Monthly Archives: December 2008
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 13, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service Religion writers name election top news story (RNS) Religion reporters chose the 2008 elections and the controversy surrounding President-elect Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as the top story of the year. Democrats’ outreach to faith communities, and the selection of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, were […]
Vatican condemns popular infertility treatments
By Frances X. Rocca — December 13, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican’s highest doctrinal body on Friday (Dec. 12) condemned advanced infertility treatments and contraception technologies and reaffirmed its strong prohibition of embryonic stem cell research. The long-awaited document, “Dignitas personae” (“The dignity of a person”), was released by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the […]
Cardinal Avery Dulles, oldest U.S. cardinal, dies at 90
By Kein Eckstrom — December 13, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Cardinal Avery Dulles, who left a prominent Protestant pedigree to become one of the nation’s most distinguished theologians and a prince of the Catholic Church, died Friday (Dec. 12) at the age of 90. Dulles, who was one of the oldest men to be named a cardinal, at age […]
Priests and Prophets
By Mark Silk — December 12, 2008
As Pastordan suggests, there may not be much interest out there in the Religious Industrial Complex discussion, but there are those of us who like it, and nobody’s forcing you to read this. On the question of the efficacy of RIC outreach, let me get a little empirical. Laurie Goodstein of the NYT was kind […]
Independents = Seculars
By Mark Silk — December 12, 2008
There’s been a certain amount of chatter over the past few days about this graph, taken from the General Social Survey, showing that the more strongly identified with a political party you are, the more frequently you are likely to pray. This adds a new item to the existing set of correlations between political participation […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: No `Doubt’ about it
By Sister Mary Ann Walsh — December 12, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The new movie “Doubt” sent me back to childhood and my time as a student in Catholic elementary school in upstate New York in the late 1950s. Playwright John Patrick Shanley penned the award-winning play and directed the subsequent movie. As an alumnus of a Catholic school in the […]
Federal program funnels charity funds to interest groups
By Matthew Berger — December 12, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Some of the nation’s most controversial public policy groups receive checks from Uncle Sam this time each year, and it’s all perfectly legal. The Combined Federal Campaign, founded in the 1950s to regulate fundraising among federal employees, has long been expanded to allow government workers to give to […]
COMMENTARY: Light amidst the darkness
By Dick Staub — December 12, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) I recently hosted a show featuring Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s poems written from his prison cell during World War II. I was particularly taken by a comment made by Sandy, a busy mom enjoying a rare night out. Reading Bonhoeffer had put her life and circumstances in perspective, she said. Whenever […]
Pope urges global solidarity in annual peace message
By Frances X. Rocca — December 12, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Disarmament, trade liberalization, and wider access to medicines for the treatment of AIDS are among the most effective ways of fighting global poverty, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Dec. 11) in a statement released by the Vatican. “Fighting Poverty To Build Peace” is the title of this […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 12, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service Traditionalist Spaniard named to Vatican liturgy office VATICAN CITY (RNS) Traditionalist Catholics will have a sympathizer in the new head of the Vatican’s liturgical office. Pope Benedict XVI has named Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, currently Archbishop of Toledo, Spain, as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline […]
Cizik, under pressure for gay comments, resigns from NAE
By Adelle M. Banks — December 12, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The top Washington lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, who had already faced criticism for his embrace of environmental activism, resigned Thursday (Dec. 11) after signaling support for same-sex civil unions. The Rev. Richard Cizik, who had worked in the NAE’s Washington office for 28 years, resigned […]
Cizik Gone
By Mark Silk — December 11, 2008
Sarah Pulliam has a first-rate story up on the Christianity Today website breaking news of the resignation of Rich Cizik as vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, in the wake of remarks clearly indicating that he’s grown soft on gay marriage. Here’s what he said to Terry Gross in a […]
The Religious Industrial Complex
By Mark Silk — December 11, 2008
As noted in this space, a few days ago Religion Dispatches ran a piece by Sarah Posner taking a mildly dyspeptic look a what has somewhat nastily (and hyperbolically) been termed the “Religious Industrial Complex” (RIC), by which is meant the small agglomeration of people and institutions that have sprung up over the past several […]
Ala. church named nation’s fastest-growing
By Greg Garrison — December 11, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, Ala. _ Birmingham’s Church of the Highlands has been named the fastest-growing church in America by Outreach magazine, a publication for religious leaders that does an annual analysis of church growth. In the yearlong survey of church attendance ending in spring 2008, Highlands grew by 3,418 from the previous […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 11, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service State panel urges same-sex marriage for New Jersey NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) New Jersey should enact a law allowing gay marriage and waste no time passing it because the state’s civil unions law fails to adequately protect same-sex couples, a report to be released Wednesday (Dec. 10) said. The final report […]
