Monthly Archives: September 2007
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Court Revives Case Against Jehovah’s Witnesses TORONTO (RNS) A Canadian court has ruled that the father of a teenaged Jehovah’s Witness who died five years ago can proceed with legal action against the church. In its ruling on Aug. 31, the Alberta Court of Appeal revived large portions of a […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: A Public and Private Call to Holiness
By RNS Blog Editor — September 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ Sounding the shofar, or ram’s horn, in the synagogue on Rosh Hashana is the high point of my year. No other mitzvah (precept) in Judaism is so dependent on a personal skill, or entails such high drama. And, at least for me, no other mitzvah renders quite […]
10 Minutes With … Carlton Pearson
By Nancy Haught — September 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Seven years ago, Bishop Carlton D. Pearson was a fourth-generation evangelical preacher and one of Oral Roberts’ anointed; he had graduated from Oral Roberts University and served on its board of regents. He prayed with U.S. presidents, preached to 5,000 people in his home church in Tulsa, Okla., and […]
Religious Right Leader D. James Kennedy Dies at 76
By Adelle M. Banks — September 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The Rev. D. James Kennedy, a Florida minister who took to the airwaves and became a force in driving conservative Christians to the polls and into the public square, died Wednesday (Sept. 5) after months of serious illness. Kennedy, 76, died after suffering complications from a cardiac arrest in […]
Jews Mark New Year With a Visit to Ritual Bath
By Ansley Roan — September 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When Rabbi Daniel Liben steps into the warm waters of the Mayyim Hayyim (Living Waters) mikvah in Newton, Mass., he will pause on each of the seven steps leading into the pool to ponder the state of his soul. Each step into the tepid waters, he said, is a […]
Israel Gears Up for a Gardening Sabbatical
By Michele Chabin — September 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ As soon as she moved into her ground-floor apartment last month, Monique Landau hired a gardening crew to give her wrap-around terrace a bit of greenery. While Landau would normally have waited to unpack before sprucing up her patio, the rapidly approaching “shmita” sabbatical year _ in which […]
COMMENTARY: An Open Letter to Owen Wilson
By Cathleen Falsani — September 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (Editors note: This column was written after actor Owen Wilson’s reported attempted suicide on Aug. 26 in Santa Monica, Calif.) (UNDATED) This is a bit of a departure for me, as I’m not in the habit of writing fan letters. In fact, the last one I sent was a bubble-lettered […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 5, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Gordon College Triples Endowment With $60 Million Gift BOSTON (RNS) An evangelical college on Boston’s North Shore is about to become nearly three times richer, thanks to a $60 million gift from a California couple whose two grandchildren attend the school. The gift to Gordon College from real estate developer […]
Muslims Descend on Chicago, but Split for Separate Meetings
By Omar Sacirbey — September 5, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service CHICAGO _ When black nationalist leader Timothy Drew founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in 1913, he predicted that Chicago would one day become an American Mecca, drawing Muslim pilgrims from across America much like Islam’s holiest city. And on Labor Day weekend for the last several years, Drew’s […]
College Schools Women in Biblical Homemaking
By Adelle M. Banks — September 5, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) On Wednesdays and Friday afternoons, sophomore Emily Felts will be attending a course at the College at Southwestern in Fort Worth, Texas, that’s not held in a typical classroom. One of a dozen students, she will sit around a mahogany dining room table at the home of Dorothy Patterson, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 5, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Christian Group Fights Expulsion for Foot Washing in Court (RNS) An evangelical Christian campus group that was expelled from Savannah State Univerity is in a legal battle with the college over the question of whether the practice of foot-washing can be considered hazing. On Aug. 24, a federal judge denied […]
COMMENTARY: Getting Beyond Slogans and Scapegoats
By Tom Ehrich — September 5, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Thanks to a judge in Iowa, Christmas came early for our politicians. The county judge struck down a state law banning same-sex marriage. Politicians rushed into that breach, condemning the judge’s action or distancing themselves from it, hoping to please the religious right. They were also hoping to find […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 1, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Orthodox Send Relief Supplies to Fire-Damaged Greece (RNS) The U.S.-based International Orthodox Christian Charities is sending emergency relief supplies and a team of Orthodox priests to Greece to help communities devastated by weeklong wildfires. As firefighters douse the remnants of blazes that have killed 64 people and cost the country […]
Religion Calendar
By RNS Blog Editor — September 1, 2007
Note: Holidays that begin at sundown continue through sundown of the next day, unless otherwise noted. (UNDATED) Here is the RNS calendar of major religious holidays, denominational meetings and other events for August and September. It will be updated monthly. Aug. 31-Sept. 3 Islamic Society of North America: annual convention, Rosemont, Ill. Contact: Basharat Saleem […]
N.Y. Church Goes Into the Bar and Finds a Flock
By RNS Blog Editor — September 1, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ A rock ‘n’ roll bar with a neon “Pabst Blue Ribbon” sign in its window and truck-driver kitsch seems an unlikely setting for a room full of devout Christians gathered for prayer. But on a recent Sunday evening, a small crowd gathered in the back room of […]
