Monthly Archives: November 2010
First Things shake-up
By Mark Silk — November 12, 2010
I was up at Boston College yesterday for an “author meets critics” session on Damon Linker’s provocative new book, The Religious Test, hosted by the Boisi Center. The other critic was Patrick Deneen of Georgetown, and the pregame chatter was about Jody Bottum’s summary dismissal as editor of First Things, for reasons that allegedly had […]
U.K. churches warn government on forced employment
By Tracy Gordon — November 12, 2010
EDINBURGH, Scotland (RNS/ENInews) British churches have criticized a government plan to remove unemployment benefits from people who refuse to accept jobs offered by labor officers. “There is a serious danger that people living in poverty will be stigmatized by government announcements that they are lazy or work shy,” said the Rev. Alison Tomlin, president of […]
Pope answers Ahmadinejad’s provocative letter
By Tracy Gordon — November 12, 2010
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI replied in a diplomatic and general terms to a provocative letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pledging to find common efforts for “peace and reconciliation” with the Islamic republic. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican official in charge of inter-religious dialogue with Muslims, hand-delivered the pope’s Nov. 3 letter to […]
Cardinal says U.S. morally obliged to protect Iraqis
By Tracy Gordon — November 12, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) The nation’s leading Catholic bishop said the U.S. has failed to help Iraqis develop the means and political will to protect its citizens, particularly Christians, dozens of whom have been wounded and killed in recent weeks. “Having invaded Iraq, our nation has a moral obligation not to abandon those Iraqis who cannot defend […]
American exorcist plies his lonely trade
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
(RNS) Pity the poor exorcist, caught between evil spirits eager to invade human bodies and a society skeptical that demons exist outside of Hollywood horror movies. Even some church leaders look askance at exorcists as peddlers of a practice best left in the Middle Ages. Most American exorcists, particularly the handful of priests appointed by […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Putting the `civil’ back in American civilization
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
(RNS) The recent election campaign should wake us all and stir us to action. Our nation’s political climate has been overrun with bitter and divisive commentary. Reckless incivility has overtaken public discourse in our nation, and it is a travesty. Our children, sadly, have watched and learned from us. Spiteful rhetoric used to stigmatize opponents […]
COMMENTARY: Shalom, mis amigos
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
(RNS) The growing Hispanic population in the United States is sure to impact our politics. In fact, it already has. Hispanic voters matter. Just ask Republicans Meg Whitman in California and Sharron Angle in Nevada, who alienated Latino voters and ended up losing elections they were expected to win. The warning to any future Whitman […]
O’Brien’s new book
By Mark Silk — November 11, 2010
Let me put in a plug for George Dennis O’Brien’s new book, The Church and Abortion: A Catholic Dissent. No doubt that last word will immediately cause many pro-life Catholics to turn away without a second thought. But as my friend Michael Sean Winters likes to emphasize about himself (e.g. here), it’s often from people […]
Thursday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — November 11, 2010
A coalition of religious and veterans groups want an expansion of conscientious objection to include moral objections to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon’s internal review of repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell seems to indicate it could be done with minimal interruption or dissension within the ranks. The first Sikh to become an enlisted […]
Poll: Christians most likely to want N.Y. Islamic center moved
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
(RNS) Christians are more likely to say a proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan should be built farther away from Ground Zero than Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians, according to a new Gallup Poll. Park51, a proposed Islamic cultural and community center that includes space for Muslim prayers, has sparked controversy because of its proposed […]
Study calls for sensitivity in Muslims’ medical care
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
(RNS) U.S. doctors need to take religious values into account while providing health care, especially when the patient is a Muslim woman, according to a new study in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Dr. Aasim Padela, the study’s lead author and a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan, assessed the obstacles Muslims […]
10 minutes with … Ingrid Betancourt
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
(RNS) Ingrid Betancourt has written a book filled with stories of torture, treachery and hardship — and it’s not fiction. Betancourt, 49, was born in Colombia and raised in France. She was captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, while campaigning for president in 2002 and was rescued in 2008. In “Even […]
Massive Pentecostal meeting means massive bucks for city
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
ST. LOUIS (RNS) When is a church convention more than just another church convention? When 40,000 saints from the Church of God in Christ come marching in and relocate the year’s largest convention from one cash-strapped city to another. For the first time in more than a century, the Church of God in Christ — […]
Coalition seeks moral objection to war
By Tracy Gordon — November 11, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) On the eve of Veterans Day, religious leaders and veterans called for a reconsideration of conscientious objection to war, saying military members should have the right to object to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for moral reasons. In a report issued Wednesday (Nov. 10), the Truth Commission on Conscience in War called […]
COMMENTARY: Flights of fancy
By Cathleen Falsani — November 11, 2010
(RNS) The boy smushed, pulled and tugged at Robin Williams’ face, searching with great earnest. Pushing folds of middle-aged flesh back at Williams’ temples, the boy caught a glimpse of what he was looking for in the unrecognizable visage. “Oh, there you are, Peter!” Watching Steven Spielberg’s surprisingly enduring 1991 film “Hook” (with Williams playing […]
