Ashbel S. (Tony) Green
Ashbel S. (Tony) Green is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Ashbel S. (Tony) Green
Hispanic pastors’ political sway on the rise
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — September 11, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ As the Rev. Nino Gonzalez sees it, voting is like learning English or earning citizenship _ something that is fundamentally American. So when he moved here from Puerto Rico eight years to lead Orlando’s Iglesia El Calvario and found that Hispanics were sitting out the electoral process, […]
SIDEBAR: Protestants close to losing majority status
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — February 26, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The United States is firmly 78 percent Christian but barely 51 percent Protestant, according to a survey released Monday (Feb. 25). The findings, part of the sweeping U.S. Religious Landscape Survey produced by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, reaffirm a decades-long decline toward minority status for […]
Soul mates: real or imagined?
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — February 8, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service WINTER PARK, Fla. _ Until their lives finally intersected in 1997, Erich and Sandra Blossey lived parallel but very separate lives for almost 50 years. He had been at Stanford University, and so had she. He had been at Harvard University, and so had she. He had lived in Mexico […]
Court suggests son should decide circumcision fight
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — January 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that a divorced couple’s bitter dispute whether to circumcise their 12-year-old son cannot be resolved without first deciding what the boy wants. The Supreme Court on Friday (Jan. 25) sent the case back to a trial judge to determine whether James […]
Killers hooked on crocheting as a `small part’ of atonement
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — January 26, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service SALEM, Ore. _ Pepe Rivas uses his thick fingers to work a plastic crochet hook through some yarn as he sits in a folding chair at the end of a drafty concrete room. Like the two dozen men sitting around him, Rivas, 38, didn’t pick up a crochet hook until […]
Parents take circumcision fight to Oregon high court
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — November 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service SALEM, Ore. _ A father who converted to Judaism told the Oregon Supreme Court on Tuesday (Nov. 6) that he has the right as the custodial parent to circumcise his 12-year-old son against the wishes of his ex-wife. “It’s the classic kind of decision a custodial parent would make,” said […]
Communities are feeling the squeeze of rapid church growth
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — October 19, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) Some neighbors tend to complain about too many Wal-Marts or too many strip joints in their midst. In southeast Orlando, it’s too many churches. About a dozen churches _ Baptist, Nazarene, Pentecostal and independent _ are located within a few miles of each other on city’s outskirts, […]
Churches Seek Protection From Sky-high Insurance Premiums
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — July 6, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ Wesley United Methodist Church is a congregation of a few hundred members in Marco Island, Fla. It is an active congregation with ministries to the homeless, students and the elderly, and every year it sends missionaries to Guatemala. The congregation enjoys a prime location less than two […]
Oregon Supreme Court Considers Parents’ Circumcision Battle
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — June 23, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday (June 21) stepped into a legal dispute between a father’s wish to circumcise his 12-year-old son and a mother’s belief that the procedure is harmful. James H. Boldt, 60, a former Oregon resident who now lives near Olympia, Wash., converted to […]
When It Comes to Church Membership Numbers, the Devil’s in the Details
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — May 16, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The Southern Baptist Convention, with some 16.2 million members on the books, claims to be the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. But the Rev. Thomas Ascol believes the active membership is really a fraction of that. Ascol, pastor of the 230-member Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., points to […]
Divorced Parents Battle Over Son’s Circumcision
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — April 30, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ A Washington state man who converted to Judaism wants his 12-year-old son to do the same. That requires circumcision _ something the mother adamantly opposes. The divorced couple has been battling over the issue for three years, including whether the boy wants to undergo the procedure. So […]
NEWS STORY: Divorced Parents Battle Over Son’s Circumcision: With optional trim to 600 words:
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — April 30, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ A Washington state man who converted to Judaism wants his 12-year-old son to do the same. That requires circumcision _ something the mother adamantly opposes. The divorced couple has been battling over the issue for three years, including whether the boy wants to undergo the procedure. So […]
Secret Files on Abusive Priests in Oregon Will be Released
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — April 20, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., has agreed to release secret files on abusive priests as part of its $75 million plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection. The files, which won’t be made public until May, will paint the most detailed picture to date of what archdiocese officials […]
Cubans Ask: Is It Wrong to Pray for Castro’s Death?
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — March 23, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ Jose Fernandez’s family was one of the lucky ones. When Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, his communist government took only the family’s home, dairy farm and food import business, among other things. Many Cubans, he knows, lost even more. Fernandez arrived in the United […]
Scientologists Move In, and Not Everyone’s Happy
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — October 13, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service CLEARWATER, Fla. _ Scientology is perhaps best-known for its most famous practitioner, Tom Cruise. But here in this beachy suburb of Tampa, Scientologists are neighbors, business owners, real estate investors _ and a growing force that makes some uncomfortable. The Church of Scientology, despite its official status as a tax-exempt […]
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