faith
COMMENTARY: On Good Friday, did Jesus feel like a failure?
By Dale Hanson Bourke — March 28, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of Religion News Service.) (RNS)-Jesus was fully human and fully divine. It is one of the basic tenets of Christian theology and one of the great paradoxes of history. And during this Christian holy season, much of the pomp […]
NEWS STORY: Bishop threatens to excommunicate Catholics in `incompatible’ groups
By Adelle M. Banks — March 26, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-The Roman Catholic bishop of Lincoln, Neb., is threatening to excommunicate Catholic members of a dozen groups whose ideas he considers incompatible with church teachings. Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz said he has forbidden Catholics in his southern Nebraska diocese from belonging to Planned Parenthood, the Freemasons, the Hemlock Society, Catholics for […]
TOP STORY: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Ousted French bishop makes cyberspace his pulpit
By RNS Blog Editor — March 26, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service PARIS (RNS)-He was removed from his diocese by Pope John Paul II for spouting progressive views. But one year later, Monsignor Jacques Gaillot has eluded the church by connecting with followers on the World Wide Web. Often described as the church’s first”virtual bishop,”Gaillot says he will not be denied his […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Southern Baptist leader Charles Stanley’s wife drops divorce suit (RNS)-Television preacher and prominent Southern Baptist pastor Charles Stanley appears to no longer be in danger of losing his pulpit now that his wife has dropped a divorce suit against him. Anna Stanley filed for divorce nearly three years ago, but […]
COMMENTARY: Memories of two Seders, bitter and sweet
By James Rudin — March 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (RNS)-I always look forward to the Passover Seder and to the stories, prayers, foods and songs of this festive family meal. But when Passover begins on Wednesday evening (April 3), I will be looking back. The year […]
Publicity-shy priests guide two Catholic papers
By RNS Blog Editor — March 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Two national Catholic newspapers sold last year to a group with ties to an obscure priestly order, the Legion of Christ, have moved from California to Connecticut. And the New Haven suburbs have become the U.S. base for the priests, familiarly known as the Legionaries, one of Catholicism’s rapidly growing […]
Churches raise a stink about too-fragrant worshipers
By RNS Blog Editor — March 15, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service SAN FRANCISCO (RNS)-On bended knee and with folded hands, Christians traditionally worship their God. Many also come to church bearing unwelcome gifts of overpowering personal fragrance-Chanel No.5, Obsession, White Shoulders or Brut. Now, in the dawning age of”multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS),”a Sunday-morning ablution in after-shave or cologne could become a […]
COMMENTARY: Try a V-chip on the Bible
By James Rudin — March 15, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Installing V-chips in televisions to filter out objectionable programming is the latest idea to protect youngsters from programs containing violence and sex. Politicians-including President Clinton-may favor installing the device, but the V-chip won’t work because it’s another futile attempt to use technology to solve moral problems, something we can only […]
Federal investigators seek links in burnings of black churches
By Val Walton — March 9, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS)-Federal officials say they have found no evidence of any widespread conspiracy behind the many suspicious fires that have destroyed black churches across the South recently, although one investigator says some of the fires are “likely connected.” A 19-year-old white volunteer firefighter was arrested Wednesday (March 6) in […]
TOP STORY: THE TEMPLETON PRIZE: Campus Crusade founder wins $1 million prize
By Adelle M. Banks — March 7, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ 45 years ago and turned it into an evangelical ministry in 165 countries, won the 1996 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion Wednesday (March 6). The prize is valued at more than $1 million. Bright, 74, a former oil and specialty-foods executive, […]
A look at two ecumenical initiatives
By RNS Blog Editor — March 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-These are the major ecumenism proposals to be acted on before the end of 1997: Nine denominations, organized into a group called the Consultation on Church Union, plan to form a Church of Christ Uniting (COCU). Highlights of the plan commit the churches to: -Recognize each other as legitimate churches. […]
TOP STORY: THE CHURCH IN TRANSITION: New spirit of ecumenism taking hold among U.S. churches
By Carl Anderson — March 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-United Church of Christ minister Tim Downs remembers the day he suggested to a friend-the pastor of a neighboring Lutheran church in New England-that the two bring their congregations together for a joint Holy Communion service. The idea seemed logical to Downs. Both the UCC and Lutheran congregations believe in […]
Traveling in the footsteps of the prophet
By Cecile Holmes — March 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Jim Green looked across the Sea of Galilee and felt a strong connection to his spiritual ancestry. As he sat in the tourist boat, the Southern Baptist from Mobile, Ala., concluded the scenery didn’t look much different than it did 2,000 years earlier, when, according to Christian Scripture, Jesus floated […]
COMMENTARY: Women clergy face formidable challenges
By James Rudin — March 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the National Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee.) (RNS)-No one is neutral about feminism’s impact on contemporary Judaism and Christianity. Today, women rabbis, women priests and women ministers are increasingly doing the pastoral work once strictly the domain of men. Women are leading congregations, counseling […]
Russian Orthodox suspend ties with Ecumenical Patriarch
By RNS Blog Editor — February 29, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-As the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksy II presided at a liturgy Feb. 23 in Moscow’s Cathedral of the Epiphany, he omitted from the day’s prayers the name of the pre-eminent leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. It was a startling omission, the first time in the […]
