Wicca & New Age
TOP STORY: RELIGION AND POLITICS: Liberals look to spirit to invigorate their movement
By Ira Rifkin — April 18, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-Torie Osborn, former executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Janet Winter, a member of the Bruderhof sect, a theologically conservative communal Christian group, lead lives that appear galaxies apart. Yet there they both were, Osborn in jeans and Winter wearing an ankle-length skirt and […]
COMMENTARY: A pastor attacked for advocating pluralism
By James Rudin — April 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (RNS)-A bitter dispute currently unfolding in a small Michigan town has profound implications for Christian-Jewish relations everywhere. Richard Rhem, the 61-year-old pastor of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, may be expelled from his denomination, the Reformed […]
TOP STORY: RELIGION AND POLITICS: Vying for the pro-family mantle
By RNS Blog Editor — April 13, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the fight over American values, the turf war over “family” is fierce. Last May, the Christian Coalition unveiled its 10-point plan called “Contract with the America Family.” It promotes school prayer, restriction of abortion and abolition of the Department of Education. Now, religious activists on the left are […]
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 […]
Mainstream issues to dominate Methodist conference
By Carl Anderson — April 11, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Baptism, ordained ministry and ecumenical accords will top the agenda when the United Methodist Church convenes its General Conference in Denver next week. And while abortion and homosexuality will not necessarily dominate this year’s discussions, tensions will be evident among liberal and conservative members of the 8.6 million-member denomination. The […]
TOP STORY: NATURAL DEATH AND ASSISTED SUICIDE: A father’s death: How God surprises us in dark
By RNS Blog Editor — April 9, 1996
c. 1996 Christianity Today (Wendy Murray Zoba is an associate editor of Christianity Today magazine.) (RNS)-One of the saddest essays I have ever read appeared in the New Yorker magazine in May 1995, written by a young man, Andrew Solomon, who was coming to terms with his mother’s death. She had been battling cancer-and lost. […]
NEWS FEATURE: Modern-day meditators rediscover ancient technique
By Bruce Nolan — March 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS (RNS)-Aimee Dominique walked slowly over the footpath in the semi-darkness, eyes down, hand over her heart, lost in thought. Gregorian chant and candlelight filled the room. Sally Gale walked a similar path a few feet away, to her enormous surprise weeping quietly but not self-consciously. Sister Adele Lambert, […]
TOP STORY: TRENDS AND RESEARCH: Do pollster’s religious beliefs affect his research?
By Alan Chambers — March 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service PRINCETON, N.J. (RNS)-The Gallup Poll, known worldwide as a barometer of public opinion, helps America pick its presidents and form its policies. Over the past four decades, however, the heir to the Gallup name has focused on a higher power as he has carved a niche for himself in the […]
TOP STORY: JUDAISM: Jewish outreach joins the Exodus as a Passover topic this year
By Ira Rifkin — March 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-This Passover, Susan V. Gelmis-the daughter of a Catholic father and a Jewish mother who raised her as a Christian-will again host a Seder at her home in Berkeley, Calif. As always, she will make it a point to invite Jewish friends who have little connection to their religious roots. […]
Denominational Report
By RNS Blog Editor — February 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Following is a collection of news stories compiled from RNS staff, wire and denominational reports). Vatican delays acting on views of gay ministry leaders (RNS)-The Vatican has delayed deciding whether the theological views of the Rev. Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick, founders of a controversial ministry with gays and […]
A covenant on racial reconciliation
By RNS Blog Editor — February 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service ATLANTA (RNS)-Leaders of Promise Keepers, an evangelical Christian men’s movement, signed an”Atlanta Covenant”at the close of a conference for clergy Thursday (Feb. 15). The covenant, cast as an agreement between God and the pastors, is an expansion of the seven promises members of the movement are asked to embrace. Many […]
Global Religion Report
By RNS Blog Editor — February 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Following is a collection of international religion stories compiled by RNS staff, wire and denominational reports.) State Department criticizes Farrakhan visits to Iran, Libya (RNS)-The State Department has condemned Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan for”cavorting”with leaders of Iran and Libya-countries the United States considers sponsors of international terrorism.”It’s shameful […]
Maverick theologian Matthew Fox quits Holy Names College, strikes out on own
By RNS Blog Editor — February 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service OAKLAND, Calif. (RNS)-Breaking his last formal tie with Roman Catholicism, maverick theologian Matthew Fox will leave Oakland’s College of the Holy Names in May to establish a new, independent educational institution, the”University of Creation Spirituality.” Holy Names, a small Catholic college, has been home to Fox’s Institute in Culture and […]
COMMENTARY: A beginner’s guide to meditation
By RNS Blog Editor — February 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Aaron Zerah is an interfaith minister in Santa Cruz, Calif.) Blessed is the one who does not walk In the counsel of the unrighteous … But delights in the teaching of the Divine. And on this teaching meditates day and night. Such a one is like a tree planted by […]
National Religion Report
By RNS Blog Editor — January 25, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Following is a collection of domestic religion stories compiled from RNS staff, wire and denominational reports). Supreme Court allows $1.5 million judgment against Christian Scientists (RNS)-The Supreme Court Monday (Jan. 22) let stand a Minnesota appeals court’s $1.5 million damage judgment against four Christian Scientists, including the mother of a […]
