Politics
NEWS STORY: Historian hunts, preserves traces of lost Jewish culture
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service SYRACUSE, N.Y. _ In southern Morocco, preservationists find their way into an abandoned, century-old synagogue of sun-dried mud. They discover, remarkably intact, a wooden ark that once protected the sacred writings of the Torah. In another forgotten synagogue in Poland, workers strip away a coat of red paint to reveal […]
NEWS STORY: Rutherford Institute on Clinton: `No man is above the law’
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Samuel Rutherford was a 17th century Scottish cleric who wrote a book, “Lex Rex,” arguing no one, not even the king, is above the law. The cleric’s 20th century namesake, the nonprofit Rutherford Institute, which has emerged from the relative obscurity of litigating church-state cases to being the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Good Times for bad times: Sales of apocalyptic novels are out of this world
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ With his packed 747 cruising high over the Atlantic, pilot Rayford Steele’s thoughts turn to seducing perky senior flight attendant Hattie Durham. But when Hattie approaches, she’s distraught.”People are missing,”she tells Rayford.”Their shoes, their socks, their clothes, everything was left behind.” Before long, Rayford, Hattie, and passenger Buck […]
NEWS STORY: Pope calls to make Sunday special, not just part of weekend
By Christiane Gruber — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II, decrying the decline in Sunday worship attendance, Tuesday (July 7) told the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics not to let Sunday become”merely part of a `weekend.'” Instead, he urged them in a 100-page apostolic letter to”rediscover Sunday”as a day of prayer, contemplation and […]
NEWS STORY: Pakistani bishop urges Senate passage of religious persecution bill
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ An Anglican bishop from Pakistan _ where insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam is considered blasphemy and a capital offense _ told a Senate panel Wednesday (June 17) that”fear and insecurity”were a”noose”tightening around his nation’s minority Christian community. The Rev. Munawar Rumalshah, bishop of the Church of Pakistan’s […]
NEWS PROFILE: A family remembers its role in 50-year-old school prayer fight
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ When the House Judiciary Committee on March 5 approved the Religious Freedom Amendment barring the government from infringing on religious expression in schools, 85-year-old Vashti McCollum sighed 50 years’ worth. It was five decades to the month that the Supreme Court ruled in her favor in McCollum vs. […]
NEWS FEATURE: China’s `underground’ Christians seek worship freedom
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service ZHENGZHOU, China _ A dozen people gathered secretly in the upper room of a two-story house. All of them had been imprisoned, some several times. One man said he had been released only five days earlier. Their sole crime, they said, was leading underground, unregistered _ and therefore illegal _ […]
NEWS STORY: Coalition seeks to end use of `child soldiers’
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _”The army,”said Emilio Hernandez-Xigara,”was a nightmare. We suffered greatly from the cruel treatment we received. We were constantly beaten, mostly for no reason at all, just to keep us in a state of terror.” Hernandez-Xigara said he was 14-years-old when he was”drafted”_ forcibly taken from a bus by soldiers […]
NEWS SIDEBAR: Religious opinion divided on Iraq attack
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II, informed during the night of the first wave of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, called Thursday for an end to”this aggression”and urged the international community to help find a just solution. The pope was perhaps the most prominent religious leader to weigh in […]
NEWS STORY: Religious groups urge raising voices in prayer in impeachment crisis
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ As religious leaders on both sides of the impeachment debate called the nation to prayer, the Rev. Jesse Jackson led an anti-impeachment prayer vigil Thursday (Dec. 17) on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building.”The American people do not view Bill Clinton as a bad man. They see […]
NEWS FEATURE: Christian diets may be mixed blessing
By Julia Lieblich — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ “Pray Your Weight Away,” Presbyterian minister Charles Shedd urged readers in the 1957 diet book that launched today’s multimillion-dollar Christian weight-loss industry. Now, a Purdue University study confirms what diet gurus have long preached: “Firm believers do not have firm bodies.” Indeed, Christians who are most active in […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Planned Parenthood opponent adds Disney to boycott list (RNS) A group that protests Planned Parenthood has added the Walt Disney Co. to its list of companies that should be boycotted for supporting the family planning organization.”We have documented that the Disney Corporation has given money to Planned Parenthood,”said Patricia Bainbridge, […]
NEWS STORY: Government, church, native Indians settle residential school abuse case
By Douglas Todd — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VANCOUVER, B.C. _ A precedent-setting agreement between the Roman Catholic Church, the federal government and 10 native Indian men who were sexually abused as students at a Canadian residential school is being hailed as opening the door to early resolution of more than 1,600 similar lawsuits. All sides are cheering […]
NEWS STORY: Yeltsin finds ally in Pope on Iraq but not on religion
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Russian President Boris Yeltsin found an ally Tuesday (Feb. 10) in Pope John Paul II in his effort to spare Iraq another war. But at the same time, the Russian president defended a recently enacted law elevating the dominant Russian Orthodox Church and, some fear, restricting the […]
NEWS STORY: Lawmakers to Clinton: Special envoy needed in Sudan to bring peace
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ At a Capitol Hill news conference scattered with photos of severely malnourished Sudanese children, Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, singled out the haunting image of a tiny, mangled skeleton lying on a dusty roadside.”As we were going in the Land Rover, what we saw here was all kinds of […]
