Monthly Archives: April 1996
NEWS STORY: Hillary Clinton urges Methodists to take their faith into the world
By Steve Rabey — April 25, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service DENVER (RNS)-In a speech laced with references to Jesus, John Wesley and her recent book,”It Takes A Village,”Hillary Rodham Clinton Wednesday (April 24) told United Methodists to take their faith out into the world but warned that the world”is complex … and maybe hostile.” The First Lady’s 31-minute speech to […]
COMMENTARY: These strange things we call bodies
By Dale Hanson Bourke — April 25, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of Religion News Service.) (RNS)-In light of the recent allegation that Princess Diana has dimpled thighs, and her tearful denial that any fat has invaded her body, I have a confession of my own. I have cellulite. I am […]
TOP STORY: RELIGION AND MEDICINE: Israeli researchers take a new look at an ancient healing traditio
By Elaine Fletcher — April 25, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service JERUSALEM (RNS)-In antiquity, health and healing were the domain of monks, shamans and priests. But that intimate link was broken long ago in most parts of the world. One exception was the Tibetan highlands, where geographical isolation from the West helped preserve a 1,700-year-old medical tradition that combined spiritual healing […]
NEWS FEATURE: Tortured nun begins hunger strike
By Julia Lieblich — April 25, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-Sister Dianna Ortiz began a bread-and-water fast Monday to pressure the Clinton administration to release information about possible U.S. government involvement in her 1989 abduction, rape and torture in Guatemala. Sitting through cold, rainy nights in a makeshift encampment in front of the White House, the Roman Catholic nun […]
TOP STORY: JUDAISM IN AMERICA: New Jewish culture center rivals museums in Israel
By RNS Blog Editor — April 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service LOS ANGELES (RNS)-The world’s fourth-largest Jewish museum opened here Sunday (April 21), with its founding president expressing the hope that the teaching of Jewish history will help Jews recover their waning sense of community. Built at a cost of $65 million, funded largely through donations from the Jewish community, the […]
NEWS STORY: Methodists vote to strengthen ties with other denominations
By Steve Rabey — April 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service DENVER (RNS)-Representatives of the United Methodist Church, meeting here for the denomination’s quadrennial General Conference, voted Tuesday (April 23) to deepen ecumenical ties with a number of other Protestant denominations. Church leaders also continued to debate the issue of homosexuality, which has stirred strong emotions in the 8.9 million-member denomination. […]
Church of the First Born practices a strict faith
By Ben Finley — April 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service ALBANY, Ore. (RNS)-It is written in the Bible’s book of Esther and again in Ezra that the people fasted by the river so they might merit protection from the Lord. More than 100 members of the Church of the First Born gathered this week (April 21-27) in Brownsville, Ore., to […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Church should add religious insights to scientific advances, bishops say (RNS)-The U.S. Catholic bishops have issued a statement on genetic testing, declaring its importance but noting that some of its uses”invite serious moral reflection.” The statement, called”Critical Decisions: Genetic Testing and Its Implications,”was developed by the National Conference of Catholic […]
Trial highlights collision of faith and modern medicine
By RNS Blog Editor — April 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Leukemia strikes a 7-year-old Oregon boy. His parents treat him with prayer instead of medicine. The boy dies. Some accuse the parents of ignorance and abuse, writing them off as backward believers in hocus-pocus. The Linn County district attorney accused Loyd and Christina Hays of something worse: manslaughter and criminally […]
COMMENTARY: Resurrecting the spirit of the village
By James Alan Fox — April 24, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Paul C. Fox is a practicing physician and a member of the Bruderhof Communities. He lives in Farmington, Pa. He is also editor at large of Plough magazine, the quarterly publication of the Bruderhof Communities.) (RNS)-It takes a child to raise a village. This sentence is not a misprint. Nor […]
NEWS STORY: Christian Coalition offers reward in church arsons
By Adelle M. Banks — April 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-The Christian Coalition today (April 22) offered a $25,000 reward to anyone who can prove that racism motivated a series of arsons of African-American churches in the South and called on government officials to strengthen their probes of the fires.”Terrorism practiced against the church-any church-is the ultimate act of […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — April 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NAACP leader calls for bringing young blacks and Jews together (RNS)-Jewish and African-American leaders need to work together to help young Jews and blacks better understand the history of pain and cooperation shared by the two communities, the head of the NAACP said Monday (April 22). NAACP President and CEO […]
NEWS STORY: Bishops, pope seek land-mine ban as U.N. takes up issue
By Carl Anderson — April 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are asking the Clinton administration to”act boldly”and quickly to ban the production, sale and use of anti-personnel land mines.”The United States should move quickly and unambiguously to ban the production, sale and use of anti-personnel land mines,”Bishop Daniel P. Reilly of Worcester, Mass., said in […]
NEWS FEATURE: Missionary in India lives in fear of Hindu extremists
By Tim Murphy — April 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW DELHI (RNS)-American Christian missionary Max Strong has been stalked by tigers and rogue elephants, and had to kill a 13-foot king cobra while clearing 100 acres of jungle in a malaria-infested district on the India-Nepal border. But Strong, 81, says the greatest danger he has faced has not been […]
COMMENTARY: Clinton should speak out on Kuwaiti persecution case
By RNS Blog Editor — April 23, 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)compuserve.com.) (RNS)-President Clinton has shown admirable solidarity with beleaguered […]
