Monthly Archives: November 2011
Photographer captures Muslims’ self-portraits
By Tracy Gordon — November 23, 2011
DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) Artist Todd Drake has aimed his camera lens at truck drivers, Alzheimer's patients and employees of an exotic nightclub. But he's trying to build interfaith bridges by asking Muslims to turn the lens on themselves. Drake's traveling exhibit, “Muslim Self Portraits,” started after he decided he needed to learn more about his […]
Religion News Roundup: JFK RIP, ‘zombie’ terrorist, Mitt’s drink
By David Gibson — November 22, 2011
The protests and casualties in Cairo continue into a fourth day, raising concerns – and hopes – about what sort of Egypt will emerge from the tumult. Three American college students studying in Cairo managed to make the story about them; they were arrested and accused of throwing flaming canisters and Molotov cocktails at Egyptian […]
Religious groups spend nearly $400 million on D.C. advocacy
By Tracy Gordon — November 22, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) The number of religious advocacy groups in the nation’s capital has more than tripled since the 1970s, with conservative groups seeing the biggest growth, according to a new report. Together, faith-based lobbying and advocacy groups spend $390 million a year to influence lawmakers, mobilize supporters and shape public opinion, according to the report, […]
Atheists launch campaign to get unbelievers to `come out’
By Tracy Gordon — November 22, 2011
(RNS) The young man in the video pulls in close to his computer camera with the trappings of a typical college dorm room — a loft bed and the clutter of cast-off clothes — piled behind him. Alex Fiorentini isn’t talking about girls, beer or football. Instead, it’s a coming-out moment of sorts. “Is it […]
COMMENTARY: Any leaders out there? Anyone?
By Tracy Gordon — November 22, 2011
NEW YORK (RNS) The collapse of high-level budget talks in Washington is no surprise. Neither are the odious comments by presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, who dismissed Occupy Wall Streeters as ingrates who should “get a job after they take a bath.” (That was an especially odd comment from someone who has spent his adult life […]
Newt, Culture Warrior
By Mark Silk — November 22, 2011
Newt Gingrich is so given to rhetorical hyperbole that you’re tempted just to quote it, roll your eyes, and move on. A case in point is this remark from Saturday’s Mormon-deprived Thanksgiving Family Forum in Des Moines: The degree to which the left is prepared to impose intolerance and to drive out of existence traditional […]
Looking for Catholic art? Fundamentalist Bob Jones University has it
By Tracy Gordon — November 22, 2011
GREENVILLE, S.C. (RNS) Walking across the tidy campus of Bob Jones University, there’s no obvious sign this bastion of Christian fundamentalism is also home to one of the nation’s largest collections of Renaissance and Baroque religious art from the heart of Catholic Europe. It’s all the more surprising since the school’s old-time Protestant leaders have […]
Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law retires from prominent post
By Tracy Gordon — November 22, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Nine years after the clerical sex abuse scandal forced his resignation as archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard F. Law has stepped down from his controversial post as head of a prominent basilica in Rome. The Vatican announced on Monday (Nov. 21) that Pope Benedict XVI has named Spanish Archbishop Santos Abril y […]
Monday Godbytes
By Jack Jenkins — November 22, 2011
Religion majors rejoice: Nathan Schneider at Religion Dispatches explains why he thinks the world needs religious studies. The Dalai Lama is questioning whether self-immolations should be used as a form of protest, echoing the misgivings of other Tibetan leaders. Relevant Magazine asks: should a candidate’s religion matter? CNN reports that Muslims in Britain are “optimistic […]
Bob Jones University questions ‘fundamentalist’ label
By Tracy Gordon — November 21, 2011
GREENVILLE, S.C. (RNS) When Bob Jones III recently questioned whether President Obama is a Christian, it was a reminder not only that the fundamentalist leader is controversial but also how little the political world has heard from the man and the rock-ribbed Christian school that bears his name. The relative silence emanating from Bob Jones […]
Pope Benedict XVI calls for ‘reconciliation’ in Africa
By Tracy Gordon — November 21, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI ended his second papal trip to Africa on Sunday (Nov. 20) with a call for “reconciliation, justice and peace” in a troubled continent that he nonetheless called a “land of hope.” The pope’s three-day visit to the West African country of Benin culminated in an open-air Mass in the […]
Monday’s Religion News Roundup: Bernard Law, altar girls, Marijuana ministry
By Daniel Burke — November 21, 2011
Where have you gone, Billy Sunday? Asked to name the nation’s most influential Christian leader, 40 percent of Americans said they couldn’t think of anyone who meets that description, according to a new Barna poll. Twenty percent said Billy Graham, nine percent said Pope Benedict XVI and 8 percent said President Obama. Also in statistical […]
Three cities chosen as inaugural sites in new hyperlocal religion coverage project
By Tiffany McCallen — November 21, 2011
You can’t see them yet, but they’re there. Right now, the visions for three hyperlocal religion news websites are being carefully crafted, refined and readied for an early 2012 launch. And that’s just the beginning.
What’s Donohue up to in KC?
By Mark Silk — November 20, 2011
Over the past several of weeks, the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue has pulled out all the stops on behalf of Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn, who was indicted in Jackson County last month for failing to report suspicion of child abuse by one of his priests. Donohue has attacked the prosecutor who brought the case, […]
Threats to marriage, real or otherwise
By Kevin Eckstrom — November 19, 2011
This week the Family Research Council released its second annual report on “belonging and rejection” in U.S. families. That’s a fancy way of basically trying to measure the impact of kids not being raised by their biological parents. The report looks at several categories of sociological data to score each state, including high school graduation […]
