Government & Politics
David E. Anderson named RNS editor
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Longtime Washington religion correspondent David E. Anderson will become editor of Religion News Service on Jan. 1, RNS Editor Joan Connell announced today.”Dave Anderson has the soul of a newsman, the mind of a theologian and a well-earned reputation as a journalist of integrity, intelligence and depth. I […]
TOP STORY: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: The year in religion: A time to build up, a time to break down
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In the world of religion and ethics, 1996 was a time of mending ties and breaking them, of bridges built and churches burned and safety nets unraveling for the poor. Deep fissures _ social and sexual, ethnic and racial, political and theological _ tore at the fabric of […]
NEWS STORY: HUNGER IN AMERICA: U.S. has more hungry kids than any western nation, poverty group says
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Child poverty and hunger is more widespread in the United States than in any other industrialized nation and the government does less than any other country’s government to pull its children out of poverty, Bread for the World said Wednesday (Oct. 16).”The child poverty rate in the United […]
Quaker pastor: West remains deaf to the agony of Burundi
By Carl Anderson — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ David Niyonzima, sitting in the quiet comfort of a breakfast meeting here thousands of miles from his native Burundi, studied the food on his plate as if the words he searched for might be there.”You get the news,”he told a group of reporters and peace activists, referring to […]
PERSPECTIVE: JEWISH POWER: In media and politics, Jewish power is real, but has its limits
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Author J.J. Goldberg has broken a time-honored Jewish taboo. He has dared to discuss openly the power that Jews have in American society, mere mention of which often prompts hyper-sensitive Jewish defense organizations to cry foul. American Jews, said Goldberg, author of the newly published”Jewish Power: Inside the […]
NEWS STORY: Despite historic accord, Vatican-Israel relations far from smooth
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Three years after the Vatican and Israel agreed to establish diplomatic relations, efforts to extend that agreement to everyday reality remain hampered by painful Jewish memories of the past and the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Arabs, a prominent Israeli rabbi and American Catholic official said Thursday (Nov. […]
Peace prize for East Timor activists draws praise and blame
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) _ When a Roman Catholic bishop and an exiled political activist from East Timor were chosen to receive the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize world attention was focused on a long-simmering but long-ignored dispute _ the struggle by primarily Catholic East Timor to gain its independence from Indonesia, the world’s […]
TOP STORY: ANATOMY OF AN ATONEMENT: Free-form spirituality marks Farrakhan’s `Holy Day of Aton
By Ira Rifkin — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ For two and a half hours Wednesday (Oct. 16), the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan stood in a bullet-proof glass enclosure in the shadow of the United Nations and preached fire and brimstone. He expounded on Cain and Abel and the roots of human violence. He inveighed […]
NEWS STORY: Interfaith meeting reignites rancor between Southern Baptists and Jews
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service STAMFORD, Conn. _ Kitty Cohen is a Holocaust survivor from Israel; Philip P. Roberts is a Southern Baptist official who directs his denomination’s interfaith witness activities. Put them in the same room to discuss a controversial Southern Baptist missionary program to Jews and they personify the inherent difficulties of interfaith […]
Rabbits to Rwanda and other gifts for those who have nothing
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED _ There are those who complain about the glut and the greed of the American celebration of Christmas, even as they prowl the malls and comb the catalogs to secure the perfect gift for the man, woman or child who has everything. While mailboxes bulge with publications full of […]
Rabbits to Rwanda and other gifts for those who have nothing
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED _ There are those who complain about the glut and the greed of the American celebration of Christmas, even as they prowl the malls and comb the catalogs to secure the perfect gift for the man, woman or child who has everything. While mailboxes bulge with publications full of […]
TOP STORY: SEEKING REFUGE: As Germany prepares to evict Bosnians, churches fight back
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service BERLIN _ Religious leaders and refugee advocates here are in an uproar over the recent decision by the German government to force many of the estimated 320,000 Bosnian refugees who have sought safety in Germany to go back home. According to a new policy that went into effect Tuesday (Oct. […]
COMMENTARY: The spirit of King Herod is alive and well
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail at 71421.1551(at)compuserve.com.) UNDATED _ Revelations of large cash donations to […]
SPECIAL REPORT: RELIGION’S EFFECT ON ELECTION ‘96
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Commentaries on the political obliteration of Robert J. Dole are focusing on gender gaps, rank miscalculations, increasing abrasiveness and a truncated speaking style. They also speak of the candidate’s age and perhaps even snafus such as the unscheduled plunge off a stage in Chico, Calif. But most pundits overlook […]
COMMENTARY: Whitewater pardons: Shall the law be king?
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail at 71421.1551(at)compuserve.com.) UNDATED _ Pre-election speculation about potential pardons for […]
