Hartford for a concert by the choral group CONCORA. The music _ most of it slow-moving, ethereal pieces by such 20th-century “mystical” composers as Arvo Part and Henryk Gorecki _ […]
NEWS STORY: Rights panel ponders religion in public schools
By Jacqui Lewis — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has waded into the roiling waters of religion in the public schools, holding the first of a series of hearings on the volatile topic.”This commission has a responsibility to ensure that the nation’s civil rights laws with respect to schools and religion […]
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 […]
NEWS STORY: Senate passes religious freedom abroad bill
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The Senate Friday (Oct. 9) concluded months of negotiations by backing compromise legislation making the encouragement of religious freedom abroad a focal point of U.S. foreign policy _ an initiative first advanced by religious conservatives. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 requires the White House to consider […]
RNS DAILY Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Baptist group: Outsiders have no say in Clinton church discipline (RNS) A Baptist association in Little Rock, Ark., has declared that outsiders do not have a right to call on President Clinton’s church to discipline him.”In response to the calls of Southern Baptists upon Immanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock […]
NEWS STORY: Amnesty seeks faith communities’ aid in anti-death penalty effort
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ They come together to receive the Eucharist, confess their sins and to pray. But this weekend, parishioners at St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church will also gather to ponder the death penalty. “In this predominantly African-American congregation, I don’t think people will be too surprised to learn that the […]
NEWS STORY: Religious activists gear up for fall election campaign
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Religious leaders and political activists from across the theological and ideological spectrum opened their versions of the fall election campaign Wednesday (Sept. 16) with a series of events that could not escape the climate of moral urgency hanging over the nation’s capital. In a series of speeches, forums […]
NEWS STORY: Minimal boycott by traditionalists at Anglican meeting predicted
By Robert Nowell — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service YORK, England _ Anglican bishops opposed to the ordination of women will not mount a major boycott of worship services during the three-week Lambeth Conference, which opens July 18, predicts Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. Reports in both the United States and England have quoted traditionalists as saying up to […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Catholic bishop kills himself to protest Pakistani blasphemy case (RNS) A leading Pakistani Roman Catholic bishop fatally shot himself to protest a death sentence given a Christian accused of blaspheming Islam by speaking favorably of author Salman Rushdie. Bishop John Joseph shot himself in the head Wednesday (May 6) in […]
NEWS SIDEBAR: Text of proposed amendment on religious expression
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Here is the text of the proposed Religious Freedom Amendment to the Constitution as proposed by Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla.: To secure the people’s right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience: Neither the United States nor any state shall establish any official religion, but the […]
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 […]
