Monthly Archives: September 2009
Christian conservatives decry health care plan, cheer GOP
By Tracy Gordon — September 18, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) More than 1,800 religious conservatives cheered Republican politicians, criticized President Obama’s health care plan, and rallied enthusiasm for the 2010 mid-term elections at the annual Values Voters Summit on Friday (Sept. 18). “When the president said — (with) seemingly airtight rhetoric the other night — that under our plan no federal dollars will […]
Update: Fla. school officials acquitted on prayer charges
By Tracy Gordon — September 18, 2009
(RNS) A Florida judge acquitted two Florida school officials Thursday (Sept. 17) of charges they broke the terms of an order that was meant to prevent faculty-led prayer at public school events. Principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman were cleared of criminal charges that could have led to a fine or six months […]
Mass. man sues Catholic bishops over sex abuse
By Tracy Gordon — September 18, 2009
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — A Massachusetts man is suing two former bishops of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield and another church administrator for allegedly allowing him to be molested by a priest who had admitted to sexually abusing other boys. Lawyers for the alleged victim say it is perhaps the first U.S. case that involves […]
“The Pope’s travel agent”
By Francis X. Rocca — September 18, 2009
RNS alumnus Stacy Meichtry, now of the WSJ, has a piece on the Vatican’s Fr. Cesare Atuire, head of the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, which “charters planes, trains, buses and ships to carry packs of tourists to Rome.”
Friday’s religion round-up
By Daniel Burke — September 18, 2009
President Obama sent a Rosh Hashanah greeting to Jews, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says the Constitution requires government neutrality between denominations but not for atheists, 58 civil rights groups want the Obama administration to bar groups that hire only co-religionists from receiving federal dollars, and a candidate for mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., believes […]
Rabbis urged to focus on ethics for high holy days
By Tracy Gordon — September 18, 2009
(UNDATED) In an unusual move, a group of influential Orthodox Jewish leaders has written a letter urging American rabbis to speak during this year’s High Holidays on the importance of ethical living, in response to some recent high-profile arrests of Jews, including two New Jersey rabbis in July. In the Sept. 3 letter sent to […]
…umetukah!
By Mark Silk — September 18, 2009
On the faith-based hiring warpath
By Mark Silk — September 18, 2009
Yesterday, 57 religious and civil liberties groups delivered themselves of a letter to Attorney General Holder asking that the Justice Department dump the 2007 memo from the Bush justice department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that justifies religious discrimination in hiring, based on the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Many of the signatories were […]
J Street makes its way
By Mark Silk — September 18, 2009
I’ve just got around to reading James Traub’s approving piece on the liberal Jewish lobby J Street in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, and am struck by the contrast with the Christian lobbies that have come to the fore in the Obama era. The latter–Catholics in Alliance, Sojourners, etc.–represent an effort to reassure conservative […]
Will the center hold?
By Daniel Burke — September 18, 2009
Catholic bishops went to the Hill on Thursday to meet with Latino legislators and preach Catholic social teaching on four primary issues: health care reform, immigration, poverty and education. Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento said the bishops “went to the Hill basically as teachers and pastors to try to bring to them the principles we […]
Second vote on Graham’s grandson’s pastorate
By Adelle M. Banks — September 18, 2009
The Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of evangelist Billy Graham, will be up for a vote again this Sunday for the pastorate of prominent Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was elected in March to succeed the late Rev. D. James Kennedy, the founding pastor who died in 2007, but some dissidents who […]
Kucinich suggests Cleveland seize threatened churches
By Tracy Gordon — September 17, 2009
CLEVELAND (RNS) Aiming to protect the city’s ethnic history and the future of its neighborhoods, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is calling on Cleveland officials to seize closed Catholic churches by eminent domain. City Hall, however, is not saying whether it would consider such a drastic move. “We are at work on options for reuse of […]
Faith groups advocate for poor ahead of G-20 summit
By Tracy Gordon — September 17, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) Faith-based organizations are warning finance ministers from the world’s 20 richest economies they will not meet the majority of their own goals to help the world’s poorest nations. The Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of 75 faith-based and human rights organizations, issued a report Wednesday (Sept. 16) outlining progress on the 13 goals […]
Coalition seeks repeal on federal grant rules
By Tracy Gordon — September 17, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) Dozens of legal and religious groups have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to rescind a Bush-era memorandum they believe wrongly permitted a religious charity to receive federal grant money despite its policy of hiring only Christians. Organizations such as Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Anti-Defamation League told […]
Is religion a dead beat?
By Daniel Burke — September 17, 2009
The parlous state of religion journalism — a topic of hot discussion at the just-completed Religion Newswriters Association conference in Minnesota — has prompted quite a bit of soul-searching among us ink-stained wretches. (Yes, some of us have souls.) Earlier, the Boston Globe’s Michael Paulson surveyed the landscape. Now, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s fine reporter […]
