Monthly Archives: February 1996
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 […]
COMMENTARY: Everyone’s a critic
By Dale Hanson Bourke — February 15, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of Religion News Service.) (RNS)-“Never criticize, condemn or complain,”my father advised me regularly during my formative years. Avoiding the”3Cs”was one of the foundations of a Dale Carnegie class my father once took. He followed the advice loyally, believing it […]
Conference to explore `challenge’ of being religious in America
By RNS Blog Editor — February 15, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service STAMFORD, Conn. (RNS)-Organizers of a major national conference to promote Christian-Jewish relations to be held here in October say they want to pose an alternative to”religious extremists,”whom they blame for fragmenting the country.”We will be making a case for the moderate voice of religion,”said Rabbi Robert Lennick of Greenwich, one […]
Reported anti-Semitic acts declined in 1995, Jewish group reports
By Ira Rifkin — February 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Last year saw the largest one-year decrease in reported acts of anti-Semitism that the nation has witnessed in a decade, a Jewish defense organization said Tuesday. A total of 1,843 acts of violence, threats, harassment or vandalism directed against Jews or Jewish institutions were reported during 1995, according to the […]
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 […]
TOP STORY: MORALITY AND BEHAVIOR: Big ego, bad behavior: Scholar disputes linking low self-esteem, v
By RNS Blog Editor — February 14, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service CLEVELAND (RNS)-Enhancing self-esteem as an antidote to violent behavior is not only fruitless, it may even lead to aggression, a Case Western Reserve University psychology professor says. In an article that contradicts some widely held ideas about bad behavior, Roy F. Baumeister and two graduate students reviewed nearly 200 studies […]
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 […]
COMMENTARY: Religion has the power to heal physical and social ills
By RNS Blog Editor — February 13, 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)-Americans are obsessed with health. They also […]
TOP STORY: VATICAN AMBASSADOR: Flynn reaches settlement in campaign finance inquiry
By RNS Blog Editor — February 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service ROME (RNS)-Raymond Flynn, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and former Boston mayor, has avoided a potentially troubling civil lawsuit by agreeing to repay his former mayoral campaign committee $12,500 in personal expenses he acknowledges were improperly spent. The agreement with the Massachusetts attorney general also requires Flynn’s former mayoral campaign […]
Denominational Report
By Carl Anderson — February 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Following is a collection of news stories compiled from RNS staff, wire and denominational reports.) Justice department investigating arsons at black churches (RNS)-Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday the Justice Department is investigating a series of fires at predominantly black or integrated churches in southern states for possible violations of […]
Finding Buddha’s birthplace, faith and fact converge
By RNS Blog Editor — February 12, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-For a religion that asserts belief in a process of spiritual perfection over multiple lifetimes, the birthplace of a Buddhist might be considered an unremarkable thing. But an international team of archaeologists announced in Nepal this week that it had uncovered the site where the Buddha himself was born. It […]
COMMENTARY: Who will speak for the world’s persecuted Christians?
By RNS Blog Editor — February 12, 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: 71421,1551 at compuserve.com.) (RNS)-Nero was notorious for many things, including […]
Discovery of Buddha’s birthplace reveals more mysteries
By RNS Blog Editor — February 9, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED (RNS)-For a religion that asserts belief in a process of spiritual perfection achieved over multiple lifetimes, the birthplace of a Buddhist might be considered an unremarkable thing. But an international team of archaeologists announced in Nepal this week that it had uncovered the site where the Buddha himself was […]
