RNS Blog Editor
RNS Blog Editor is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by RNS Blog Editor
Would you like fries with that?
By RNS Blog Editor — June 30, 2009
The place that first brought you Frostys and square burgers will now be home to a local Catholic charity. The original Wendy’s restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, has been sold to the Catholic Foundation, reports Meredith Heagney at The Columbus Dispatch. Founder Dave Thomas opened the landmark location in 1969; Thomas died in 2002 and the […]
LAPD’s first Islamic chaplain
By RNS Blog Editor — June 29, 2009
The Los Angeles Police Department will soon be spiritually guided by its first Islamic chaplain. Sheik Qazi Asad will spend eight hours a month infusing culture and faith into the SoCal officers and community members. But, turns out not everyone was too happy about the Pakistani-born chaplain: “Some Muslim religious and civic leaders who belong […]
Muslims missing MJ
By RNS Blog Editor — June 29, 2009
If President Obama can’t strengthen ties with the Islamic world, rest assured that Michael Jackson will take things over from here. Turns out the pop icon will be sorely missed in the Middle East, despite his sinful dance moves and antics. Rumored to have converted from Jehovah’s Witness to Muslim, those in the Middle East […]
Jailhouse Bar Mitzvah
By RNS Blog Editor — June 25, 2009
From the Department of News that continues to amuse. A bar mitzvah can never be too big-even when it’s in the big house. A Manhattan inmate held a swanky bar mitzvah for his son in the prison’s gym-a story which the New York Post first reported. More than 60 non-inmates attended the six-hour fete, complete […]
RCA drops magazines, adopts apartheid-era confession
By RNS Blog Editor — June 12, 2009
HOLLAND, Mich. (RNS) Just as major mainstream print publications struggle to forge their way into the digital age, so will the magazines of the 166,000-member Reformed Church in America. Two years after scrapping a denominational subsidy for The Church Herald, the RCA General Synod that met here through Tuesday (June 9) voted 171-56 to cease […]
JehovahâÂ?Â?s Witnesses more likely to die in childbirth, study finds
By RNS Blog Editor — June 12, 2009
(RNS) Pregnant women who are Jehovah’s Witnesses are six times more likely to die during childbirth and three times more likely to have serious complications than the general population, according to a new study by Dutch researchers. All of the cases of death examined by the researchers were caused by major obstetric hemorrhage, according to […]
Schuller picks daughter to lead Crystal Cathedral
By RNS Blog Editor — June 12, 2009
(RNS) The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California, announced Sunday (June 7) that he has turned over the administrative duties of his ministry to his daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman. The transition comes after Schuller’s son, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, resigned late last year as senior pastor of […]
If gays don’t need hate crimes protection, does anyone?
By RNS Blog Editor — June 12, 2009
WASHINGTON — Conservative Christian leaders are fighting a bill that would provide federal hate-crimes coverage to gays and lesbians, prompting questions of who, if anyone, should be protected by such laws. With a Democrat-controlled Congress and a president who has indicated his support for the Matthew Shepard Act, time may be running out for its […]
Obama Channels Lincoln at Buchenwald
By RNS Blog Editor — June 6, 2009
Today’s Religion News Service digest contains a short piece by Adelle M. Banks on President Obama’s remarks after touring Germany’s Buchenwald Concentration Camp. I was struck by the similarity in some of Obama’s rhetoric and word choice to that employed in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (Subscribers can access the entire story at the link above.) Here’s […]
Amway co-founder has ‘one little thing’ left to do
By RNS Blog Editor — June 6, 2009
ADA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Amway co-founder Rich DeVos’ legs may be weak, but his mind and heart are going strong. Even at 83, as the $8.2 billion company he co-founded with the late Jay Van Andel marks its 50th anniversary, the philanthropist billionaire still thinks big. During a recent wide-ranging interview, DeVos said his next […]
Blogger arrested for threatening lawmakers over Catholic bill
By RNS Blog Editor — June 6, 2009
NEWARK, N.J. — He has called for the deaths of federal judges, applauded the murder of a doctor who performed abortions and advocated the “violent overthrow” of the U.S. government, cloaking his comments in the mantle of free speech. But North Bergen, N.J., blogger and Internet radio host Harold “Hal” Turner apparently went too far […]
Pope eases rules on defrocking priests
By RNS Blog Editor — June 6, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI has made it easier to dismiss Catholic priests who abandon their ministry, live with women, or cause scandal in other ways. Under the new rules, which Benedict approved in January, dismissed priests can receive permission to marry even if they do not ask for it, Catholic News Service reported. […]
Obama notes Jews’ faith during concentration camp visit
By RNS Blog Editor — June 6, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) During a visit to Germany’s Buchenwald Concentration Camp on Friday (June 5), President Obama said it was important to note the faith, and not just the despair, of those who were imprisoned there. During a tour with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Obama was told about prisoners who sang […]
Pope meets with top Irish bishops over abuse
By RNS Blog Editor — June 6, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met with Ireland’s two leading bishops on Friday (June 5), who briefed him on a recent report on abuse of children in Irish Catholic schools. Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin met with the pope on Friday afternoon. The Vatican’s top spokesman, the Rev. […]
Episcopal bishop appears headed for defeat
By RNS Blog Editor — June 6, 2009
(RNS) The election of an Episcopal bishop in Michigan who has practiced Buddhist meditation and changed traditional church prayers appears headed for defeat, according to an unofficial tally kept by a newspaper reporter. The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester was elected bishop of the sparsely populated Diocese of Northern Michigan in February. Under Episcopal Church rules, […]
