Arts & Media
NEWS FEATURE: Author takes compassionate look at Bible’s `bad girls’
By David Briggs — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Bad girls, talking about the sad girls, sad girls, talking about bad girls, yeah … of the Bible. With no apologies to Donna Summer (and a bow to her own history with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll), Christian comedian Liz Curtis Higgs examines the women biblical tradition has […]
NEWS FEATURE: Artists explore African origins, connections in African-American religion
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Meg Henson Scales stepped up to the podium with her”hand-held visual object,”her personal symbol of the merging of African-American art and spirituality.”I realize that offering a prayer for someone is one of the nicest things that one can do for another person,”she said at a recent conference on […]
NEWS FEATURE: Vatican completes 20-year restoration of the Sistine Chapel
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ With the restoration of frescoes by Botticelli and other important Italian painters of the 15th century, the Vatican has completed a 20-year project to return the Sistine Chapel to its Renaissance splendor. The 12 brilliantly colored panels on the side walls of the chapel, showing scenes from […]
NEWS FEATURE: Kirk Franklin Lifts Hearts and Raises Eyebrows
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Somebody up there seems to like Kirk Franklin. Not everyone down here does, though. The controversial gospel singer’s latest release, “The Nu Nation Project,” has sold 1.3 million copies since it came out in September. Franklin recently received Grammy Award nominations in five categories, including best contemporary soul […]
NEWS FEATURE: Hollywood biographer turns to biggest celebrity of all _ Jesus
By Nancy Haught — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In biblical terms, the number 40 is full of significance. The flood lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Jesus was tempted for 40 days. And now Hollywood biographer Donald Spoto has written the book that’s been knocking around […]
NEWS FEATURE: Artist uses images of matzah to feed Jewish history
By David Finnigan — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service LOS ANGELES _ Bonnie Voland’s daughter, Hayley, seems as curious as other seven-year-olds. And perceptive, too. While touring the Skirball Cultural Center, Hayley noticed the constant, subtle presence of red in the large, acrylic-on-canvas, three-panel exhibit,”History of Matzah: The Story of the Jews,”by New York artist Larry Rivers. Unlike many […]
NEWS STORY: Networks get religion during TV’s `sweeps’
By David Finnigan — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service LOS ANGELES _ May is a television ratings”sweeps”month and the networks yet again have found religion in an effort to boost their audiences. NBC started it off with its popular May 2-3 broadcast of the biblical disaster epic”Noah’s Ark,”while CBS airs its”Joan of Arc”miniseries May 16 and 18th. ABC will […]
NEWS FEATURE: Using the unusual and unorthodox to reach the unchurched
By Kristen Campbell — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ There are Christians, it seems, who fear the church isn’t relevant anymore. So irrelevant, in fact, that one Baldwin County (Ala.) congregation is airing a series of television ads hoping people will think about God and eternity _ and the possible temperatures in hell. While unorthodox, the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Artist hopes melting ice sculpture presages Israeli-Palestinian thaw
By Elaine Fletcher — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ As darkness settled over the ancient walls of Jerusalem’s old city, the wall of ice came aglow, first in white and then in a montage of bright, candy-cane colors _ pink, green, orange and blue.”Which do you like better,”glass artist Dale Chihuly shouted ebulliently to a crowd of […]
COMMENTARY: Can’t art ever speak for itself?
By Frances Kennedy — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 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 _ New York’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani recently caused a sensation by threatening to cut off the city’s […]
COMMENTARY: Sure route to self-knowledge: how we react to death
By Frances Kennedy — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 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’s Press.) UNDATED _ Death is often spoken of as darkness. Its wings are not shadowed, however, but brilliant with a […]
COMMENTARY: Biblical events as TV events
By James Rudin — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) UNDATED _ My addiction to all-news TV networks set me wondering how the events of the Jewish festival of Shavuot (May 21-22) might have been covered if television had existed in biblical times. Shavuot means”weeks,”and the holiday comes […]
COMMENTARY:‘We are all sinners’: Like Hell we are”
By Frances Kennedy — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 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 _ America is as awash in fake sins as the art market is with fake Monets. As […]
COMMENTARY: And now a word from Martha Stewart’s guardian angel
By Dale Hanson Bourke — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS) UNDATED _ Dear Martha: Well, girl, you have really done it now. From what I hear, going public is about as big as it gets on Earth. And you did it all on your own. Heaven knows you have been as easy a […]
COMMENTARY: It’s time to lighten your load
By Dale Hanson Bourke — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS. She has given up writing complete sentences for Lent.) UNDATED _ Talk about lousy timing. The Dow breaks 10,000, Monica sells a boatload of books and the manufacturer of her interview lipstick can’t make the stuff fast enough. Retailers are downright giddy. Movie […]
