Monthly Archives: May 1996
NEWS FEATURE: Janet Cooke saga puts redemption issue in ethics spotlight
By Bruce Nolan — May 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-America, as former Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke knows, has always been the land of the second chance. Its hospitality to fresh starts springs from its immigrant heritage and its free-enterprise economic system. It comes partly, too, from religious impulses of forgiveness and redemption. Now comes Cooke asking for a […]
COMMENTARY: Born-again values have a place on playing field
By RNS Blog Editor — May 21, 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)-It’s become something of a bad joke when […]
TOP STORY: CHURCH FIRES: Church arsons in South heighten fear of militant racism
By Adelle M. Banks — May 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-Arsons that have damaged or destroyed dozens of black churches in the South are rekindling fears of militant racism in the United States and leading some church and civic leaders to compare the incidents to the violence of the civil rights era of the 1960s, when churches were burned […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Investment fund following Islamic law started in Britain (RNS)-Flemings, a major British investment bank, announced Monday (May 20) it is beginning an investment fund that follows the requirements of Islamic law (sharia). The fund, called Oasis, is designed to appeal to Britain’s growing Muslim community, estimated at between 1.5 million […]
NEWS STORY: Supreme Court rejects Colorado amendment barring protection for gays
By Ira Rifkin — May 21, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-In a decision hailed by homosexual groups as a huge legal victory, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday (May 20) struck down a voter-approved Colorado constitutional amendment that prohibited laws specifically designed to protect gay and lesbian rights. Elizabeth Birch, executive director of Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based national gay […]
RNS Daily Digest
By Carl Anderson — May 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service Orthodox jurisdictions repair rift over church in Estonia (RNS)-The Russian Orthodox Church and its mother church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey, have restored ties and avoided a schism, according to church officials. Three months ago, the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest Orthodox denomination in the world, broke […]
TOP STORY: FATHERHOOD: Religious leaders examine issue of absent fathers
By Adelle M. Banks — May 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service HERNDON, Va. (RNS)-In 1960, about 7 million U.S. children lived in homes without a father. That figure now stands at nearly 23 million. At an”Interfaith Summit on Fatherhood”convened by the National Fatherhood Initiative, a 3-year-old advocacy group, Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders and others drew attention today (May 17) to […]
NEWS STORY: Pastors for Peace gains partial concession in Cuba aid dispute
By Carl Anderson — May 20, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-The Treasury Department said Friday (May 17) it is releasing 21 computers seized from Pastors for Peace that the group had sought to send to Cuba for that nation’s churches and medical system. The computers were among some 375 units customs agents seized in January and February during three […]
NEWS FEATURE: Books on ethics and values are flooding American bookstores
By Mark J. Seitz — May 18, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-From Hillary Rodham Clinton’s”It Takes a Village”to Jim Lichtman’s”The Lone Ranger’s Code of the West”to William J. Bennett’s”The Moral Compass,”books on ethics and values are flooding American bookstores, warning us that society is plummeting to perdition and begging us to mend our ways. Whether the authors are religious or secular, […]
COMMENTARY: Something fishy about cruises for Christ
By Brendan Kirby — May 18, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Last week, I received an advertisement in the mail inviting me to participate in a program sponsored by a Christian travel agency. For $3,000, I could”feast my eyes and feed my soul,”vacationing with other true believers on”wholesome”gospel-oriented cruises. NOTE: These tours are only open to those who want to avoid […]
TOP STORY: THE AFTERMATH OF CHERNOBYL: A decade after Chernobyl, Jewish victims face uncertain futur
By Elaine Fletcher — May 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service TEL AVIV, Israel (RNS)-“My bones ache even as I am speaking,”exclaimed Alexander Kalentirsky. A formidable man who once held a senior post with a high security clearance at a Moscow construction firm, 51-year-old Kalentirsky is not used to feeling ill or powerless. Ten years ago, he volunteered to supervise the […]
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: Where will Farrakhan lead and who will follow?
By RNS Blog Editor — May 17, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J.) (RNS)-“Long live the spirit of the Million Man March!” The chant was heard in urban centers throughout the nation as hundreds […]
NEWS FEATURE: Book on synagogue bombing reveals rabbi’s bravery in exposing ‘50s racism
By Christine Harvey — May 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (RNS)-Though five years have passed since Melissa Fay Greene’s acclaimed”Praying for Sheetrock”earned the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, the author hasn’t been idle. Now she has produced”The Temple Bombing,”a look at the 1958 bombing […]
COMMENTARY: In the diplomatic arena, let there be light
By James Rudin — May 16, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.) (RNS)-When foreign ministers, ambassadors and other diplomats express themselves in public, they often employ a special language I call”diplospeak.” Diplospeak disguises reality and deliberately makes facts obscure or ambiguous. This dense and opaque language is an exquisite […]
