Politics
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Hindu extremists attack Christians and Muslims in Indian state (RNS) In the past two months, at least 30 instances of violent attacks on Christians and Muslims have occurred in the Indian state of Gujarat, according to reports. One such incident involved Hindu extremists armed with sticks and swords barging into […]
NEWS STORY: Canadian religious leaders urge clemency for Texas death row inmate
By Douglas Todd — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Canadian church leaders are urging Texas Governor George W. Bush to grant clemency to a Canadian scheduled to be executed on Thursday (Dec. 10). Archbishop Adam Exner, chair of the Canadian Roman Catholic bishops’ agency dedicated to fighting abortion, earlier this week condemned state-sponsored executions as […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Pope and Castro vie for future neither will see
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ They are invariably described as titans, two”towering figures of the 20th century.”But with the century near its end, the lasting impact of Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba is likely to be felt long after the two aging leaders are gone. While Castro […]
NEWS STORY: Cardinal defends Vatican Holocaust document
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy’s task Friday (May 15) was a tough one: Explain the Vatican’s recent statement on the Holocaust, widely criticized by Jews, to a skeptical Jewish audience. As might be expected, Cassidy, who heads the Vatican agency that wrote the document, defended the controversial statement as […]
Christian Scientists promote legal shields for faith-healers
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In the early 1980s, in the wake of more than 50 children’s deaths, Indiana lawmakers pushed to eliminate protections for faith healers and require parents to provide medical care for their children. Four times the bill passed the Indiana House of Representatives, and four times it died in […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Pope tells Rwandan bishops church can heal genocide’s suffering (RNS) Pope John Paul II has told a group of Roman Catholic bishops from Rwanda that their church has an important role in healing suffering stemming from the 1994 genocide that left some 800,000 Rwandans dead.”Over the past months, the Rwandan […]
NEWS STORY: Canada’s Catholic bishops back jubilee debt relief for poor nations
By Douglas Todd — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ The Canadian church campaign calling on Western nations to forgive the debts of the world’s poorest nations has received a major boost by winning the support of Canada’s Roman Catholic bishops. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the governing body of Canada’s 13 million Catholics, voted […]
NEWS STORY: Ohio village closes door to Jehovah’s Witnesses
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WAITE HILL, Ohio _ Jehovah’s Witnesses currently have an easy time going door-to-door in the village of Waite Hill, Ohio _ but they’d say it was somewhat more difficult, or at least time-consuming. Like other communities, this 200-home Cleveland suburb community has an ordinance on the books that allows residents […]
NEWS STORY: Religious leaders push anti-persecution legislation
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Christian and other religious activists joined congressional allies Wednesday (Feb. 4) to boost revamped legislation they hope will make opposition to religious persecution abroad a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy. Supporters likened the effort to get the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act passed by Congress and signed by […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Native Americans fight `genetic piracy’ using Kennewick Man conflict
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ It has been two years since the emergence of Kennewick Man, the 9,300-year-old human remains discovered in the Columbia River at Kennewick, Wash. And everyone wants a piece of him. Some scientists want to know who this relic is, where he came from and who his predecessors and […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Christian Reformed Church regional group ends gay minister’s ordination (RNS) A Michigan regional body of the Christian Reformed Church has terminated the ordination of the denomination’s first openly gay minister. The 22-6 vote came at a Thursday (May 21) meeting of the Classis Grand Rapids East. Classis is a Christian […]
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. […]
