Law & Court
COMMENTARY: Sometimes it seems Americans really are uncivilized
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.) UNDATED _ I sometimes get angry at those smug Europeans, especially the French, who […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service Rwanda sentences two priest to death for genocide crimes (RNS) A Rwandan court has sentenced two Roman Catholic priests to death after finding them guilty of organizing the execution of some 2,000 people _ mostly members of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority _ in a church during the 1994 genocide in the […]
NEWS STORY: Controversial elective Bible classes begin in Florida
By Adelle M. Banks — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ A controversial Bible history class based on the Old Testament has been introduced in Lee County, Fla., public high schools following a ruling by a federal judge that the course could begin. The course was a target of a suit by church-state separationists. Wayne Perry, public information officer […]
NEWS STORY: Study: Younger Catholics staying in church
By David Briggs — January 1, 1998
c. 1998 Religion News Service MONTREAL _ The Catholics are staying. The Catholics are staying. In a major new study of post-baby boom Roman Catholics ages 20 to 39, researchers have found nine in 10 people who were confirmed as adolescents have kept the faith of their youth, and three in four said they could […]
COMMENTARY: Without ethics we create false profits
By Dale Hanson Bourke — April 11, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of Religion News Service.) UNDATED _ No drumrolls announce their arrivals; they are rarely illuminated in spotlights. Instead, they slip into our lives when we are busy or distracted, tired or riding high. They are defining moments; but at the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Faith helps Maureen Kanka deal with life after Megan
By Barbara Miller — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service HAMILTON, N.J. _ Just hours after learning that her daughter Megan had been murdered, Maureen Kanka opened her door and, she said, unexpectedly encountered God on her front lawn. “That Saturday evening, there were hundreds of people here,” Kanka said,recalling the gathering of those who had helped search for Megan. […]
COMMENTARY: Struggling with the octopus commandment: forgiveness
By Leslie Williams — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Leslie Williams is a professor of literature and author of”Night Wrestling”(Word).) UNDATED _ March 29, 1992. A Sunday supper of beans and cornbread. A novel left open on the couch. Suddenly, two young men shoulder their way through the front door. With a tire iron and a cedar post, they […]
COMMENTARY: Why do men hate women?
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.) UNDATED _ I am constantly astonished at the hatred some men feel toward women. […]
COMMENTARY: Can a Christian support the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh?
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Kenneth Craycraft teaches moral theology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.) UNDATED _ As the jury for the Timothy McVeigh trial seeks to determine the appropriate punishment for the convicted bomber of the Oklahoma City federal building, one point of view will be starkly absent. No one will […]
NEWS FEATURE: Despite polls and set-backs, death penalty foes struggle on
By Kristen Campbell — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Late last month, as the date neared for the execution of convicted murderer and rapist Joseph O’Dell, death penalty foes worldwide, including Pope John Paul II, voiced their opposition. But after O’Dell’s life was ended by the commonwealth of Virginia, the prominent and the powerful, their voices unheeded, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service ABA urges moratorium on”seriously flawed”death penalty (RNS) The American Bar Association has called for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, saying the nation’s implementation of capital punishment is”a haphazard maze of unfair practices.” Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the ABA’s House of Delegates voted 280-119 Monday (Feb. 3) to […]
COMMENTARY: The Bible’s silent presence in a courtroom
By Tom Ehrich — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com.) UNDATED _ Bibles lie on our chairs in the jury pool room. Nice touch, I think to myself. Gives people something to read. Then we are asked to stand, […]
COMMENTARY: Justice is a matter of the heart, not the law
By Tom Ehrich — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com) UNDATED _ As one who devoured”Runaway Jury”in a single weekend, I understand why the courtroom dramas of John Grisham sell bigtime. Not only are writers like Grisham and Scott […]
COMMENTARY: Certainty and the essence of faith
By Tom Ehrich — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com). UNDATED _ As angry letters go, this one was mild. But I was struck by the writer’s assertion that a”true Christian”wouldn’t hold my views.”How can she be so certain?”I […]
TOP STORY: ETHICS AND SOCIETY: Idaho prosecutor’s use of fornication law to fight teen pregnan
By RNS Blog Editor — June 28, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service EMMETT, Idaho _ A note arrived from the principal’s office as Amanda Smisek, great with child, sat in class this spring at her high school here. The message: A detective at the city police station wanted to speak with her. “I thought someone must have got into trouble and they […]
