Monthly Archives: January 2012
Va. judge rules against breakaway Episcopal parishes
By Tracy Gordon — January 12, 2012
(RNS) Seven congregations that broke with the Episcopal Church in 2006 over its liberal policies on homosexuality are not entitled to keep parish property estimated to be worth millions, a Virginia judge ruled on Tuesday (Jan. 10). The ruling by Fairfax County Judge Randy Bellows reverses a decision he made in 2008, and hands a […]
Is Rick Santorum Catholic or evangelical? Yes.
By Tracy Gordon — January 12, 2012
(RNS) Just days after Rick Santorum surged to a virtual tie for first in the Iowa caucuses, conservative activists at an invitation-only summit along the South Carolina coast were buzzing about the former Pennsylvania senator’s sudden and promising breakthrough. Deal Hudson, who directed Catholic outreach for George W. Bush’s White House before starting the conservative […]
Wednesday Godbytes: Who is the coolest? Mormon actors, Christian pop stars, or Amish hipsters?
By Jack Jenkins — January 12, 2012
When you hear the word “hipster,” you probably think of many things. V-neck shirts. Awkward mustaches. Flannel. Odd musical tastes. Urban Outfitters. Misuse of the word “ironic.” But now we all apparently have to add another word to that list: Amish. Hear me out: The idea isn’t actually all that far fetched. The internet already […]
Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup: Romney wins, Shariah ban loses, a rooftop “sexperimen
By Daniel Burke — January 11, 2012
Is it all over now but the counting? As you probably already know, Mitt Romney crushed it in New Hampshire yesterday, becoming the first non-incumbent to win Iowa and the Granite State since our modern primary process began in 1976. Ron Paul finished second with about 23 percent of the vote. The NYT says South […]
Traveling repairmen help rebuild churches
By Tracy Gordon — January 11, 2012
MEMPHIS, N.Y. (RNS) Brent Howard left his job as a home remodeler in Ohio in 2007, moved his young family into a trailer and began traveling to wherever he was needed. Over the past 4 1/2 years, he has helped build or repair Baptist churches in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Iowa. While he works, […]
Oklahoma Anti-Sharia Law Slam-dunked
By Mark Silk — January 11, 2012
To paraphrase The Producers, yesterday a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals told the state of Oklahoma, “We find your anti-Sharia law incredibly unconstitutional.” The court was tasked with having to uphold a federal district judge’s injunction preventing the state from even certifying the results of the 2010 referendum in which over […]
Appeals court rules Oklahoma Shariah ban unconstitutional
By Tiffany McCallen — January 11, 2012
(RNS) Oklahoma’s referendum against state judges considering Islamic law is unconstitutional, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday (Jan. 10), upholding a lower court ruling that had blocked the measure. The ruling could affect more than 20 other states where laws against Shariah are under consideration. In a 37-page ruling, the 10th […]
New White House staffers have Catholic, Jewish ties
By Tiffany McCallen — January 11, 2012
(RNS) President Obama on Tuesday (Jan. 10) named an immigration expert with longstanding ties to the Catholic Church as his top domestic policy official, continuing a campaign-year makeover of White House staff. The hiring of Cecilia Munoz, along with the appointment on Monday of Jacob Lew, an Orthodox Jew, as White House chief of staff, […]
Tuesday Godbytes: Jewish New Testament; Atheist euthanasia; Ashton Kutcher
By Jack Jenkins — January 10, 2012
Godbytes is doing a little bit of really-early spring cleaning today, which means we’re doing a mini-roundup of stuff you might have missed from this past week (and year). In the Stuff You Might Have Missed Late Last Year category, here’s a Jewish perspective on the New Testament and an “answer” to the question of […]
COMMENTARY: Power vs. freedom in the palm of your hand
By Tiffany McCallen — January 10, 2012
(RNS) The future broke in like a sunburst last week, when a sign appeared in the window of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, one of the nation’s premier research and lending libraries. The sign offered help in setting up e-readers to access the library’s collection. Regular folks could bring in their iPads […]
New saint’s work started small, left big legacy
By Tiffany McCallen — January 10, 2012
(RNS) Barbara Koob moved from Utica, N.Y., to nearby Syracuse in the summer of 1862, when she was 24, to enter the convent of the Sisters of St. Francis. Twenty-one years later, the woman the world now knows as Saint Marianne Cope left Syracuse to work as a missionary among the lepers in Hawaii. Even […]
NH Primary by religion
By Mark Silk — January 10, 2012
Romney wins everyone but the Nones. Analysis here.
TuesdayâÂ?Â?s Religion News Roundup: Primary faith, Ex nihilo, Santorum a ‘New Yorker’?
By David Gibson — January 10, 2012
In case you hadn’t heard, the New Hampshire primary is today. Actual people casting real votes. What a concept. But the Granite State is not the Bible Belt, and religion won’t play a factor the way it will in South Carolina in 11 days. So let’s move on: Evangelical leader Gary Bauer argues that voters […]
Celibacy and the Christian tradition
By Mark Silk — January 10, 2012
Pegging to the new ordinariate for Tiber-leaping Episcopalians and their married priests, NYT’s Mark Oppenheimer interviewed Fr. D. Paul Sullins of Catholic U. by way of making a gentle case for doing away with clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church. While I have no intention of rushing in to tell others how to regulate their […]
Rob Bell says goodbye to Michigan megachurch
By Tiffany McCallen — January 10, 2012
GRANDVILLE, Mich. (RNS) For years, Rob Bell closed his Sunday teachings at Mars Hill Bible Church with a simple statement: “Grace and peace be with you.” Thousands would respond in unison: “And also with you.” On Sunday (Jan. 8), on Bell’s last day at the megachurch he founded 12 years ago, only one voice sounded […]
