Monthly Archives: January 2006
Pope’s would-be assassin soon to be released from prison; more on Book of Daniel
By RNS Blog Editor — January 10, 2006
Vatican correspondent Stacy Meichtry reports on Monday on the upcoming release from jail of the man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II: Mehmet Ali Agca, the gunman who shot John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square, is reportedly set for release from a Turkish prison this week, capping decades of jail time that […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 7, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Robertson Remarks Tying Sharon Illness to God’s `Enmity’ Draw Criticism (RNS) Jewish leaders and critics of the religious right have condemned comments by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson implying that God’s “enmity” had caused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent stroke. “Sharon was personally a very likable person and I am […]
Torture Debate Remains Unresolved, Morally and Politically
By Carl Anderson — January 7, 2006
c. 2006 Religion & Ethics Newsweekly (UNDATED) After six months of stiff resistance, and faced with an overwhelming and embarrassing political defeat, President Bush last month reversed himself and reluctantly agreed to a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody. The agreement capped a year of legal and policy debates […]
Pastor Shows the Way to Romanian Immigrants
By RNS Blog Editor — January 7, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ Elegantly dressed women fill the pews on the right, heads covered in gauzy scarves. Men in suits take the left. Some whisper to themselves. Others pray aloud or wail in the singsong language of Romania. And in a throne-size chair up front sits the immigrant who takes […]
Flawed, Human Characters Propel `Book of Daniel’
By RNS Blog Editor — January 7, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Who says well-heeled, well-raised, outwardly righteous people don’t rate their own prime-time soap? Case in point: My own personal youth was lived largely in the shadow of just this sort of gold-filigreed clan. We’re talking old money. Dad wore vestments. Mom was an energetic civic do-gooder. Kids were tall, […]
Torture issue unresolved; Romanian church in the U.S.; NBC’s ‘Book of Daniel’
By RNS Blog Editor — January 7, 2006
In Friday’s RNS report Senior Editor David E. Anderson looks at the issue of torture and says it remains unresolved in the United States: The debate over Sen. John McCain’s anti-torture law and the strong bipartisan political and public support it enjoyed suggest there is a broad moral consensus against the use of torture and […]
Praying for an appeal …
By Tracy Gordon — January 6, 2006
Quote of the Day: Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma “We are a nation of laws, even laws that we disagree with.” -Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, speaking about how House members will continue a new practice of preceding official state business with voluntary prayer in the back of the chamber while a ruling prohibiting legislative […]
Who Does Pat Robertson Speak For?
By Kevin Eckstrom — January 6, 2006
Jeff Jarvis over at Buzz Machine has an interesting discussion about the media’s responsibility in covering Pat Robertson, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others. If the media pay attention to their outrageous comments, are these men getting more attention than they deserve, or do they deserve attention simply because they are known figures?
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 6, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Mormons Vow to Safeguard Missionaries After Va. Shooting (RNS) Officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have vowed to work to keep their missionaries safe after one missionary was murdered in Chesapeake, Va., and another was injured. The statement from the Salt Lake City-based church was issued […]
Evangelical Mainliners Vow to Stay and Fight
By RNS Blog Editor — January 6, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the traditionally liberal northeast, United Methodist minister Chuck Ferrara has been coping with what he calls “the very definition of insanity.” For nearly two decades, the conservative pastor has mounted the pulpit of his Connecticut church each Sunday increasingly frustrated with the denomination’s liberal leanings, which he said […]
Russian Orthodox Prepare to Celebrate Christmas
By RNS Blog Editor — January 6, 2006
c. 2005 Religion News Service BROOKSIDE, Ala. _ During the first week of January, most people are boxing up Christmas ornaments and disposing of dried-out Christmas trees. But for the Rev. Benedict Tallant of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church here, the first week of January is a time for making last-minute Christmas preparations. The Russian […]
COMMENTARY: New Orleans Holds Lessons for All of Us
By RNS Blog Editor — January 6, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Shakespeare had it right: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” In the past year, there have been “battalions” of natural “sorrows” including tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, mudslides, floods, wildfires, coal mine disasters and hurricanes. We always have choices when confronting such “sorrows.” Will we use […]
Black Churches Aim to Heal Both Body and Soul
By Linda Bloom — January 6, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service LINDEN, N.J. _ Clad in black sweat pants and a baggy black T-shirt, Tammy Holmes wasn’t appropriately dressed for church, but it was the perfect ensemble for her to lead one of the weekly Christian holistic weight-loss and exercise classes offered by Morning Star Community Christian Center. Holmes, who is […]
Unhappy evangelical mainliners; Holistic churches; Merry Russian Orthodox Christmas
By RNS Blog Editor — January 6, 2006
Jason Kane reports in Thursday’s RNS report on evangelical mainliners who say their denominations have become too liberal. They’ve vowed to try and change them from within: In the traditionally liberal Northeast, United Methodist minister Chuck Ferrara has been coping with what he calls “the very definition of insanity.” Over the course of several decades, […]
Not your “everyday Joe” …
By Tracy Gordon — January 6, 2006
Quote of the Day: Randy Sharp of the American Family Association “They take our savior Jesus Christ and reflect him as an everyday Joe. How disrespectful. Our savior is to be worshipped and adored and not treated as your buddy riding down the street with you in the passenger seat of the car.” -Randy Sharp, […]
