Monthly Archives: December 2010
Thursday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — December 9, 2010
A 21-year-old recent convert to Islam tried to blow up a military recruiting station in a Baltimore suburb on Wednesday, but was caught by the FBI in a sting operation remarkably similar to one that snared a 19-year-old Muslim in Oregon last month. Two things about this case that make it particularly interesting to counter-terrorism […]
COMMENTARY: The year that was
By Tracy Gordon — December 9, 2010
(RNS)Here are my picks for the top 10 religion stories in 2010: 1. The major controversies that swirled around Islam were the big story of the year. The myriad flashpoints included: — The proposed construction of the Park51 Islamic community center a few blocks away from Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks […]
God’s own exceptionalism
By Mark Silk — December 9, 2010
I’m basically down with Dan Schultz’s suggestion that God takes sides, and that the side God takes is the side of the poor. Of course, being me, I’d probably get all professorial and say that the Judeo-Christian tradition, or maybe the Abrahamic one, suggests a preferential option for the poor (as the Catholics say) on […]
Report: Fewer `Middle Americans’ married, attending worship
By Tracy Gordon — December 9, 2010
(RNS) Marriage among Americans who have graduated high school but not college is on the decline, and their religious attendance has dropped at the same time, a new report shows. “Middle Americans” ages 25 to 60 who were in their first marriages dropped from 73 percent in the 1970s to 45 percent in the 2000s, […]
Catholics fight bid to lift statute of limitations on abuse
By Tracy Gordon — December 9, 2010
TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday (Dec. 9) will consider a bill that would eliminate any statute of limitations on when sex abuse victims can sue — and allow them to take action against clergy, educators and others who knew about abuse and did nothing to stop it. Under current state law, victims […]
Ground Zero church starts legal action in bid to rebuild
By Tracy Gordon — December 9, 2010
(RNS) Nearly two years after negotiations abruptly ended over where a Greek Orthodox church destroyed on 9/11 may rebuild, legal action has begun against several agencies and officials involved in the Ground Zero land dispute. Until talks broke off in early 2008, leaders from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and Ground Zero developers had reached […]
10 minutes with … Laurel Snyder
By Tracy Gordon — December 9, 2010
ST. LOUIS (RNS) When Laurel Snyder was a kid in Baltimore, she bounced between her dad’s progressive synagogue and her mom’s progressive Catholic church. While her parents had made a decision to raise Laurel and her two younger siblings as Jews, their oldest child learned to love the rituals, mysteries and communities in both her […]
Biographer sees continuity between John Paul II, Benedict XVI
By Tracy Gordon — December 9, 2010
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Five years into the papacy of Benedict XVI, papal biographer George Weigel is struck by the continuity of mission between Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, both of whom have pursued activist papacies engaging an often-skeptical general culture. Both popes are products of early 20th century European Catholic culture, John Paul […]
Books probe Christmas’ religious origins
By Tracy Gordon — December 8, 2010
(RNS) Somewhere in all of the sparkly lights and wrapped packages and jolly elves of Christmas, there is — or was — a religious story at the heart of the holiday, and three new books argue it shouldn’t be forgotten. In “Christmas: A Festival of Incarnation,” Lutheran theologian Donald Heinz emphasizes the importance of the […]
COMMENTARY: Knitting together a prayer life, one stitch at a time
By Cathleen Falsani — December 8, 2010
(RNS) When my husband and I were married at a white clapboard Connecticut church back in 1997, we wanted to give the minister a special gift for her spiritual guidance and love. We decided on a hand-woven clerical stole made by a woman in Florida who prayed for the recipient as she wove threads into […]
Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — December 8, 2010
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is making an appearance in hand-crafted nativity sets in Naples (left); no word yet on whether the manger has WiFi for his laptop. In the newest front on the War Over Christmas, First Baptist Dallas launched a naughty-or-nice list of local retailers and governments. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe is boycotting a […]
When Bishops do social media…
By Mark Silk — December 8, 2010
…not much happens, so far as I can see.
Most Protestant pastors think Bush, Palin are Christians but not Obama
By Tracy Gordon — December 8, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) The vast majority of Protestant pastors think former President George W. Bush is a Christian, but less than half think President Obama is, a new LifeWay Research survey shows. Three-quarters of Protestant pastors surveyed called Bush a Christian, followed by 66 percent who included former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in the […]
Pope gets gloves from WCC leader to warm relations
By Tracy Gordon — December 8, 2010
ROME (RNS/ENInews) The head of the World Council of Churches met Pope Benedict XVI for the first time on Saturday (Dec. 4), saying he wants to strengthen cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church, especially in the Middle East. No official statement was released after the audience at the Vatican, but WCC General Secretary Olav Fykse […]
Bishop makes few friends and many enemies in diocesan down-sizing
By Tracy Gordon — December 8, 2010
CLEVELAND (RNS) Even before he was officially installed as the Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland in 2006, Richard G. Lennon was already talking about the need to close churches. “As painful as a funeral is, it’s there that you commend your loved one to God,” Lennon told reporters just weeks before his installation. Those words, […]
