Jeff Diamant
Jeff Diamant is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Jeff Diamant
Hindus find new faiths in marriage
By Jeff Diamant — November 26, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. _ The perfect man for Aparna Kachalia, who was born to Hindu parents from Bombay, will be one who loves the 20-year-old sophomore at Dartmouth College and treats her well. If he happens to be Hindu, great. If not, no problem. “A lot of people in my generation […]
In tight times, clergy counsel patience
By Jeff Diamant — November 18, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Rabbi Benjamin Adler hasn’t felt particularly helpful lately. Older couples have been talking to him about their vanishing retirement accounts because of the recent havoc in the stock market, and the spiritual leader of White Meadow Temple in Rockaway Township, N.J., hasn’t known what to say. Sometimes, all a […]
For Jeremiah Wright, no hard feelings toward Obama
By Jeff Diamant — September 9, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service EAST ORANGE, N.J. _ Given their public falling out last spring, it was far from certain the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright would speak favorably of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama when he preached here on Sunday (Sept. 7). But in his afternoon sermon on Jesus’ turning water into wine _ […]
September Ramadan means long days of fasting
By Jeff Diamant — August 30, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. _ Fasting from sunrise to sunset for 30 days, as Muslims begin doing early next week to mark the Islamic month of Ramadan, is never easy. But some years are harder than others. That’s because Islam’s lunar calendar guarantees that, over a 33-year cycle, Ramadan will occur in […]
Democrats woo faith voters with small steps on abortion
By Jeff Diamant — August 19, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the history of abortion politics, it was a key event: the 1992 move by Democrats to deny Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey Sr., an opponent of abortion rights, a speaking spot at the party’s national convention that year. Bill Clinton, of course, won that presidential election, but the move […]
Pope carves out distinctive approach to interfaith dialogue
By Jeff Diamant — April 17, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) They gathered in the Italian hillside town of Assisi. In October 1986, at the place where St. Francis famously preached repentance in the 1200s, top representatives from 15 religions stood together and prayed, one at a time, for peace. The event was convened by Pope John Paul II, who […]
Lamott’s life an open book
By Jeff Diamant — March 28, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ The carpet guy, as Anne Lamott calls him in an essay, cheated her out of $50 for a moldy church rug she returned to his store. He did this with a smugness that infuriated her, and she cursed and threatened him. Finally, days later, the carpet guy […]
Pope carves out a quieter, more deliberate style
By Jeff Diamant — March 12, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Baseball is often rhapsodized as a religion in America. It makes sense then that Yankee Stadium is a stomping ground for popes. The only two who have set foot on U.S. soil have celebrated Mass in the Bronx, in the most famous sports arena this side of the Colosseum. […]
Documentary tracks 350 years of Jews in America
By Jeff Diamant — January 10, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Think American Jewish angst over intermarriage is a modern creation? Consider Abigail Franks, a high-society Jewish mother in Colonial New York. The year was 1733, and Franks’ daughter had just married a Christian from another prominent family. Franks was so distraught and angry over this that she plotted to […]
Professor taps Muslim opinion at home and abroad
By Jeff Diamant — January 3, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service PRINCETON, N.J. _ On the streets of the Arab world, Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University politics professor, asks the kinds of questions that can get her put under surveillance, kicked out of the country, thrown in jail or worse. At 37, she is among a new crop of street-reporting academics […]
In Newark, a black Baptist mayor mulls Maimonides
By Jeff Diamant — December 28, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. _ Of all the political dirt slung in this city’s recent mayoral races, perhaps none was more curious than the claim in 2002 that challenger Cory Booker was Jewish. The claim was viewed in political circles as an attempt both to emphasize Booker’s newcomer status (he moved to […]
Rabbi gives Cupid a nudge with JDate
By Jeff Diamant — November 3, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service MARLBORO, N.J. _ Rabbi Donald Weber is far from the first rabbi to call for single Jews in his congregation to marry other Jews. Such pulpit calls have become commonplace in an age of high Jewish intermarriage rates and fears the Jewish population will fall sharply in coming generations. But […]
Catholics look for signs in sky above N.J. shrine
By Jeff Diamant — October 13, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. _ About 3,500 people are expected to descend Saturday (Oct. 13) on an isolated Catholic shrine to celebrate the 90th anniversary of what they regard as a miracle: sightings of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, by three shepherd children in 1917. There’s some added buzz as […]
Internet Fuels Growth of DIY Sukkahs
By Jeff Diamant — September 29, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Decades ago, preparation for the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot typically involved struggling several hours with plywood or metal to build a sukkah _ the temporary huts Jews are supposed to erect for the eight-day holiday that began Wednesday (Sept. 26) night. Now, Jews are increasingly able to buy […]
Clergy Trained in Reaching Out to Reserve Soldiers
By Jeff Diamant — September 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service FORT DIX, N.J. _ The Rev. Andrew Barton is a Presbyterian pastor who considers himself an advocate for peace and questions whether the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was justified. Yet he wants to be able to help counsel traumatized soldiers home from the war zone. He has wondered: […]
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