Monthly Archives: December 2006
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Religion Writers Rate Amish, Muhammad Cartoons as Biggest Stories (RNS) The Amish community, which inspired the world with acts of forgiveness after a Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting, has been named the newsmaker of the year by the Religion Newswriters Association (RNA) and Beliefnet. The multi-faith spirituality Web site Beliefnet.com said Thursday […]
Religious Leaders Press U.S. on Mideast Peace Effort
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Hoping to capitalize on the momentum created by the current re-examination of U.S. policy in the Middle East, an interfaith group of prominent religious leaders is pressing the Bush administration to place the Israeli-Palestinian conflict higher on its agenda for the region. The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace […]
Holy Land Ex-Pats Try to Make Christmas More Than Just Another Day
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Jo Anne Gonzaga, a petite 40-year-old migrant worker from the Philippines, considers herself blessed to be living in the Holy Land. But this year, she will be spending Christmas taking care of her elderly employer while her husband and three teenage daughters celebrate the holiday back home. Before […]
COMMENTARY: My Picks for the Year’s Top 10 Religion Stories
By James Rudin — December 15, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Here are my choices for the top 10 religion stories of 2006: 1. The Danish publication of newspaper cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad angered Muslims and set off riots in many Islamic countries. Pope Benedict XVI created another firestorm with a speech that included a centuries-old negative description of […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: The 2 Percent Solution
By Phyllis Zagano — December 15, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) I guess only the French can understand the French Catholic bishops. For reasons known only to God, the French bishops’ conference seems 98 percent opposed to embryonic stem cell research. Consider the recent muscular dystrophy telethon hurricane that huffed across the country. The French Muscular Dystrophy Association’s annual 34-hour […]
Some Find Ways for a Simpler, Less Commercialized Christmas
By Kristen Campbell — December 15, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Even now, years later, Suzanne Phillips gasps to think of her young son’s attitude. “No matter what I did, it was never enough,” she said. So after hearing “Where’s this?” and “I wanted that,” Phillips decided she and her now 11-year-old son Dylan Baker would spend Christmas Day serving […]
MegaChurch Automalls
By RNS Blog Editor — December 14, 2006
Chrysler Test-Drives Marketing to Black Churches RNS’ Jeffrey MacDonald examines Chrysler’s efforts to market its cars via test drives hosted by four of the nation’s largest black megachurches, in this week’s full-text article, linked above. Quote: For Chrysler, observers say, the experimental test drives mark a coup on two levels: the carmaker has overcome a […]
Use Heaven as a Model
By Tracy Gordon — December 14, 2006
Quote of the Day: Harlem Pastor Calvin Butts III “You’ve got to do everything. Churches, schools, health care, housing. You’ve got to take your people up to heaven so they can see what God has in store and then take them down to the ground so they can see what work is to be done.” […]
Family Dispute Over Graham Graves Goes Public
By Adelle M. Banks — December 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Evangelist Franklin Graham said Wednesday (Dec. 13) the decision about where his parents will be buried is “personal” and he does not intend to enter a public debate about it. Graham’s comments came after The Washington Post reported Wednesday that he and his brother Ned do not agree about […]
Groups Try to Redirect Christmas Away From North Pole and Back to Bethlehem
By Adelle M. Banks — December 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Standing next to plastic figures of Mary, baby Jesus and Joseph, two ministers and three members of Congress took turns at a microphone earlier this month to announce a new initiative called “Project Nativity.” “Our hope and prayer is that over the next three to four years, hundreds […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Progressive Groups Want `Left Behind’ Video Game Off Wal-Mart Shelves (RNS) Progressive religious groups, concerned by the violence and theology in the “Left Behind” Christian video games, have asked Wal-Mart not to sell them. The “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” game is a spinoff from the best-selling “Left Behind” apocalyptic series […]
10 Minutes With … Geneive Abdo
By Shona Crabtree — December 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service SAN FRANCISCO _ Geneive Abdo traveled the United States interviewing American Muslims for her latest book “Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in American After 9/11.” Abdo took time out from her book tour to talk about the growing religiosity among American Muslims and their increasing alienation from the mainstream. […]
Historians, Fans Defend the `Real’ King Herod
By Nicole Neroulias — December 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) He ruled over the ancient Jews for 37 years, and when it comes to bad publicity, King Herod has reigned supreme ever since. Annually vilified in Christmas pageants as the tyrant responsible for the slaughter of Bethlehem’s baby boys and for chasing Mary, Joseph and Jesus into Egypt, Herod […]
10 Minutes With … Debbie Friedman
By Nancy Haught — December 14, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) More than one Jewish song leader has introduced a haunting tune, “handed down from ancient times,” only to learn that Debbie Friedman wrote it in her 35-years-and-counting career. Friedman’s songs, which include “Birchot Havdalah” and “Mi Shebeirach,” are so familiar that it seems like they’ve always been part of […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 13, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Veiled Woman to Deliver Britain’s `Alternative’ Christmas Message LONDON (RNS) A major British television network has selected a Muslim woman who will dress in the full-face niqab veil to deliver its annual “alternative” Christmas Day message opposite Queen Elizabeth II. The woman, identified by London’s Daily Mail newspaper as part-time […]
