Islam
FEATURE STORY: New Jewish blessings for an impersonal God
By Julia Lieblich — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In the ground-breaking new”Book of Blessings,”feminist poet and Hebrew translator Marcia Falk has created new metaphors for God that transcend the personal and human form in which God is normally addressed. Gone, for example, is the traditional opening of Jewish prayers:”Praised are you, Lord Our God, King of […]
NEWS FEATURE: Greek Orthodox holiday sheds light on evolution of religion
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ On clear, summer nights, according to Greek Orthodox tradition, the biblical prophet Elijah _ standing upright in a flaming chariot drawn by four horses _ can still be glimpsed roaring across the sky. Indeed, in Greece and wherever Greek Orthodox churches are named after him, Sunday (July 20) […]
TOP STORY: GENESIS, RETOLD: In Moyers series, Genesis resonates with meaning for all faiths
By Ira Rifkin — October 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) By all accounts, it was a marvelous conversation. Once a month, some two dozen biblical scholars, novelists, poets, theologians and others gathered in a private dining room at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to discuss over a leisurely dinner the biblical Book of Genesis. The conversations _ […]
TOP STORY: CHURCH AND STATE: In Colorado, `Murphy’s law’ would end church tax exemptions
By RNS Blog Editor — October 19, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. _ Colorado voters are no strangers to touchy church-state battles. And in November they’ll vote on the nation’s first state referendum on the complex and emotional issue of whether states should tax the property of churches, charities and nonprofit organizations. Amendment 11 would change the state constitution […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 18, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Refugee group urges continued sanctions on Burundi (RNS) The U.S. Committee for Refugees says the international community should continue to press Burundi’s Tutsi-dominated government to begin negotiations with ethnic Hutu rebels.”African nations should continue to impose economic sanctions, with support from Western governments, until negotiations occur,”the non-profit agency said in […]
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 […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — October 4, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Jesus seminar to discuss its future at upcoming meeting (RNS) For more than a decade, the Jesus Seminar _ a group of religion and biblical scholars that has popularized the scholarly search for the historical Jesus _ has deconstructed the text of the New Testament Gospels in an attempt to […]
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 […]
For many Americans, church is alien territory
By Greg Garrison — August 30, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Church attendance has suffered a five-year decline and sunk to its lowest level in two decades, according to research by the Barna Research Group of Glendale, Calif. “From the early ’80s to the early ’90s, there has been a definite change,” said the Rev. Bruce Hose, who was […]
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 […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — August 27, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Muslim groups seek greater political involvement (RNS) Muslim Women for America, a new organization aimed at increasing the political influence of Muslim women, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced plans Monday (Aug. 26) to register Muslims to vote and get more Muslims to the voting booth on Election Day. […]
MEDIA STORY: HOLLYWOOD AND THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT: A cinematic battle between the reprehensible and the
By Steve Rabey — August 22, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It’s been a thrilling, chilling blockbuster movie season this summer, as films like “Twister,” “The Rock,” and “Independence Day” played to packed theaters and toyed with Americans’ fears about attacks from the violence of nature, well-armed terrorists, and space aliens. But the latest high-octane action-adventure film exposes a threat […]
TOP STORY: THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Assignment Africa: AME bishops travel far from hom
By Adelle M. Banks — August 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (WASHINGTON) On his last Sunday as pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop William P. DeVeaux baptized a baby, showed off his church’s basement expansion and preached a poignant sermon of farewell.”If God loves you and you understand that, it will be all right,”he assured his congregation.”It’s love that […]
POLITICAL STORY: MUSLIMS, JEWS AND THE GOP: For Muslims and Jews, Christian right influence tests lo
By Ira Rifkin — August 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service SAN DIEGO _ Elisia Abrams and Syed R. Mahmood have little in common. Abrams is an 18-year-old Jewish college student from Rockville, Md., while Mahmood is a 52-year-old Muslim marketing consultant living in Union City, Calif. Despite their vastly different life experiences, there are two things they have in common: […]
