Doctrine & Practice
A novice’s guide to effective prayer
By RNS Blog Editor — August 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It’s not all that difficult to pray, according to David Yount, a syndicated columnist and author of”Breaking Through God’s Silence: A Guide to Effective Prayer (Simon & Schuster). Here are what Yount sees as 10 keys to effective prayer: 1. Be intentional. Resist bothering God when you are bored. […]
TOP STORY: THE POWER OF PRAYER:Prayer is best when it comes from the heart
By Karen Long — August 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) This morning upon waking, David Yount said his prayers. “Common people do not pray, they only beg,” George Bernard Shaw once sneered, but Yount is quick to differ. He believes prayer is natural for all of us, on the lips of athletes seeking Olympic greatness and children tucked into […]
TOP STORY: REMEMBERING MERTON: A gathering of mystics remembers Merton
By Chris Smith — July 27, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service TRAPPIST, Ky. _ Twenty eight years ago, Thomas Merton set out from his monastery to explore the world of Asian spirituality. This week, part of that world came here to honor the late author for his pioneering work in religious reconciliation.”Thomas Merton is someone we can look up to,”said the […]
TOP STORY: Common ground for Buddhists and Catholics abloom with new ideas
By Chris Smith — July 25, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service TRAPPIST, Ky. _ In search of common ground between the Buddhist and Catholic traditions of prayer and meditation, monks, nuns and religious scholars have come together at a monastery here in the rolling hills of rural Kentucky. The spiritual terrain they are exploring is fertile indeed, seeded with everything from […]
TOP STORY: FIRST-PERSON THEOLOGY: Where was God when the plane crashed?
By RNS Blog Editor — July 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Frederick Houk Borsch is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. This article is adapted from his new book,”Outrage and Hope,”published by Trinity Press International.) (UNDATED) God did not intervene to prevent the tragic crash Wednesday near New York of a TWA jet bound for Paris, just as he […]
TOP STORY: RELIGION AND CULTURE: Does prayer help the medicine go down?
By RNS Blog Editor — July 18, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _”I’m an honest-to-God doctor,”said Larry Dossey, grinning at his pun. Dossey _ a physician, best-selling author and executive editor of the journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine _ is a proponent of synthesizing spirituality and science.”Faith empowers science,”he said during a recent visit to Washington.”If you join reason […]
FEATURE STORY: Modern-day Moses carves Ten Commandments
By Corrie Mitchell — July 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments carved in stone. Steve Williams stepped down from his Safeway semi-truck with the same religious edicts etched in two types of marble and slate. Tradition holds that Moses received the commandments directly from God. Williams’ inspiration came […]
A guide to women’s spiritual renewal
By RNS Blog Editor — July 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service. (UNDATED) Hundreds of thousands of men have joined the Promise Keepers movement, a Colorado-based Christian organization established in 1991 to renew men’s commitment to their faith and their families. And now, women are getting into the act. Here’s a list of new women’s groups, independent of Promise Keepers, but designed […]
TOP STORY: TENSIONS IN THE WEST BANK: Ancient Hebron a key site in saga of Israeli turmoil
By Elaine Fletcher — June 18, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service “And Sarah died in Qiryat Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan … and Abraham stood up from before his dead and spoke to the sons of Het, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying place with you […]
COMMENTARY: As others sleep, a monk-in-training keeps a prayerful vigil
By Ashbel S. (Tony) Green — June 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Frederica Mathewes-Green is a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. She is the author of the recent book”Real Choices”and a frequent contributor to Christianity Today magazine.) (RNS)-“It’s dark outside my window, yet the birds are already busy singing and seem to know that the sun will soon rise.” Thus begins […]
NEWS STORY: Judge orders Mississippi district to end school prayer
By Carl Anderson — June 4, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-U.S. District Court Judge Neal Biggers on Monday (June 3) ordered a Mississippi school district to end religious activity in the classroom, including vocal prayers heard over the school’s intercom. “The Bill of Rights was created to protect the minority from tyranny by the majority,”Biggers said, adding an apparent reference […]
NEWS STORY: Judge orders Mississippi district to end school prayer
By Carl Anderson — June 4, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-U.S. District Court Judge Neal Biggers on Monday (June 3) ordered a Mississippi school district to end religious activity in the classroom, including vocal prayers heard over the school’s intercom. “The Bill of Rights was created to protect the minority from tyranny by the majority,”Biggers said, adding an apparent reference […]
TOP STORY: SPIRITUALITY: Listening for God in the silence of meditation
By Chris Smith — May 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-After working with the homeless and drug addicted for several years, Mike Little felt overwhelmed by frustration and cynicism. Then he learned about”centering prayer,”a modern method of tapping into the ancient Christian tradition of contemplation. Now, twice a day for 20 minutes, Little sits in silence, closes his eyes and […]
COMMENTARY: Some prisoners do change for the better
By RNS Blog Editor — May 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.) (RNS)-There was great rejoicing a few weeks ago when, after many years in prison, one of my parishioners went home. The […]
Church of the First Born practices a strict faith
By Ben Finley — April 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service ALBANY, Ore. (RNS)-It is written in the Bible’s book of Esther and again in Ezra that the people fasted by the river so they might merit protection from the Lord. More than 100 members of the Church of the First Born gathered this week (April 21-27) in Brownsville, Ore., to […]
