interfaith
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 20, 1996
c. 19). The pope has maintained silence on the recently renewed tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. But in a careful diplomatic response to the flare-up, the Vatican said in a statement that the two men dedicated part of their meeting to”an exchange of news and views on progress between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators and on […]
RNS Daily Digest
By Carl Anderson — November 5, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Israeli law would invalidate non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism (RNS) Israel’s Orthodox Jewish political parties announced plans Thursday (Oct. 31) to introduce legislation to invalidate Reform and Conservative conversions to Judaism in Israel. The Orthodox parties say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government supports the measure, the Jerusalem Post reported. Netanyahu so […]
NEWS FEATURE: BUDDHIST PEACEMAKER: Among Nobel contenders, a monk who sought to defuse hatred
By Chris Smith — October 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When the Nobel committee met Wednesday (Oct. 2) to decide who will be awarded the coveted Peace Prize to be announced Oct. 11, the list of nominees was a closely guarded secret. Nevertheless, word leaks out, mainly from those who have nominated. This year, several high-profile religious leaders and […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 19, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service United Church of Christ to enter the hotel business (RNS) The United Church of Christ has unveiled plans to build a seven-story, 93-room commercial hotel in downtown Cleveland that it hopes will help the 1.5 million-member denomination not only save but make money. “Having our own hotel could produce an […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Children’s Sabbath to be marked across the nation (RNS) In Alaska, members of Fairbanks Lutheran Church will pray for each child in their community by name. In Florida, sixth-graders at the Hebrew School of Temple Judea in West Palm Beach will raise money for a shelter for abused children. In […]
TOP STORY: SEEKING UNITY: Lutherans, Episcopalians on the brink of an historic accord
By Carl Anderson — October 4, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WHITE HAVEN, Pa. _ Signaling a major turn in the ecumenical movement in the United States, the bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) began gathering here Thursday (Oct. 3) to consider a plan to bring the denominations into full communion with one another. […]
COMMENTARY: O, Jerusalem: A tangle of religion and politics
By James Rudin — October 4, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) The recent violence in Jerusalem is a devastating reminder of how a volatile mix of religion and politics dominates the city. Diplomats must factor this inextricable relationship into any successful peace process. Even atheists and agnostics […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 4, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Spyridon condemns attack on Orthodox headquarters in Turkey (RNS) Archbishop Spyridon of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has condemned a grenade attack on the Istanbul, Turkey, compound of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, calling on President Clinton and political and religious leaders in the United States to join in the […]
COMMENTARY: Political wisdom from Israel’s ancient sages
By James Rudin — August 30, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) I’m steeling myself for a barrage of rhetoric in the coming months as presidential candidates Bill Clinton, Bob Dole and Ross Perot race to Election Day. In an act of self-defense against this inevitable verbal onslaught, […]
TOP STORY: MODERN MARTYRS: Before death, slain monk left a love letter for his killers
By Chris Smith — August 29, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) After seven kidnapped French Roman Catholic monks were reported slain by rebels in Algeria in May, their superiors in the Trappist order headed to the strife-torn nation to arrange their burial. A grisly discovery awaited them: The killers had returned only the severed heads of their victims. But despite […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 28, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service New York court rejects special district for Hasidic Jewish community (RNS) A school district specially created by the state of New York to accommodate the handicapped children of the Hasidic Jewish village of Kiryas Joel, is illegal, a state court ruled Monday (Aug. 26). The law creating the special district […]
COMMENTARY: Violence and vulnerability remain our constant companions
By James Rudin — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) FRUITLAND, Tenn. _ I recently visited the Salem Baptist Church in rural Fruitland, Tenn., as part of an interreligious delegation that was assembled by the National Council of Churches. Salem Baptist is one of the many black […]
What do American Jews believe in? Often, it’s not Judaism
By Karen Long — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Participating in a panel discussion in Cleveland on the ethical and legal implications of new genetic tests to predict breast cancer in Jewish women, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff fielded a rude question. A law professor in the audience stood up and announced that she was confused. She bluntly said […]
TOP STORY: CLINTON AND THE RELIGIOUS LEFT: Welfare bill may lead many on `religious left’ to s
By Carl Anderson — August 22, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ For Hillary Clinton, it takes a village to raise a child. But for some religious advocates of the poor, it takes a president to protect the most vulnerable among them _ and Bill Clinton has failed the test. As the Democrats gather in Chicago Monday (Aug. 26) to […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Kuwaiti Christian convicted of apostasy flees to U.S. (RNS) Hussein Qambar Ali, a Christian convert from Islam who was convicted of apostasy in Kuwait earlier this year, fled to the United States Saturday (Aug. 17) and is deciding whether to seek religious asylum here. Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Solidarity […]
