Beliefs
MEDITATION: Embracing his own death, Bernardin put Kevorkian to shame
By Frances Kennedy — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Eugene Kennedy is a writer living in Chicago.) CHICAGO _ Cardinal Joseph Bernardin dressed conventionally, spoke in a zephyr-gentle voice and spent most of his life as a priest and a bishop behind a desk. In his 68 years on earth, he never led a demonstration, picketed an abortion clinic, […]
TOP STORY: RELIGION REACTS TO GAY MARRIAGE RULING: Blessing or curse? Religious leaders react to gay
By Kim Lawton — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ For Lutheran laywoman Judy Bond, there was”a moment of breathlessness”Wednesday (Dec. 4) when she read the newspaper headlines reporting that a court in Hawaii had opened the way for legal recognition of same-sex marriages.”It was a moment of celebration but also one of anticipation of the tidal wave […]
NEWS STORY: State Department names religious freedom advisory committee
By Kim Lawton — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The U.S. State Department Tuesday (Nov. 12) formally announced the formation of a special advisory committee to study religious persecution around the world and recommend U.S. foreign policy responses. The panel is comprised of 20 members from across the religious spectrum and is chaired by Assistant Secretary of […]
At Chicago assembly, NCC reaches out to Muslims, evangelicals
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The National Council of Churches (NCC) bridged deep theological divides this week, reaching out to American Muslims, evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics during its annual general assembly held in Chicago. During the five-day meeting, which adjourned Friday (Nov. 15), the NCC _ which represents some 52 million mainline Protestant […]
COMMENTARY: Oh brother, you’re really in trouble now
By Brendan Kirby — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Robert Kirby is a Mormon humorist and columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune.) (UNDATED) Mormons and members of other religious sects frequently refer to each other as”brother”and”sister.”If you subscribe to the idea that God is our father, it follows that we’re all his children and therefore related. When I go […]
Bishops criticize U.S. economic policy at home and abroad
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Criticizing”political posturing”and”ideological positioning”by politicians and policymakers, U.S. Catholic bishops Tuesday (Nov. 12) approved a succinct statement calling for restructuring the American economy to meet the basic needs of the poor both at home and abroad.”We need to be very clear,”said Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash.”Our defense of […]
TOP STORY: ANATOMY OF AN ATONEMENT: Free-form spirituality marks Farrakhan’s `Holy Day of Aton
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ For two and a half hours Wednesday (Oct. 16), the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan stood in a bullet-proof glass enclosure in the shadow of the United Nations and preached fire and brimstone. He expounded on Cain and Abel and the roots of human violence. He inveighed […]
NEWS STORY: Bishops seek to balance Vatican authority and academic freedom
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Seeking to strike a delicate balance between academic freedom and a commitment to church doctrine, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops Wednesday (Nov. 13) adopted a set of rules on their relations with the church’s 235 colleges and universities. With little debate and no significant dissent, the prelates adopted […]
NEWS STORY: JUDAISM: Survey points out contradictions in Conservative Judaism
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A new survey of Conservative Jews shows that more than two-thirds reject traditional Judaism’s insistence that only the children of Jewish mothers can be called Jewish at birth, regardless of the father’s religious identity. Yet the same survey also showed that 62 percent believe that Conservative Jews are”obligated to […]
TOP STORY: DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP: America mourns a quiet cardinal whose life spoke louder t
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin, the son of an immigrant seamstress and a stonecutter and became one of the most influential and beloved U.S. Roman Catholic leaders in a century, died Thursday (Nov. 14) after a long but graceful battle with cancer. He was 68. Bernardin, who headed the Archdiocese […]
POLITICAL STORY: VOTER GUIDES, LEFT AND RIGHT: Religious activists’ election guides vie for vo
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ As Election Day approaches, religious liberals and conservatives are engaged in a duel of voter guides, with each side maintaining that their guides just present the facts while the other guy’s are partisan. The latest shot in this contest within the larger electoral race was fired Friday (Oct. […]
TOP STORY: BISHOPS END MEETING: Spirit of Bernardin permeates bishops meeting
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ From an opening prayer as he lay dying, to the meeting’s final debate on a restructuring plan he had overseen, the spirit of the late Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin hovered over this week’s sessions of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). More than any other of the […]
NEWS STORY: Interfaith meeting reignites rancor between Southern Baptists and Jews
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service STAMFORD, Conn. _ Kitty Cohen is a Holocaust survivor from Israel; Philip P. Roberts is a Southern Baptist official who directs his denomination’s interfaith witness activities. Put them in the same room to discuss a controversial Southern Baptist missionary program to Jews and they personify the inherent difficulties of interfaith […]
NEWS STORY: Church, nation bid farewell to Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED _ The church he loved and the nation whose public policy he sought to influence for a quarter of a century said farewell Wednesday (Nov. 20) to Chicago’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin. With his friend and colleague Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles presiding and Vice President […]
Rabbits to Rwanda and other gifts for those who have nothing
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED _ There are those who complain about the glut and the greed of the American celebration of Christmas, even as they prowl the malls and comb the catalogs to secure the perfect gift for the man, woman or child who has everything. While mailboxes bulge with publications full of […]
