Judaism
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Southern Baptists, largest Protestant denomination, keep growing (RNS)-The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, continues to grow, with a slight increase in membership and a 4 percent increase in baptisms last year. Newly released statistics show that church membership reached 15,668,077 in 1995, an increase […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Relief workers’ efforts curtailed in Liberia, but officials plan to return (RNS)-Some relief groups that were aiding Liberia have had to pull out of the region, now torn with newly erupted factional violence, but hope to restart their work when the crisis ends. World Relief, the international assistance division of […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Mexican officials deny permission for Mormon temple (RNS)-An outcry from local Roman Catholics and concerns about urban development have led city officials in Monterrey, Mexico, to block the construction of what would have been the country’s second Mormon temple. The decision was reported Wednesday (April 10) in the newspaper La […]
COMMENTARY: Suddenly, the hospital room is a moral arena
By James Rudin — April 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (RNS)-Two recent federal court decisions on physician-assisted suicide have raised profound questions for America’s religious communities, issues that many clergy are ill-prepared to face. In March, a Washington state law banning medical suicides was struck down; in […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 11, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Bishop’s doctrine committee criticizes third edition of Catholic textbook (RNS)-The U.S. Catholic Bishops’ doctrine committee is criticizing the latest edition of the textbook”Catholicism,”saying it could prompt dissent. The popular textbook, by the Rev. Richard P. McBrien, is used in Catholic and Protestant educational institutions as well as in parish settings. […]
TOP STORY: AFTERMATH OF APARTHEID: Searching for the truth in a hate-scarred land
By RNS Blog Editor — April 11, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (RNS)-Wellington Moluli wore sunglasses in the dark sanctuary of the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg. Twig-thin with a slight tremor, Moluli spoke haltingly as he described his time in solitary confinement as a political prisoner.”I was a youth organizer for the ANC (African National Congress) in […]
COMMENTARY: HUMOR: A cranky commentary on the rites of spring
By Brendan Kirby — April 10, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Robert Kirby is a Mormon humorist and regular columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune.) (RNS)-Now that Easter Sunday has come and gone, I can’t resist asking an impertinent question. Why on this holiest of days do Christians choose to behave like pagans? The resurrection of Jesus is a central event […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 5, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service New York assisted-suicide ruling criticized (RNS)-Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston has called on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the April 2 ruling of a federal appeals court that overturned New York state’s ban on assisted suicide for the terminally ill.”How horribly sad it is, in this season of new […]
TOP STORY: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN EUROPE: France emblematic of dissent in European Catholicism
By RNS Blog Editor — April 5, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service PARIS (RNS)-Two months ago the French Bishops’ Conference surprised many of the country’s 42 million Catholics when for the first time it appeared to reverse church policy by endorsing the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. Progressives welcomed the decision as a step toward liberalizing church rules […]
RNS Daily Digest
By Carl Anderson — April 4, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Jews in China mark first communal Seder since end of World War II (RNS)-For the first time since World War II, Jews in China were scheduled to come together to hold a communal Passover Seder, the Lubavitch News Service reported Wednesday. The news service, the official news agency of the […]
TOP STORY: TIBETAN BUDDHISM: A sea change in Tibetan Buddhism’s links to the past
By Tim Murphy — April 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service DHARAMSALA, India (RNS)-When the Dalai Lama seeks insights into the future, he consults his oracle, a medium who wears an elaborate costume and headpiece that together weigh more than 100 pounds. The use of oracles, on the face of it, would appear to show that the mystical side of Tibetan […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 30, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Reform rabbis seek to tighten patrilineal descent policy (RNS)-Reform Judaism’s rabbinic body is undertaking a review of its controversial policy of patrilineal descent because of concerns it has been misunderstood by the laity. Patrilineal descent is the acceptance of a Jewish father’s children as Jews, even if the mother is […]
COMMENTARY: Catholic dissent and a bishop’s abuse of power
By RNS Blog Editor — March 30, 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.) (RNS)-The Irish have a word that perfectly describes Bishop […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — March 29, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service All-white Southern Baptist church decides to keep biracial child in grave (RNS)-The top social policy official of the Southern Baptist Convention has harshly criticized an all-white Southern Baptist church in Georgia whose leaders wanted to exhume the body of a baby from a church cemetery after learning the child was […]
NEWS STORY: Pope urges `new feminism’ for women in Catholic Church
By RNS Blog Editor — March 29, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS)-Pope John Paul II appears to have opened the door a bit further to the role of women in the Catholic Church, stating in a document released Thursday (March 28) that they should be encouraged to promote a”new feminism”in educational and decision-making roles. But the pope, in a […]
