social issues
COMMENTARY: Interfaith marriage not made in heaven
By RNS Blog Editor — May 22, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Eli Hecht is a member of Judaism’s Lubavitch Hasidic sect. He is director of Chabad of South Bay in Lomita, Calif., and vice-president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. He can be reached on via e-mail at rabbieh(at)aol.com.) (RNS)-There was once a man who had two wives. The younger […]
RNS Daily Digest
By Carl Anderson — May 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Rwandan refugees killed in monastery in Zaire (RNS)-At least 10 Tutsis, taking refuge in a French-run monastery in Zaire, have been killed by rival Hutus in an action reminiscent of the 1994 ethnic genocide in Rwanda, news agencies reported Thursday (May 16).”About 10 bodies … were found by the International […]
COMMENTARY: Father of the bride
By Brendan Kirby — May 7, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Eds: Robert Kirby is a Mormon humorist and columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune. Check RNS Online for his photo.) (RNS)-My Mormon ancestors were polygamists, but lately I’ve been wondering how they could afford to get married more than once. I just finished marrying off my daughter, and it cost […]
NEWS STORY: Conservative Jewish leaders condemn intermarriage
By Ira Rifkin — May 7, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-The united leadership of Judaism’s Conservative movement has issued its strongest condemnation ever of interfaith marriage, urging Jewish parents and young people to recognize the threat that the growing number of Jews marrying non-Jews poses to the faith’s continued survival.”We want Jews to marry other Jews,”the 2,000-word policy statement bluntly […]
NEWS STORY: Vatican enters fray over late-term abortions
By RNS Blog Editor — April 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS)-The Vatican stepped into the politically charged debate over late-term abortions Friday (April 19), saying President Clinton’s veto last week of a bill that would have barred the rare procedure was”shameful”and a”brutal act of aggression against innocent life.” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls denied that the Roman Catholic Church […]
Environment chief sees U.S. caught between flood and the rainbow
By Carl Anderson — April 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service PHOENIX (RNS)-Contending that divergent views on the environment have the nation caught”between the flood and the rainbow,”U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt urged American religious bodies to join the fray over conservation laws and stand fast in efforts to protect natural environment. Speaking Thursday (April 11) to the annual […]
NEWS STORY: California court says landlords cannot refuse to rent to unmarried couples
By RNS Blog Editor — April 11, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service SAN FRANCISCO (RNS)-In a long-awaited case pitting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act against state open-housing laws, the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Tuesday (April 9) that landlords may not refuse to rent to unmarried couples on grounds of religious belief. The case involved landlady Evelyn Smith in the Northern California […]
COMMENTARY: Betting on Bob
By RNS Blog Editor — April 2, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail at 71421,1551(at sign)compuserve.com.) (RNS)-There’s a struggle under way for the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Reform Jewish leaders increasingly concerned by interfaith marriages
By Ira Rifkin — March 28, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Reform Judaism-the faith’s largest branch in North America with some 1.4-million members-has long been characterized by its liberal approach to interfaith marriages, accepting them as a fact of life in an open society. Currently, about 60 percent of Reform Jews are marrying non-Jews. In some southern and western states, the […]
NEWS STORY: Abortion foes call for more debate
By Adelle M. Banks — March 19, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Leading figures in the anti-abortion movement have issued a statement outlining their opposition to abortion and challenging Americans to further debate on the divisive issue.”The America We Seek: A Statement of Pro-Life Principle and Concern”appears in the March 25 issue of National Review, a conservative opinion journal.”Our goal is simply […]
TOP STORY: UNIFICATION CHURCH: Moon church takes a low profile in India
By Tim Murphy — February 15, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service MOOLAVATTOM, India (RNS)-It is a small, obscure town in India’s southern state of Kerala, in the heart of one of the nation’s largest, most conservative Christian communities. Yet Moolavattom is where the Unification Church, founded in Korea in 1954 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, has set up its southern […]
Religious leader proposes major initiative on girls’ education
By Carl Anderson — February 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, is proposing an interfaith effort in the United States and abroad to promote education for girls, including training about sexuality. Girls have a right to education, Campbell said, but she added that such an effort also […]
TOP STORY: JUDAISM AND HISTORY: Rome’s ancient Jewish ghetto to be studied anew
By RNS Blog Editor — February 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service ROME (RNS)-How many more revelations could possibly be unearthed about one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities whose past has been thoroughly picked over and examined? Jewish leaders say that a private $50,000 grant to modernize their archives dating to 1555 could, in fact, fill in historical and biographical gaps […]
NEWS STORY: Evangelical group launches campaign backing Endangered Species Act
By Adelle M. Banks — February 1, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-Saying the environment is a creation of God that must be protected, a group of evangelicals announced Wednesday (Jan. 31) a million-dollar media campaign to urge Congress not to weaken the Endangered Species Act.”Human beings are called to be stewards of God’s gorgeous garden,”Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for […]
BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP: Did Jesus have brothers? Some scholars say yes
By RNS Blog Editor — January 30, 1996
Some prominent Catholic biblical scholars, bypassing centuries-old church doctrine that Mary was a lifelong virgin, say that indeed had brothers.
