Kristen Campbell
Kristen Campbell is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Kristen Campbell
RNS Daily Digest
By Kristen Campbell — February 9, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service BEIRUT, Lebanon _ The humanitarian crisis unleashed by the Iraq war comes into dramatic focus inside a detention center beneath a highway in Beirut. Packed cells hold scores of Iraqi refugees. Men and women who fled a shattered country now wait in silence underground as bureaucracies slowly churn and the […]
Sword swallower has a unique gospel, with a point to it
By Kristen Campbell — January 15, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Did you hear the one about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the preacher and the sword swallower? Turns out that truth is, in fact, stranger than fiction when the Rudolph story can inspire a sword swallower to unsheath his unusual ability for God’s cause. A few years ago, Dan Meyer, […]
Program reunites families in prison for Christmas
By Kristen Campbell — December 15, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ It’s not quite light this December morning, and a ballerina wearing a puffy pink coat dances on the sidewalk in front of the Hardee’s in Priceville. Montravia Watkins, 8, skips and twirls, turning back to her grandmother and big brother to point out that the white van […]
Monk does God’s work in finding new use for old candles
By Kristen Campbell — December 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service CULLMAN, Ala. _ When Brother David Bryant, garbed in the traditional black robes of his Benedictine order, breaks apart pieces of wax, his actions take on the rhythm of a priest breaking Communion bread before the Lord’s Supper. While the wax isn’t holy, for Brother David, 29, the work itself […]
Author explores ties between religion and magic
By Kristen Campbell — October 31, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Maybe it’s their pointy incisors. Or their preference for darkness. Could be their reputation for literally sucking the life out of their victims. Whatever it is, vampires don’t have the best reputation. So you might be surprised to learn that vampires have ethics that prevent them from taking energy […]
Atheists wonder if fellow troops got their backs
By Kristen Campbell — October 10, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ In the midst of their fight to bring freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan, some American soldiers say they are finding their own freedoms threatened by the troops on their own side. Though the U.S. Constitution mandates that the government apply no test of faith for employment (and […]
Some Moms Say Natural Childbirth Is Labor of Love _ and Faith
By Kristen Campbell — September 18, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) While Jane Ellen Hannaman labored to bring her son, Weston, into the world last February, she could hear her husband, Ryan, praying. She joined him, she said, in between contractions. And while childbirth entailed “the most intense pain,” Hannaman relied on her faith and eschewed medications designed to ease […]
Summer Camp Trains Kids for `Spiritual Warfare’
By Kristen Campbell — August 11, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service KELSO, Tenn. _ “What’s this?” roars “Sgt. Major” Henry Phillips. “There’s trash on the floor in here.” Inside the simple block cabin, teenage girls stand at attention at the ends of their bunks, each bed neatly made up with a Bible and study notebook placed on top of the pillow. […]
Artist, in Search of Inspiration, Finds it Inside
By Kristen Campbell — August 4, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Tres Taylor spent a long time searching for his purpose. Along the way there were travels to Australia and the Amazon, but, finally, after riding his bike around San Diego one day, he found it. He’d recently visited a few Southern folk artists while back home in Alabama for […]
Ministry Tries Making Fishers of Men
By Kristen Campbell — March 2, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ Jesus called his first disciples away from their fishing nets, but a new group in Madison County is calling Christians and seekers down by the riverside. Flyfishers of Men, a fairly informal school of new and experienced flyfishers, both men and women, believe that the practice of […]
10 Minutes With … Archbishop George Carey
By Kristen Campbell — December 28, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) He may have retired as Archbishop of Canterbury four years ago, but Lord George L. Carey has hardly stepped off the global stage. During a recent visit to the United States, Carey sat down to discuss the state of the Anglican Communion and his take on Pope Benedict XVI’s […]
Some Find Ways for a Simpler, Less Commercialized Christmas
By Kristen Campbell — December 15, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Even now, years later, Suzanne Phillips gasps to think of her young son’s attitude. “No matter what I did, it was never enough,” she said. So after hearing “Where’s this?” and “I wanted that,” Phillips decided she and her now 11-year-old son Dylan Baker would spend Christmas Day serving […]
`Born-Again Heathen’ Bikers Run Full-Throttle for Jesus
By Kristen Campbell — November 28, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ The cruisers rumble into the parking lot in quick pairs. The riders dismount, shaking ponytails out of their helmets. They’ve got patches on their leather jackets, tattoos on their arms, and eyes that have seen everything. Move over, Satan, and heads-up, heathens: These bikers have Jesus in […]
Lessons on Living From the Undead
By Kristen Campbell — October 31, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) As a kid, Kim Paffenroth would walk into a building, ponder the possibility of a zombie attack and think: What would I do? “There is planning that you can do for a zombie invasion, whereas you can’t really plan for vampires,” he said. “If there are really vampires, they’re […]
Something Wiccan This Way Comes
By Kristen Campbell — October 28, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. _ Rebecca Walkoff knows that she could never pass a psychological test. “I hear voices,” Walkoff, 47, said as she enjoyed a cigarette outside her store, The Moon Willow, just off the Fayetteville Square. “I see visions.” Walkoff shrugged, her green eyes twinkling, and snubbed out the cigarette. […]
