Monthly Archives: January 2007
GUEST COMMENTARY: Memo to Speaker Pelosi
By Phyllis Zagano — January 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Dear Speaker Pelosi: Congratulations on your election as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. What a leap for women! Your official biography calls you Catholic. Imagine _ a Catholic woman is the most powerful woman in the world’s most powerful government! I know you went to Catholic high […]
Church Members Burn Away Sins With New Year’s Fire
By Christopher S. Taylor — January 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ On a recent Sunday afternoon, Mary Grace McCord lined up with about 200 others at Unity of Birmingham church, all of them ready to burn. They clutched wallet-sized sheets of paper, scribbled with the baggage of their lives: bad habits, negative behavior or what other churches call […]
Beating Stereotypes, MLK Streets Are Economically Viable
By Jonathan Tilove — January 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW BERN, N.C. _ There’s a Wal-Mart on Dr. M.L. King Jr. Boulevard here. And a Target, IHOP, Holiday Inn Express, Books-A-Million, Piggly Wiggly, Pepsi-Cola bottler (in this, the soft drink’s birthplace), Applebee’s, two Eckerds, three car dealerships and some 200 other businesses, large and small. In other words, this […]
10 Minutes With … Fred Hass
By Sara Shereen Bakhshian — January 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Ever wondered what a pope smelled like 150 years ago? Dr. Fred Hass has, and now makes The Pope’s Cologne, a fragrance believed to have been worn by Pope Pius IX, who reigned for more than 30 years during the 19th century. Hass, a general practitioner from San Rafael, […]
Leaping Faith
By Tracy Gordon — January 10, 2007
Quote of the Day: Retired Stuntman Evel Knievel “I think about God a lot more than ever, though I used to ask him, `Help me make a good jump.'” -Retired stuntman Evel Knievel, speaking in an interview with USA Today. The former daredevil, 68, uses a morphine pump to treat serious pain in a fused […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Judge: Veterans Affairs’ Spiritual Assessments Constitutional (RNS) A federal judge has upheld aspects of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ chaplaincy program, saying its use of “spiritual assessments” of patients is constitutional. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued VA officials last April, charging that they violated the First Amendment with an […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Vatican Gives Tentative OK to New Stem Cell Breakthrough VATICAN CITY (RNS) A recent study showing that stem cells can be drawn from amniotic fluid without harming the pregnant woman or her fetus has received tentative backing from a senior Vatican official. In two separate interviews, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, […]
Carter, Clinton Meet With Baptists to Plan for New `Covenant’
By Adelle M. Banks — January 10, 2007
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Leaders from 40 Baptist organizations are joining forces with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton to hold a gathering next January that will emphasize their common goals. The “Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant” was announced Tuesday (Jan. 9) at The Carter Center in Atlanta during a meeting […]
Church Struggles to Hang on as Neighborhood Changes
By James Brooks — January 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. _ Not one card game was played at the annual card party held in the basement of St. Stephan’s Church. In fact, it wasn’t a card party at all, but a three-hour raffle that serves as the main fundraiser for the United Church of Christ in Newark’s Ironbound […]
Single Adults Want Ministry, Not Sympathy
By RNS Blog Editor — January 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Tina Barta and many of her evangelical peers do not like the terms “single” or “singleness.” In church and in society, single implies a person who is not whole, not complete, they say. “That’s such an awful way to look at it,” said Barta, 27, who believes fulfilling her […]
COMMENTARY: And the Truth Shall Set You Free
By Tom Ehrich — January 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Balmy days in January, a snow-less winter in the Northeast, polar ice cap crumbling, predictions of the hottest year in Earth’s recorded history _ sounds like “global warming” to me. But what do I know? Exactly. Is anyone telling us the truth? With the petroleum industry engaged in disinformation […]
Looking for Cash
By Tracy Gordon — January 9, 2007
Quote of the Day: Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk “Ultimately, we depend on free-will offerings. If people don’t like the product, they are likely to be less generous. We have no power of compulsion.” -Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, talking to the Cincinnati Enquirer about his archdiocese’s debt and declining revenues.
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 9, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Pope Urges Iranian Cooperation Over Nuclear Stalemate VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI pressed Iran on Monday (Jan. 8) to address global concerns over its nuclear program, which he described as a source of rising tension in the Middle East. In his annual address to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, […]
RNS Editor on NewsHour
By Daniel Burke — January 9, 2007
Our esteemed editor, Kevin Eckstrom, was a guest on PBS’s NewsHour Dec. 18, elucidating the increasingly complex story of schism within the Episcopal Church. Online NewsHour: Update Parishes Leave Episcopal Church December 18, 2006 PBS
New IRS Rules Demand Receipts for Church Donations
By Jeff Diamant — January 9, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The next time you toss bills into the church collection plate, you might want to ask the usher for a receipt. New federal rules for the 2007 tax year _ which took effect Jan. 1 _ forbid tax deductions for charitable donations unless the taxpayer can prove the donation […]
