Monthly Archives: November 2009
Russians warn of damaged church ties over woman’s election
By Tracy Gordon — November 17, 2009
MOSCOW (RNS/ENI) The election of a woman as head of Germany’s Protestant churches threatens ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, a high-ranking official of the Russian church has warned. Archbishop Hilarion, who oversees external relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, said ties with the Evangelical Church of Germany are threatened by the recent election of […]
Newcomers top annual list of influential Jews
By Tracy Gordon — November 17, 2009
(RNS) Reflecting a transitional period for American Jewish leadership, five newcomers top this year’s list of influential Jews published by The Forward, the country’s largest national Jewish weekly newspaper. The Jews crowning this year’s “Forward 50” boast a range of achievements: Jerry Silverman, president of the Jewish Federations of North America; Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren; […]
Alamo sentenced to 175 years in prison
By Tracy Gordon — November 17, 2009
(RNS) Disgraced evangelist Tony Alamo has been sentenced to 175 years in prison for child sexual abuse, with a judge warning him about facing future judgment from a higher authority. “Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher and a greater judge than me,” U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes told Alamo on Friday […]
Catholic bishops mull ways to fight abortion, gay marriage
By Tracy Gordon — November 17, 2009
BALTIMORE (RNS) At a time of fractious debate within the Catholic Church in the U.S., the nation’s top bishop on Monday (Nov. 16) said Catholic universities, media outlets or organizations that insist on independence from the church hierarchy are “less than fully Catholic.” In his address that opened the semi-annual meeting of the U.S. Conference […]
Ministry helps wounded pastors stay in the pulpit
By Tracy Gordon — November 16, 2009
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The murder of 35-year-old Mashonda Griffin in her home last year was a blow to her fellow church members — especially when they learned one of the people charged in her death was a former parishioner whom Griffin had helped in the past. Griffin’s death — an apparent botched robbery that […]
Monday morning round-up
By Kevin Eckstrom — November 16, 2009
The Yemeni cleric with ties to alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hassan says he counseled the Army psychiatrist but never urged him to seek violence against fellow soldiers. In Mexico, researchers are probing the origins of religion as an evolution of human development. WaPo profiles a Muslim girl’s first year at school wearing a […]
No faith-based hiring with public funds
By Mark Silk — November 16, 2009
Pew has a new study out on faith-based social service provision, and the striking news is that, although Americans continue to support (by wide margins) allowing faith-based groups to apply for government funding, they remain very separationist in how they want those groups to behave. Thus, by a 68-27 margin they believe “religious charities” should […]
Stupak lite
By Mark Silk — November 16, 2009
Sean Michael Winters, fighting the good fight at the USCCB. Good luck with that, SMW. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Hasan and the FBI
By Mark Silk — November 16, 2009
If the extraordinary interview-by-proxy of radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi in today’s WaPo is to be believed, accused Ford Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hasan made contact with him last December, and emails between the two followed from there–including “two or three” responses from al-Aulaqi. The Yemeni journalist who conducted the interview–a man with close ties […]
How about “Going Religious”?
By Mark Silk — November 14, 2009
A week ago, over at the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg chastised his fellow Atlantians for the sin of political correctness in not identifying alleged Fort Hood murderer Major Nidal Hasan as the Muslim jihadi Goldberg takes him to be. A double standard, he claimed, is at work here: “elite makers of opinion in this country try […]
Catholic bishops donate $180,000 to defeat gay marriage in Maine
By Tracy Gordon — November 14, 2009
(RNS) Catholic bishops and dioceses nationwide donated more than $180,000 to defeat gay marriage in Maine last week, according to campaign finance records. Two dioceses — Phoenix and Philadelphia — contributed $50,000 each to the voters’ initiative, which overturned a Maine law that would have legalized gay marriage. The dioceses of St. Louis, Newark, N.J., […]
Vatican searches Google for Internet lessons
By Tracy Gordon — November 14, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Surprised when an ultra-traditionalist bishop whom he had welcomed back into the Catholic Church turned out to have been a fervent and public Holocaust-denier, Pope Benedict XVI declared in March that he had “learned the lesson” that the Vatican would have to “pay greater attention” to the Internet. Eight months later, the […]
Haggard calls new prayer meeting his “resurrection”
By Tracy Gordon — November 14, 2009
(RNS) Former evangelical leader Ted Haggard, who left the ministry after being caught in a sex and drug scandal, said Thursday (Nov. 12) that the start of a prayer meeting in his Colorado home is a sign of his “resurrection” but not necessarily of a new church. “For the people who come tonight, that means […]
Friday’s religion round-up
By Daniel Burke — November 13, 2009
Federal prosecutors sought to confiscate four U.S. mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a Muslim group in what is believed to be one of the largest counter-terrorism sieges in U.S. history. Self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad will be tried in a federal court in New York, not a military commission, a […]
Lady Madonna, cyclists at her feet
By Tracy Gordon — November 13, 2009
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) Reflections of blinking white bike lights danced up and down the organ pipes inside St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish here on a recent Monday night. On the north wall, Lady Madonna had 35 bicyclists at her feet. Pushing their bikes inside the church, the riders had escaped the autumn chill of downtown Portland. […]
