Monthly Archives: August 2005
For Some Israelis, Evacuation Brings Painful Deja Vu
By RNS Blog Editor — August 13, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service MORAG, Gaza Strip _ Two decades after being evacuated from an Israeli settlement in Sinai to a similar one here, Yitzhak Idels has seen his auburn beard turn white and his wife Leah’s face become etched with lines. The cramped mobile home they left behind in the Yamit settlement bloc […]
ELCA mulls same-sex unions; Gaza evacuation compared to Sinai’s; New Orleans gay church is kic
By RNS Blog Editor — August 13, 2005
Friday RNS continues its coverage of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America‘s biennial meeting in Orlando. Kevin Eckstrom reports that the nation’s largest Lutheran church, deeply divided over the issue of homosexuality, is scheduled to decide today whether to allow sexually active gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions. The ELCA will debate a […]
Answering the call
By Tracy Gordon — August 12, 2005
Quote of the Day: National Council of Churches General Secretary Bob Edgar “There are those who try to dilute our witness and mislead our friends by suggesting that the National Council of Churches is a partisan, left-wing organization. But you know who it is that calls us to pursue peace, fight poverty and injustice, and […]
COMMENTARY: Watching Religious Attacks on Science, Einstein Rolls in His Grave
By RNS Blog Editor — August 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A hundred years ago, an obscure 26-year-old clerk in the Bern, Switzerland, patent office did some heavy thinking in his spare time, or perhaps while he was on the job. What the young German Jew came up with forever changed the world when he posited a theory few people […]
Two Largest Mainline Protestant Churches to Share Holy Communion Table
By Kein Eckstrom — August 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ Lutherans and Methodists, comprising the nation’s two largest mainline Protestant churches, will share in the sacrament of Holy Communion under an interim agreement approved Thursday (Aug. 11) by Lutheran delegates meeting here. The interim agreement approved by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a small […]
COMMENTARY: Return of Space Shuttle a Mystical Experience
By RNS Blog Editor — August 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) What really happened to us as the space shuttle Discovery came streaking home on Tuesday (Aug. 9)? Most Americans were so relieved that it landed safely that they did not pay much attention to their other feelings _ or even notice if they had any _ as the ship’s […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Powerful Archbishop Agrees to Testify on Sex Abuse by Priests PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Three days after being served with a subpoena before Mass, the Vatican’s most powerful American promised to testify about the Roman Catholic Church’s child sex-abuse policies and practices in Oregon. William J. Levada, the archbishop of Portland […]
Shadow of John Paul II Hangs Over World Youth Day Events
By RNS Blog Editor — August 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ World Youth Day events scheduled to begin Tuesday (Aug. 16) in Cologne, Germany, are expected to attract more than 800,000 faithful from 190 countries, some 600 bishops, thousands of security personnel, and the enormous shadow of the late Pope John Paul II. John Paul created World Youth […]
Lutherans Approve More Gender-Neutral Worship Book
By RNS Blog Editor — August 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ Millions of Lutherans will be able to sing a new song _ actually some 300 new songs _ to the Lord in an updated worship book that offers more options for contemporary worship and less emphasis on exclusively masculine images of God. The Churchwide Assembly of the […]
Muslim Leaders, Others say Blair’s Measures Would be Unconstitutional Here
By RNS Blog Editor — August 12, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Civil liberties activists say British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s tough new anti-terrorism plan has troubling implications for the United States, but some legal experts and Muslim groups contend the Constitution would stop any similar effort here. Blair’s measures _ unveiled in response to July’s subway and bus bombings […]
World Youth Day, Blair’s anti-terrorism proposals and the ELCA’s new decisions
By RNS Blog Editor — August 12, 2005
Thursday’s RNS report is chock full of news, starting with a story from Rome from Eric J. Lyman about the upcoming World Youth Day, which was created by Pope John Paul II 20 years ago “World Youth Day events scheduled to begin Tuesday (Aug. 16) in Cologne, Germany, are expected to attract more than 800,000 […]
How big God is
By RNS Blog Editor — August 11, 2005
Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of Dallas megachurch “As we continue to try to politicize God, or market God, or say that America is Christian, or that God is with one (political) party, or that God is here and not there, it only further points to the fact that we don’t understand how big God is-and […]
Gaza and Biblical Prophesy
By RNS Blog Editor — August 11, 2005
Zionists, Jews Say Gaza Withdrawal Doesn’t Fit With Prophecy RNS’s article of the week, linked above, looks at how Jews and Christians view the Gaza Strip pullout in light of Biblical prophesy. Quote: Jewish settlers aren’t the only ones struggling to reconcile this historic episode with their worldviews. From factions of religious Jews in Israel […]
Ad Targets Supreme Court Nominee on Abortion Issue
By RNS Blog Editor — August 11, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ A new national advertising campaign against U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts features a nurse criticizing Roberts for his past legal work in support of abortion protest groups. Emily Lyons, a nurse who was seriously injured in a 1998 bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., women’s clinic, appears in […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 11, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Lutheran Leader Calls for Global Council to Address `Identity Crisis’ (RNS) The leader of the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination has called for a global Christian council to address an “identity crisis” on how churches interpret and understand the Bible. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in […]
