Hinduism
NEWS FEATURE: Persecuted in Iran for her faith, Baha’i woman tells her story
By Ed White — April 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (RNS)-She never knew when it would happen. Sometimes it was every day, often more than once. The pain was excruciating as lash after lash tore the flesh from her tiny body for months at a time. Once, she lost so much blood that her cellmates feared she was […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 27, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Episcopal Church agrees to settle civil suit against former treasurer (RNS)-Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal Church has announced that the church reached an agreement to settle its civil suit against former treasurer Ellen F. Cooke, who pleaded guilty to embezzling church funds, and her husband, Nicholas T. […]
TOP STORY: JUDAISM IN AMERICA: Butchers have a beef with state kosher laws
By Chris Smith — March 27, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW YORK (RNS)-It wasn’t the $11,000 fine that hurt the most, say Long Island butchers Brian and Jeffrey Yarmeisch. It was the damage to their reputation in the Jewish community after they were cited in 1993 for violating New York state’s kosher food laws. Though the fine was soon rescinded, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Christian music sales grow at faster rate than other genres (RNS)-Gospel music sales are growing faster than sales of other major forms of popular music, according to a study released Thursday (March 21) by the Gospel Music Association. Between 1991 and 1995, gospel music has averaged 22 percent growth per […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Amnesty International slams China’s human rights record (RNS)-Amnesty International, the London-based human rights groups, said Tuesday (March 12) that despite giant economic strides, “human rights violations occur on a massive scale in China.” The international rights group’s criticism was contained in a 121-page report, “No One is Safe: Political Repression […]
TOP STORY: TRENDS AND RESEARCH: Do pollster’s religious beliefs affect his research?
By Alan Chambers — March 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service PRINCETON, N.J. (RNS)-The Gallup Poll, known worldwide as a barometer of public opinion, helps America pick its presidents and form its policies. Over the past four decades, however, the heir to the Gallup name has focused on a higher power as he has carved a niche for himself in the […]
Watchdog group says Texas church got political
By Ira Rifkin — March 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-A church-state watchdog group has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Houston’s Second Baptist Church-an influential, 22,000-member Southern Baptist congregation-for allegedly engaging in partisan political activities in violation of the federal tax code. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Tuesday […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 19, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Supreme Court to hear abortion protest limits case (RNS)-The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday (March 18) to review a case challenging whether a judge may impose a 15-foot buffer zone to keep anti-abortion demonstrators away from health facilities where abortions are performed. The 15-foot buffer zone is being challenged as […]
NEWS FEATURE: A controversial church and the poorest people on earth
By RNS Blog Editor — March 19, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service MAPUTO, Mozambique (RNS)-A young preacher paces the stage of the dilapidated Xenon cinema in downtown Maputo as a stereo gently plays a version of”Onward Christian Soldiers.” Over the next hour the preacher urges the packed audience to give all to God.”Give your love to your enemies and give generously to […]
TOP STORY: RELIGION AND CULTURE: Is ET having a close encounter with the Holy Land?
By RNS Blog Editor — March 19, 1996
c. 1996 The Jerusalem Report (RNS)-On Sunday, January 8, 1995, Herzl Ksantini was relaxing at home with a buddy in a small farming community in central Israel.”It was an ordinary evening on our moshav (village),”he says,”until suddenly, at 9 p.m., the house began to shake. It was like an earth tremor.” Ksantini opened the front […]
COMMENTARY: A pope should be chosen without secrecy
By RNS Blog Editor — March 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. His home page on the World Wide Web is at http://www.greeley.com. Or contact him at his e-mail address: agreel(at sign)aol.com. Check RNS Online for a photo of Andrew Greeley.) […]
At First United, black and white Baptists share a spiritual home
By Bruce Nolan — March 15, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS-It has been 30 years since that memorably dreadful day when Doris Viverito watched in shamed silence as the white deacons evicted a black woman who’d come to worship at Central Baptist Church. She was in her 20s then and Central Baptist, all-white and Southern Baptist, stood at the […]
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 […]
TOP STORY: SCHOOLS AND RELIGION: They’re taking their faith to school
By Adelle M. Banks — March 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service CONYERS, Ga. (RNS)-It’s 7:45 Monday morning at Heritage High School in Conyers, Ga., and from the home economics classroom come the sounds of hymns and prayers. Outside, throngs of students pass by with backpacks slung over their shoulders, apparently oblivious that worship is going on within the confines of this […]
TOP STORY: ASSISTED SUICIDE
By Carl Anderson — March 9, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-For many Americans, doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients has only begun to emerge as a high-profile public issue, on a par with abortion and capital punishment. But after two major legal developments this week upholding the”right-to-die,”professional ethicists are concerned that assisted suicide may soon become the law of […]