Monthly Archives: February 2007
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Survey Says Canadians Have Most Tolerant Attitudes Toward Muslims TORONTO (RNS) Canadians have the most tolerant attitudes toward Muslims among citizens of 23 Western countries, according to a new international study that measured levels of Islamophobia in each nation. More than 32,000 respondents from 19 European countries, plus Canada, the […]
Gay Ruling Poses Tough Questions for Lutherans
By John Boyle — February 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may be asked to change a ban on practicing gay and lesbian clergy after a disciplinary committee voted to remove an openly gay pastor but suggested the church find a way to reinstate him. The ruling called for the Rev. Bradley Schmeling, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 9, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Scholars Say Young Catholics Key to Church’s Future WASHINGTON (RNS) The authors of a new book say the future of the church depends on young Catholics who share the principal tenets of the faith but are likely to disagree with the church on social issues. “If the older generation of […]
COMMENTARY: Denying Bigotry Doesn’t Make It Go Away
By James Rudin — February 9, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Some recent actions of the United Nations General Assembly and the Virginia House of Delegates provide proof that the murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust and the shame of 250 years of slavery in America continue to haunt the world’s collective conscience and memory. On Jan. 26, […]
Anglican, Episcopal Leaders Head to High-Stakes Summit in Africa
By Daniel Burke — February 9, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The continuing row within the worldwide Anglican Communion over homosexuality and the Bible will rumble to Africa next week (Feb. 14-19) as the communion’s primates, or top bishops, convene in Tanzania. The meeting presents a critical moment for the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, and its new […]
COMMENTARY: Trying to Measure the Unmeasurable
By Phyllis Zagano — February 9, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In 1863, Cornelius Vanderbilt gave $1 million to found a university to support the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and create a campus where faith and reason could exist alongside each other. This year, Vanderbilt is the temporary home of Lawrence M. Krauss, author of “The Physics […]
Community Shifts as Black Church Leaves Downtown for More Space
By RNS Blog Editor — February 9, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ Wearing a crisp white suit and a laminated name tag, Ora Calhoun, longtime Highland United Church of Christ greeter, takes her post at the west entrance. Soon, about 600 worshippers will come to this special rededication service at Highland’s new home _ a $6 million “campus” nearly […]
Calling All Rabbis
By RNS Blog Editor — February 8, 2007
As German Jews Rebuild, Rabbis Are in Short Supply Niels C. Sorrells reports on the rebuilding of the Jewish population in Germany, and a resultant shortage of rabbis, in this week’s full-text RNS article, linked above. Quote: Many of Germany’s revived Jewish communities are strong enough to stand on their own, says Walter Homolka, rector […]
In Black Churches, Pastors’ Wives Take on New Roles
By Adelle M. Banks — February 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service PIKESVILLE, Md. _ At Restoring Life International Church, Pastor June Robinson wears several hats _ and not the big fancy ones you might expect for a pastor’s wife. Standing in the pulpit with her husband, Senior Pastor Kenneth Robinson, she encourages the congregation to join them on a mission trip […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Study Finds U.S. Jewish Population Higher Than Expected Editors: In 4th graf, `birthright israel’ is cq (RNS) The American Jewish population is 20 percent higher than previously reported, according to a new study released by the Brandeis University Steinhardt Social Research Institute. The institute estimated there are 6 million to […]
It’s a Buddha, All Right, But He’s Starved, Smuggled and Possibly Fake
By Brian Donohue — February 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. _ On a September morning in 2005, federal customs inspectors pried open a suspicious wooden crate labeled “decorative items” at the Newark airport and gazed at a gaunt 40-inch stone statue nestled in a bed of Styrofoam packing. The figure in some ways resembled a Buddha, but this […]
COMMENTARY: Trying to Measure the Unmeasurable
By Phyllis Zagano — February 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In 1863, Cornelius Vanderbilt gave $1 million to found a university to support the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and create a campus where faith and reason could exist alongside each other. This year, Vanderbilt is the temporary home of Lawrence M. Krauss, author of “The Physics […]
10 Minutes With … Thomas Nevin
By Karen Long — February 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Thomas R. Nevin has a complicated relationship with a saint. The modest, erudite professor at John Carroll University in Cleveland has just finished “Therese of Lisieux: God’s Gentle Warrior,” a book that is both readable and provocative. He begins it in a Carmelite monastery in 1897 as the French […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — February 7, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Survey Finds Conservative Jews Support Gay Rabbis and Cantors NEW YORK (RNS) Most Conservative Jews would support gay and lesbian rabbis, according to an e-mail- and Web-based survey commissioned by the Jewish Theological Seminary. About two-thirds of the 5,583 rabbis, cantors and JTS students responding to the e-mail and online […]
Leaving a Legacy
By Tracy Gordon — February 7, 2007
Quote of the Day: Centenarian’s Great-Nephew John Stewart Jr. “She has served the good Lord, she has served the church, she has served us. What better legacy can she leave?” -John Stewart Jr., a great-nephew of the late Emma Faust Tillman, who died Jan. 28 at age 114 in East Hartford, Conn., and was at […]
