Monthly Archives: July 2007
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 12, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Group That Targets AIDS in Black Churches Expands Focus WASHINGTON (RNS) An organization that has worked for almost two decades to encourage black houses of worship to fight the AIDS epidemic has expanded its focus to address additional health issues. Pernessa Seele, the founder and CEO of The Balm in […]
COMMENTARY: To Have and to Hold … Or Not
By Cathleen Falsani — July 12, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Wedding season is in full swing. I know this because of the four giddy, gorgeously engraved save-the-date cards or invitations that arrived in the mail in recent weeks. One of my stepsons got engaged last month, and one of my best friends from college _ the guy we thought […]
One Church Has Lessons on a House (of God) Divided
By RNS Blog Editor — July 12, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio _ Two large evergreens stand on either side of the white columns leading into Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian. A white bell tower and steeple sit atop the brick Georgian Colonial building across from a park. Inside, wooden pews with red seat covers face the Communion table, a […]
10 Minutes With … Mohsin Hamid
By Shona Crabtree — July 12, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Mohsin Hamid went to Harvard Law School and worked as a management consultant before becoming a novelist. He describes his youth in Lahore, Pakistan, as “fairly quietly religious.” His second book, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” tells the story of Changez, a Princeton-educated Pakistani who leaves a lucrative financial career in […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Texas Court Dismisses Confidentiality Case Against Pastor (RNS) The Texas Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a suit brought by a former member of a Fort Worth church who accused her pastor of violating her confidentiality. The case, dismissed Friday (June 29), centered on questions of what roles civil courts should have […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Kingsbury First Novelist to Win Christian Book of the Year Award (RNS) Author Karen Kingsbury has won the 2007 Christian Book of the Year award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, marking the first time a novelist and a female author has earned the honor. The award for Kingsbury’s “Ever […]
Pope Says Protestants Not Churches `In the Proper Sense’
By Frances X. Rocca — July 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican on Tuesday (July 10) reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, calling other Christian churches defective and saying Protestant denominations are not even churches “in the proper sense.” The statement, which was “ratified and confirmed” by Pope Benedict XVI and published with his approval, […]
Christian Retailers Face Opportunities, Challenges
By Dale Hanson Bourke — July 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service ATLANTA _ Here at the International Christian Retail Show it is, to borrow a phrase from Charles Dickens, the best of times or the worst of times, depending on whom you ask. Two years ago they stopped calling this expo the Christian Booksellers Convention. To be sure, book and Bible […]
Going Once, Going Twice, Gone!
By Tom Ehrich — July 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) I returned from a business trip to find half of our furniture gone. In moving from a suburban house to a Manhattan apartment, we have shed three sofas, three dining tables, three desks, numerous chairs, hundreds of books and roomfuls of stuff. This excess reflected closing up two family […]
Ohio Vouchers Help Buttress Schools Even as Church Downsizes
By Scott Stephens — July 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Across Northeast Ohio, population shifts from older neighborhoods to the suburbs could mean the closing, merger or consolidation of about one in six schools operated by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. But in Cleveland proper, Catholic schools have found a guardian angel in state taxpayers, who provided more […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Surgeon General Pick Under Scrutiny for Gay Views WASHINGTON (RNS) President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general faces an uncertain confirmation in light of a 16-year-old paper he wrote as part of the United Methodist Church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality. In an eight-page paper titled “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality,” Dr. James […]
Mission Workers Jittery Over Passport Backlogs
By RNS Blog Editor — July 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the wake of tighter passport restrictions, thousands of jittery missionaries-to-be added something new to their prayer lists: passport delays. Passport offices have experienced a deluge of applications since new rules went into effect in January that require passports for reentry after flights from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and […]
Pope’s Latin Mass Decree Pleases Traditionalists, Worries Jews
By Frances X. Rocca — July 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Pope Benedict XVI’s decree that makes it easier for priests to celebrate the “old Latin Mass” has fulfilled the hopes of many traditionalist Roman Catholics _ as well as the apprehensions of those opposed to more widespread use of the older liturgy. “I am very, very happy. All is […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Gay Man at Center of Court Case Joins Virginia Church (RNS) The openly gay Virginia man who was at the center of a high-profile court case after he was denied membership in a United Methodist church has been accepted into membership under the church’s new pastor. The Rev. Barry Burkholder, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 7, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Bishop Suspends Episcopal Priest Who Says She Is Also a Muslim (RNS) A Seattle Episcopal priest who claims to be both a Christian and a Muslim has been temporarily removed from ministry by the bishop of Rhode Island, who remains her supervisor under church rules. The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, […]
