Monthly Archives: June 2010
Thursday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — June 17, 2010
The leading U.S. Catholic bishop said nuns are “to blame” for the passage of the health care bill in March. Bishops in New York are disappointed that the state is poised to allow no-fault divorces (the other 49 already do). Pope Benedict XVI met with the head of the Legionaries of Christ, the conservative order […]
Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitic?
By Tracy Gordon — June 17, 2010
JERUSALEM (RNS) Veteran newswoman Helen Thomas’s suggestion that Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Poland, Germany and the U.S., was widely seen as anti-Israel. But was it anti-Jewish? As Israel faces unprecedented censure from the world community — including economic, academic and cultural boycotts — the Thomas incident raised […]
COMMENTARY: The trouble with words
By Tracy Gordon — June 17, 2010
(RNS) Exactly when did President Obama’s words stop meaning anything? He rose to the presidency on the power of words, and now words seem to be his undoing. After Tuesday’s (June 15) Oval Office speech about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, MSNBC commentators who once fawned over this president’s verbiage now […]
Right way, wrong way, USCCB way
By Mark Silk — June 17, 2010
So now we know: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops cares more about its authority than being right. That’s the clear import of a fine piece of reporting by NCR’s John Allen on the split between the USCCB and the Catholic Hospital Association (CHA) over the health care bill (which, you’ll recall, the former […]
COMMENTARY: Walking with Jesus in Malawi
By Cathleen Falsani — June 16, 2010
SALIMA, Malawi (RNS) For the better part of a month now on my most recent African sojourn, I haven’t been doing much walking. Yet I’ve been thinking a lot about walking as I’ve passed hour after hour trundling around this little bean of a nation from bureaucratic office to bureaucratic office, collecting official adoption papers, […]
Sikhs, Muslims lobby against racial profiling
By Tracy Gordon — June 16, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) Sikh and Muslim groups are pushing Congress to pass a bill prohibiting racial profiling that’s been languishing for more than nine years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Two groups, Muslim Advocates and the Sikh Coalition, are seeking passage of the End Racial Profiling Act, which was first introduced in 2001 and is currently […]
On-again, off-again bill to allow guns in churches back on
By Tracy Gordon — June 16, 2010
BATON ROUGE, La. (RNS) The Louisiana state Senate revived legislation Tuesday (June 15) that would allow congregants to carry concealed weapons on church property as part of a security force. The move is the latest procedural step in an on-again, off-again fight over whether to allow mosques, synagogues and churches to authorize worshippers to carry […]
South African church leader defends noisy horns at World Cup
By Tracy Gordon — June 16, 2010
(RNS/ENInews) The captain of France’s national soccer team is said to have blamed noise from the “vuvuzela” for keeping his team awake at night and contributing to a poor match against Uruguay in the World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. But Tinyiko Maluleke, president of the South African Council of Churches, told Ecumenical News […]
Southern Baptists critique Big Oil, oppose gay policies
By Tracy Gordon — June 16, 2010
(RNS) Southern Baptists issued a veiled but sharp critique of the nation’s oil companies on Wednesday (June 16), saying “all industries are … accountable to higher standards than to profit alone.” Members of the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Orlando, Fla., said the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was a timely […]
Political novice named to oversee international religious freedom
By Tracy Gordon — June 16, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama late Tuesday (June 15) named the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, a well-connected but politically inexperienced pastor from New York, as his nominee to be ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. “Johnson Cook is an experienced religious leader with a passion for human rights and an impressive record of public service,” Secretary of […]
Wednesday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — June 16, 2010
Retiring Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony defended his decision in 1986 not to report a predatory priest to police, saying such decisions were handled “pastorally” at the time, in a deposition that was unsealed yesterday (Mahony had fought to keep the document from public view). The White House finally filled the vacant Ambassador-at-Large position for […]
Abortion strains religious-government aid coalition
By Tracy Gordon — June 16, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) It took Dr. Hanna Klaus four years and $1.6 million in federal funding, but she and her team have preached abstinence to more than 23,000 African teenagers. It’s the only way to curb the AIDS epidemic that’s sweeping that continent, said Klaus, executive director of Teen Star, based just outside Washington in Bethesda, […]
10 minutes with … David Edwin Harrell
By Adelle M. Banks — June 16, 2010
(RNS) Three years ago, Auburn University scholar emeritus David Edwin Harrell asked religious broadcaster Pat Robertson if he’d open his files to him for a future book. Robertson surprised Harrell by telling him to have at it. Harrell’s new biography, “Pat Robertson: A Life and Legacy,” covers the successes and failures of one of the […]
This is the Religion Ambassador?
By Mark Silk — June 16, 2010
For some months now, folks concerned about the federal government’s engagement with freedom of religion abroad have been agitating for the White House to get around to naming the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Yesterday, it finally did so, and I’m afraid they are not going to be happy. The nominee is Suzan Johnson Cook, […]
Southern Baptists meet, trying to combat stagnation
By Tracy Gordon — June 16, 2010
(RNS) Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt urged members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to move beyond their comfort zones as they seek new ways to evangelize and combat declining baptism rates. “I’m tired of having my membership in a convention that’s declining,” he said in a presidential address on the opening day of […]
