Monthly Archives: January 1999
NEWS STORY: Nine hundred years later, Christians apologize for Crusades
By Elaine Fletcher — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Exactly nine centuries after the Crusaders breached the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, murdering thousands of Muslims and Jews and occupying Eastern Orthodox holy sites, hundreds of American and European Christians gathered here Monday (July 12) to commemorate the bloody battles and express a group apology. The meeting, […]
COMMENTARY: With hate, it’s always `the Jews’
By James Rudin — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) Three Sacremento area synagogues were recently set on fire within a 45-minute period, and one of them, Congregation B’nai Israel, suffered more than $800,000 in damages, mostly to its library. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but […]
NEWS STORY: Fired policewoman says wearing pants violates religious beliefs
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ A veteran detective fired by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office for refusing to wear uniform pants says the dress code requirement violates her Christian religious beliefs. Lark Huber wore skirts while a plainclothes detective, but earlier this year was moved to a patrol position that her bosses […]
NEWS STORY: In booming economy, giving to charity is up
By Shaun Casey — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The point is pretty obvious: When Americans have more money, they give more money to charity. An impressive $175 billion last year. Giving by individuals, encouraged by the buoyant economy, is up 10 percent, and it’s up for the third consecutive year, according to “Giving USA 1999,” an […]
NEWS FEATURE: Women find ways to serve church without ordination
By Greg Garrison — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ Wearing a white dress, a white lace veil atop her head and white gloves on her hands, Ida Belle Canty takes a tiny glass of wine from a communion tray held out to her by First Baptist Church of Woodlawn Pastor Odie Hoover. On the first Sunday […]
NEWS STORY: Scandal-plagued Seventh-day Adventist president resigns
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Robert S. Folkenberg resigned as president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Monday (Feb. 8), saying the controversy over allegations about his business relations with a Sacramento, Calif., man”is distracting from God’s work.” Folkenberg, 58, has been president of the 10-million-member international church since 1990 and was credited with”visionary”leadership […]
NEWS REVIEW: TV show probes Mississippi school prayer dispute
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Prayers over a public school intercom were a normal part of the day for many students in Pontotoc County, Miss., until a woman named Lisa Herdahl came to town and argued their 50-year-old tradition was unconstitutional. The battle between Herdahl and the Mississippi community are detailed in a documentary […]
NEWS FEATURE: Saints’ popularity diminishing among younger Catholics
By Kein Eckstrom — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service STUART, Fla. _ When Peggy Meissner wanted to sell her home here, she buried a small statue of St. Joseph in the yard and prayed for his assistance. She says it worked. Whenever Dan Hadlock, also of Stuart, finds himself in a bind, he shoots a prayer off to St. […]
NEWS STORY: Vatican bars activist nun and priest from ministry with gays, lesbians
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Accusing an activist American priest and nun of causing confusion among Catholics and harming the church, the Vatican announced Tuesday (July 13) it has barred them from any future pastoral work with homosexuals. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith charged that the Rev. Robert Nugent […]
NEWS FEATURE: T.D. Jakes takes his ministry, message to the prisons
By B. Denise Hawkins — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ With an estimated 150,000 inmates watching from behind the secured walls of 120 prisons across the nation, Bishop T.D. Jakes seemed determined to deliver a message of survival that would set their souls free.”For those of you behind prison walls tonight, you may feel cursed, you may be […]
COMMENTARY: Working and grazing
By Tom Ehrich — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. He lives in Durham, N.C.) LA MADDALENA, ITALY _ Almost overnight, this island north of Sardegna changed character; the tourists arrived. Every beach is jammed. Cars and tour buses crawl through narrow streets. Sidewalks swarm with slow-moving amblers. […]
COMMENTARY: Catholic blasphemy?
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 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 _ Canadian pop singer Alanis Morissette as God? A God who does cartwheels? […]
NEWS STORY: Bishops urge end to Iraq sanctions, criticize Nazareth mosque plan
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops opened their annual fall meeting Monday (Nov. 15) calling for an end to the economic embargo of Iraq and criticizing plans to build a mosque near a historic Christian church in Nazareth. In the statement on Iraq, issued over the name of Bishop […]
NEWS FEATURE: When clergy burn out, who ministers to the minister?
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WOODLAND PARK, Colo. _ To Bob and Sandy Sewell, it’s a tale as familiar as any Bible story, a saga of sincerity gone sour. They know it firsthand. In the early ’80s, the couple was heavily involved in a north Dallas megachurch _ Bob as a minister of evangelism, Sandy […]
YEAR-END REVIEW: Conflict, reconciliation marked the year in religion
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ The mundane, worldly rhythms of life and death, conflict and reconciliation seemed more pronounced in the religious world in 1999, a year in which no single event such as 1998’s impeachment of President Clinton dominated the moral and ethical news. At the start of 1999, it appeared the […]
