Politics
NEWS STORY: Murder of Sikh publisher in Canada laid to factional religious strife
By Douglas Todd — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ The high-profile publisher of a Sikh newspaper was murdered Wednesday (Nov. 18) night in an attack police said they believe is part of an ongoing conflict between Sikh moderates and traditionalists. Tara Singh Hayer, publisher of The Indo-Canadian Times, was gunned down four days before crucial […]
NEWS FEATURE: Pluralistic Jewish high schools counter denominational differences
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WALTHAM, Mass. _ After nine years at a Conservative Jewish day school, Jesse Holzer was apprehensive about the diversity he would face at a high school that does not espouse or enforce any single vision of Jewish observance. But after four months at the nondenominational New Jewish High School of […]
NEWS STORY: Christian Coalition leaders urge impeachment
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Christian Coalition leaders _ among Bill Clinton’s most bitter critics who hold great influence among congressional Republicans _ called Friday (Sept. 18) for the president’s impeachment rather than his resignation, saying justice demanded it. Pat Robertson, the religious broadcaster who founded the Coalition,lambasted Clinton for turning the White […]
NEWS FEATURE: Evangelical leaders urge 40-day fast to `pray America back to God’
By Carrie Cassidy — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ It may seem a hard sell: asking Americans to fast and pray for 40 days, not unlike Jesus in the wilderness. But Bill Bright, the evangelical Christian leader who founded Campus Crusade for Christ International, believes more than 2 million Americans will do just that beginning next month. […]
COMMENTARY: Shooting their way out of childhood
By Frances Kennedy — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service (Eugene Kennedy, a longtime observer of the Roman Catholic Church, is professor emeritus of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago and author most recently of”My Brother Joseph,”published by St. Martin Press.) UNDATED _ To understand the recent epidemic of children shooting other children along with their teachers is no easy […]
NEWS STORY: United Church of Canada apologizes for boarding school abuses
By Douglas Todd — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ The moderator of the United Church of Canada has issued the strongest apology yet of any Canadian church group for his denomination’s complicity in the”pain and suffering”caused by the now-defunct residential school system for native Indians. Bill Phipps said Tuesday his denomination is”truly and most humbly […]
NEWS FEATURE: Marianne Williamson’s pilgrimage from tony Hollywood to working-class Michigan
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WARREN, Mich. _ Marlene Badgero with the resonant voice and bright-orange outfit is single-handedly working the Church of Today office early one recent evening. There are several desks, and she moves quickly among them, answering phones and fielding questions from those who wander in. Many of the calls are easy, […]
NEWS STORY: Opposition stepped up to religious persecution measure
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Efforts to derail a proposed bill in Congress that would trigger automatic sanctions against nations found to persecute religious minorities accelerated this week on Capitol Hill and at the White House. On Tuesday (April 28), the National Council of Churches _ which opposes the proposed Freedom from Religious […]
NEWS FEATURE: Who protects children when parents’ faith, medical care clash?
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Just before Christmas 1996, 1-year-old Patrick Foster caught a bad cold. As the sniffling persisted, Daniel and Anne Marie Foster did what they had always done when one of their three children got sick: They prayed the devil would be driven away. But regardless of how sick Patrick […]
NEWS PROFILE: Pastor named as envoy to Tanzania wants a diplomacy of hope
By William Bole — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service BOSTON _ The Rev. Charles R. Stith is gearing up for a new foreign mission _ not to save souls but to preach the Clinton administration’s gospel of partnership between the United States and Africa. President Clinton has nominated the United Methodist minister and civil rights leader as U.S. ambassador […]
NEWS STORY: Cuba delivers on papal request to free prisoners
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday (Feb. 12) delivered on a request made by Pope John Paul II, releasing”several dozen”political prisoners and promising to free as many as 200 more. The action was announced at the Vatican and confirmed at a Havana news conference by Foreign Ministry […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Religious persecution bill passes first of many hurdles to becoming law
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ A bill aimed at curbing religious persecution abroad passed its first legislative hurdle Wednesday (March 25) by a wide margin, belying a host of congressional concerns that remain to be ironed out if the measure is to win final approval. Following a full day of procedural wrangling and […]
NEWS STORY: Religious relief groups responding to ravages of Mitch
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Even before the death toll mounted to staggering, close to five-digit totals, U.S. and international faith-based relief organizations were responding to the ravages unleashed across Central America by Hurricane Mitch. Suffering losses at their own already-existing projects and stretched thin by the recent Hurricane Georges disaster and the […]
NEWS STORY: Alabama vote hailed by religious conservatives
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Religious conservatives across the nation are hailing Alabama Gov. Fob James’ runoff victory against a Republican moderate last week as a sign that a dogged defense of their social issues agenda _ school prayer, public display of the Ten Commandments, opposition to abortion _ can win at the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Simple living has its roots in spiritual living
By David Finnigan — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service LOS ANGELES _ America’s simple living movement, embraced as an alternative to environmental catastrophe and rampant secular materialism, can find its ground in the religion of Jesus, Buddha and other world faiths. That, at least, was one of the low-key _ indeed, simple _ messages at the Sept. 19 Seeds […]
