Monthly Archives: January 2010
Job in Port-au-Prince
By Mark Silk — January 15, 2010
For those Christians disinclined to buy into the pact-with-the-Devil explanation, In All Things has a moving post about how to come to terms with Haiti by Msgr. Lorenzo Abacete. His Pauline tack–the “co-suffering” God–isn’t so helpful for non-Christians, but then he recognizes that. In God: A Biography, Jack Miles points out that after the Book […]
Civil Religion in America
By Mark Silk — January 15, 2010
Over the past century, give or take, American society has evolved a few rules for talking about religion in public, the foremost of which are: 1. Don’t say your religion is better than someone else’s.2. Don’t attribute others’ suffering to punishment by God. But since their re-emergence in the cultural mainstream 30 years ago, evangelical […]
An anxious wait for word from Haiti
By Tracy Gordon — January 15, 2010
NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) “I’m ok. Can’t call. I’m OK. Start the list.” There was a crack in the Rev. Jeffrey Vamos’ voice when that text message made it out of Haiti and arrived in his parish hall Wednesday (Jan. 13) afternoon. “I’m a little choked up,” Vamos, of the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, N.J., said […]
Pope calls on Turkey to give church legal recognition
By Tracy Gordon — January 15, 2010
Rome (RNS/ENI) Pope Benedict XVI has called on Turkey to give legal recognition to the Roman Catholic Church in the Muslim-majority but politically secular nation, which has been criticized for its treatment of religious minorities as it seeks to join the European Union. Receiving Kenan Gursoy, the new Turkish ambassador to the Vatican last week […]
Sydney bishop gives clergy a dressing down
By Tracy Gordon — January 15, 2010
Melbourne, Australia (RNS/ENI) An Anglican bishop in Australia’s largest city has dressed down his clergy over their lack of sartorial style, saying they “dress worse than the lay people.” “Why are our clergy the worst dressed people in church?” wrote Bishop Robert Forsyth of South Sydney on a Web site for the city’s Anglicans. Forsyth, […]
NYC mom’s religion cited in starvation of children
By Tracy Gordon — January 15, 2010
(RNS) New Jersey prosecutors say a New York City woman charged with starving four of her children in 2006 is using her religious beliefs as an excuse for failing to get help for her family. Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Frances Koch made that assertion during his cross-examination of a neuropsychologist who had earlier testified that […]
Is there any common ground on abortion?
By Tracy Gordon — January 15, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) As the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision nears, anti-abortion activists prepare for the annual March for Life and their counterparts plan religious services to pray for the safety of abortion providers. But, 37 years after the contentious Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, is there any hope for common ground? Experts say […]
Thursday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — January 14, 2010
As Haitians continue to dig out from the destruction of Tuesday’s earthquake, which could claim tens of thousands of lives, U.S. religious groups are checking on their missionaries and ministries in Haiti, marshaling funds and material to send there, and praying that the death toll will somehow be mercifully low. As you all probably know […]
`The Hindus’ is controversial, courageous
By Tracy Gordon — January 14, 2010
(RNS) In English, a widow burned alive on the funeral pyre of her dead husband is called a “suttee.” In Sanskrit, she is a “sati” or “good woman.” All over India are sati stones that commemorate these deaths, the earliest dated definitively to the year 510. “These women were not a homogenous group of mindless […]
COMMENTARY: A reading life
By Tracy Gordon — January 14, 2010
(RNS) The fact that you’re reading this column likely means you are a reader. I don’t mean a reader, as in you are capable of reading; I mean someone who loves to read and reads a lot every day. My father was a clergyman who started his career in Bly, a rough logging town in […]
Palin’s Covenant of Destiny
By Mark Silk — January 14, 2010
Towards the end of Game Change, McCain operations manager Steve Schmidt appeals to Joe Lieberman to help a faltering Sarah Palin prepare for her debate with Joe Biden. “You’re both very religious,” Schmidt said. “Go in there and pray with her.” As it happened, Palin had already been prayed for that day. A group […]
Blame the devil
By Daniel Burke — January 14, 2010
Even as he solicits funds to help Haitians, Pat Robertson says the country has been cursed by God because it made a pact with the devil. I love that “True story”. Here’s the text for you scoring at home: “And you know Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not […]
Pope meets with woman who attacked him on Christmas Eve
By Tracy Gordon — January 14, 2010
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met the woman who toppled him inside St. Peter’s Basilica, accepting her apology and offering his forgiveness for the Christmas Eve incident. Susanna Maiolo, 25, and members of her family met briefly with the pope following his weekly public audience at the Vatican on Wednesday (Jan. 13). According to […]
Pastor surrenders in fraudulent green-card scheme
By Tracy Gordon — January 14, 2010
(RNS) He told them he was a messenger from God who could save them from deportation, but he turned out to be nothing more than a smooth-talking scam artist, his alleged victims said. Enoc Tito Sotelo, 50, a former pastor who authorities said ran a church for the Salvation Army in Plainfield, N.J., surrendered to […]
U.S. groups mobilize to assist after Haiti earthquake
By Tracy Gordon — January 14, 2010
(RNS) U.S. religious groups are mobilizing relief efforts for Haitians devastated by Tuesday’s (Jan. 12) massive earthquake, even as they assess the damage to their local partners and congregations. With many power and phone lines destroyed, U.S.-based aid workers said it is difficult to determine the scope of destruction left by the earthquake and aftershocks […]
