Karen Long
Karen Long is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Karen Long
FEATURE STORY: Weight-loss programs stress Bible study, self-discipline
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
(RNS) — Weight loss program stresses faith in God.
NEWS STORY: Feds probing Alabama Baptist university operations
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ Federal subpoenas began arriving at the Southern Baptist-affiliated University of Mobile in July and they continue to arrive as investigators seek records of Board of Trustees meetings and other, unspecified records. U.S. Attorney J. Don Foster, however, denied the university itself is the target of any investigation.”There […]
NEWS FEATURE: Tales to live by: storytelling as a way to pass on values
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ It is an art as old as the fireside, as central a part of human culture as cooking. Yet, live storytelling seems to have vanished from much of American life. Nowadays, television, videotapes, compact discs and computers have taken over the role of village yarnspinner. But telling […]
Church stitches together a solution for noise problem
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ The folks at Ashland Place United Methodist Church had a problem: the noise in the fellowship hall was deafening. Any time a group of children or even a wedding reception convened in the hall, the reverberation from the cement block walls was nerve-racking. When the board of […]
NEWS FEATURE: Christians divorce at same rate as others but for different reasons
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Although traditional Christian teaching rejects divorce and stresses marital fidelity and family values are central to the religious conservatives’ moral agenda, recent data show divorce strikes born-again Christians at about the same rate as those who don’t profess a born-again experience. The Barna Research Group, a California-based polling […]
NEWS FEATURE: To some Catholic thinkers, advertising business can be sinful
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Business executive Joseph Mallof asked an audience of advertising critics recently to consider Nike’s”I am Tiger Woods”TV spot. “All those different little kids saying, `I’m Tiger Woods. I’m Tiger Woods.’ Doesn’t that give you a small thrill? I’m proud to be a part of that promotional industry,”said Mallof, […]
NEWS SIDEBAR: The Five Points of Calvinism
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Calvinism is a theological system formulated in 16th-century Swiss reformer John Calvin’s central writing,”Institutes of the Christian Religion,”and codified by the Synod of Dort (1618-1619) in the Five Points of Calvinism. Although Calvin’s theology involves much more than his theories on salvation, the Five Points are the most […]
NEWS SIDEBAR: The Five Points of Calvinism
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Calvinism is a theological system formulated in 16th-century Swiss reformer John Calvin’s central writing,”Institutes of the Christian Religion,”and codified by the Synod of Dort (1618-1619) in the Five Points of Calvinism. Although Calvin’s theology involves much more than his theories on salvation, the Five Points are the most […]
NEWS FEATURE: Bible drill teams teach discipline, spiritual values
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ A spit-and-polish squad files onto the stage and halts. Its members are nattily attired in military shirts with epaulets, jaunty berets angled to the right. The squad performs a sharp right turn and faces the audience. The sergeant barks commands, the marchers obey. “Your left, your left, […]
NEWS STORY: Bible society scraps”gender-accurate”version of Scripture
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Pressure from conservative evangelical Christians has forced publishers to cancel plans for an updated,”gender-accurate”edition of the most popular Bible translation in the United States that critics said was pandering to feminists. The International Bible Society (IBS) announced Tuesday (May 27) it would”serve the church ahead of market concerns”by […]
NEWS FEATURE: Minister sees gospel story in signs of the zodiac
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ When the Rev. Chris Patrick looks at the stars, he sees something different than most people: He sees God’s plan for salvation. In fact, the pastor of Life Church Outreach Center in Chickasaw, Ala., believes the zodiac _ the 12 clusters of stars used by astrologers and […]
NEWS STORY: Nicaragua campus focus of flap among Alabama Baptists
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MONTGOMERY, Ala. _ Trustees at the University of Mobile have been given a July 15 deadline to either show how they will get the school’s Nicaraguan campus out of debt or risk losing Alabama State Baptist Convention funds. The decision, reached at a meeting Tuesday (June 3), came on the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Korean-Americans rally to aid hungry hit by North Korea famine
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion news Service UNDATED _ Few people know that starvation threatens more than 5 million North Koreans this summer. But the Rev. Yung W. Koo does. Quietly, his Brecksville, Ohio, congregation of 350 has raised thousands of dollars in food aid this spring. Men sold flowers. Women sold food. All have bowed their […]
NEWS FEATURE: Religions face communications `earthquake’
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Trappist monks selling caramels on the Internet. A chapel flashing huge, peaceful scenes of waterfalls in the sanctuary to calm and welcome Christian worshippers. Solitary browsers finding a place to convert to Hinduism in cyberspace. “Every single religious group is having to reassess how to be who they […]
COMMENTARY: The ambiguities of the `mainline’ label
By Karen Long — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Pamela H. Long, a writer and teacher, is a former religion reporter for the Mobile Register in Mobile, Ala.) UNDATED _ A caller once asked me a question that has dogged me ever since. Why, she asked, did she keep seeing the word”mainline”attached as an adjective to some church bodies […]
