Monthly Archives: May 2011
Even after win, gay clergy likely to remain limited
By Tracy Gordon — May 11, 2011
(RNS) Gay and lesbian advocates celebrated a landmark victory on Tuesday (May 10) when the Presbyterian Church (USA) entered the expanding ranks of Christian denominations that allow openly gay, partnered clergy. The winds of change, they said, are at their backs. “Presbyterians join a growing Protestant movement of Lutherans, Episcopalians and United Church of Christ […]
Two-thirds of Americans say bin Laden’s in hell
By Tracy Gordon — May 11, 2011
(RNS) While Americans have debated whether Osama bin Laden’s body belongs at the bottom of the Arabian Sea, most agree on the final destination of his soul: in hell. A new poll released Wednesday (May 11) reports that most Americans (82 percent) believe bin Laden distorted the teachings of Islam to suit his own purposes, […]
Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — May 11, 2011
After all the fights, all the ink that’s been spilled, all the churches that have been torn in two, the fight over homosexuality in the Presbyterian Church (USA) is more or less over after the church ratified a move to rescind a de facto ban on gay clergy. Our own Dan Burke will have more […]
Same-sex marriages in Navy chapels
By Mark Silk — May 11, 2011
Let’s suppose that a gay submariner based in New London falls in love with, oh, a local cop, and the two decide to get married. They go down to the city Marriage License Office on State Street and for $35 obtain a State of Connecticut marriage license. Meanwhile, they have asked one of the Protestant […]
Muslims battle to be official voice of U.S. Islam
By Tracy Gordon — May 11, 2011
(RNS) As president of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy, an eight-year-old group that twins conservative and Islamic values, Zuhdi Jasser is no fan of the more visible Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR and too many other U.S. Muslim groups, Jasser says, are soft on extremism and advocate a form of “political Islam.” The […]
Chaplains say Navy wedding policy confuses a fraught debate
By Tracy Gordon — May 11, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) A recent Navy memo that would permit military chaplains to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies upon repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy is creating tension amid an already fractious debate. “It is absolutely deplorable,” said the Rev. Billy Baugham, executive director of the International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers. “It is […]
Update: Jewish paper apologizes for cropping out Clinton
By Tracy Gordon — May 11, 2011
JERUSALEM (RNS) An ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspaper in Brooklyn has apologized to the White House and State Department after the paper deleted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from a White House photograph of top officials monitoring the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Yiddish-language Di Tzeitung removed Clinton and Audrey Tomason, a top counterterrorism […]
Update: Court says fired organist can’t get old job back
By Tracy Gordon — May 10, 2011
BERLIN (RNS) A church organist cannot reclaim the job he lost in a controversy over adultery and bigamy, even though he won in the European Court of Human Rights, because the case is too old, a German court has ruled. Bernhard Schuth worked as the organist and choirmaster for the Catholic parish of St. Lambert […]
Church of England says attendance is growing at cathedrals
By Tracy Gordon — May 10, 2011
ANTERBURY, ENGLAND (RNS/ENInews) In a challenge to conventional wisdom that church attendance is plummeting across Britain and Western Europe, the Church of England says attendance at its 43 cathedrals grew 7 percent last year. A report by the Rev. Lynda Barley, head of research and statistics at the Archbishops’ Council, said “attendance at services outside […]
Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — May 10, 2011
Deadly Muslim-Christian riots that left 12 dead have intensified anxiety in Egypt over Islamists who have grown more assertive since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, the AP reports. A Hasidic newspaper in Brooklyn apologized for airbrushing Secretary of State Clinton from a White House photo that depicted the Situation Room during last week’s raid […]
COMMENTARY: The yawning divide between pencils and iPads
By Tracy Gordon — May 10, 2011
(RNS) In preparing a commencement address this week, I decided to write it on my new Apple iPad, sitting on a sofa beside a window, using an app called Quickoffice. Big deal, you say. But, think about it. A month ago, I didn’t own an iPad. I had never heard of Quickoffice. I had never […]
Truth and Consequences
By Mark Silk — May 10, 2011
With Ed Koch and the Daily News joining in the chorus of opprobrium, the executive committee of the City University of New York Board of Trustees had no choice but to move with undignified speed to reverse its ill-considered decision to refuse to let the John Jay College of Criminal Justice award an honorary degree […]
After seminary, `Lost Boy’ headed back to Sudan
By Tracy Gordon — May 10, 2011
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) It has been more than two decades since Deng Alier fled war in his homeland. Now, armed with a master’s degree in educational ministry, the former “Lost Boy” is ready to find his way back to Sudan. Alier, Deborah Makuei and Rebecca Deng were among 63 students graduating last week (May […]
Jesuit to become chaplain of the House
By Tracy Gordon — May 10, 2011
(RNS) A Jesuit will be sworn in as the 60th chaplain of the House of Representatives on May 25, when he will become the first member of his order and second consecutive Catholic priest to serve the House. As chaplain, the Rev. Patrick Conroy will be in charge of opening House sessions with prayer, coordinating […]
Jewish newspaper erases Clinton from photo
By Tracy Gordon — May 10, 2011
(RNS) An ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspaper in Brooklyn deleted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from aWhite House photograph of top officials monitoring the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Yiddish-language Der Zeitung removed Clinton and Audrey Tomason, a top counter-terrorism adviser, from the photo, which is quickly becoming an iconic image. The photo shows […]
