interfaith
COMMENTARY: This sports madness, too, shall pass
By James Rudin — August 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) It comes as no surprise that Americans are increasingly obsessed with sports. Athletic competition has so permeated our psyches, our culture and our political thinking that it has become a new kind of religion, with its […]
TOP STORY: MISSION TO MARS: How will earthlings talk to aliens about God?
By Chris Smith — August 15, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When people talk about a mission to Mars, they probably don’t have Father Peregrine in mind. In Ray Bradbury’s”Martian Chronicles,”a popular science fiction series from the 1940s and `50s, Peregrine leads a group of earnest Episcopalian missionaries to Mars, joining thousands of other human colonists. Notions of advanced life […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NCC delegation finds Christianity”vital and alive”in China (RNS) Members of a National Council of Churches (NCC) delegation who have just returned from China say they found that the Christian church there is growing but facing a number of challenges.”We saw a church very vital and alive,”said the Rev. Joan Brown […]
COMMENTARY: Five years of seeking grist for the columnist’s mill
By James Rudin — August 9, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) I’ve been writing a weekly Religion News Service column for five years, and this anniversary provides a convenient excuse for some personal reflections. It is also a chance to publicly answer readers’ letters. My favorite column? […]
COMMENTARY: Diary of a Congressional witness
By James Rudin — August 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) I recently presented testimony in Washington, D.C., before the House Judiciary Subcommittee that is considering a constitutional amendment on religion. Two entries in my diary speak volumes about the current religious and political climate in America. […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 31, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Praise for broadcasters’ pledge on children’s television (RNS) Advocates of better television programming for children Tuesday (July 30) generally voiced support for the agreement President Clinton wrung from broadcasters to provide three hours a week of children’s educational broadcasting. The compromise pact, which came out of a White House meeting […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 30, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Buddhist monk urges end to `land mines of the heart’ (RNS) A Cambodian Buddhist monk and a prominent Lutheran pastor joined Monday (July 29) in calling for a total ban on the production, export and use of anti-personnel land mines.”We come here to pray for peace and a world free […]
Orthodox Christians say goodbye to a man for all seasons
By RNS Blog Editor — July 30, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ The memorial service had just concluded for the Rev. James Reeb, a Boston minister beaten to death in 1965 by white toughs in Selma, Ala., who could not abide the idea of a white man defending a black man’s cause. Standing beside Martin Luther King, Jr. and […]
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 […]
COMMENTARY: An exercise in political correctness taken to extremes
By James Rudin — July 26, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) For far too long, college and university courses about Jews, blacks, women, Hispanics and American Indians were systemically excluded from the academic scene. While members of these communities have often been a visible presence as students, […]
TOP STORY: Religion or ethics: German schools in a quandary
By RNS Blog Editor — July 26, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service POTSDAM, Germany _ High school students beginning a new academic year here this fall will be studying ethics and philosophy in a controversial course that has become a battleground between secularists and the nation’s established churches. The Evangelical Church of Germany and the Roman Catholic Church have joined forces with […]
COMMENTARY: Casting stones at Pharisees
By James Rudin — July 19, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) Ellen F. Cooke, the former national treasurer of the Episcopal Church, was recently sentenced in federal court to five years in prison for embezzling $1.5 million in church funds and evading $300,000 in income taxes. Cooke’s […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 19, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service A pope-Castro meeting? It’s possible (RNS) Fidel Castro may not be welcome on U.S. soil, but the Cuban communist leader could find a warmer reception at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II. The possibility of Castro meeting with the pope _ which has not formally been requested by either […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — July 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Churches urge U.S. action on environment (RNS) The National Council of Churches and a dozen Protestant and Orthodox bodies called Tuesday (July 16) for greater U.S. leadership in reducing the emission of”greenhouse gases”that many scientists believe are changing the Earth’s climate.”These are profound issues of global justice,”the Rev. Joan Brown […]
COMMENTARY: Beware the `W”word
By James Rudin — July 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (UNDATED) Preachers of every faith have long employed a special vocabulary to do battle with their adversaries. The S-words, for instance _”sin,””secular,”and”Satan”_ have always been like laser-guided smart bombs in the clergy’s verbal attack arsenal. But the […]
