Monthly Archives: December 2005
With Racial Diversity, Mormons Expand Far Beyond Utah
By RNS Blog Editor — December 16, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ An interracial team of Mormon teenagers and men present the sacrament of bread and water, passing the elements to congregants on silver trays. The congregation sings “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful,” with blacks joining in with Latinos and whites. The scene illustrates how the Church of Jesus Christ […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — December 16, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service Ford, Under Pressure, to Advertise Entire Line in Gay Publications (RNS) The Ford Motor Co. said it will advertise its entire line of cars in gay magazines after social conservatives pressured Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover divisions to pull their gay-targeted ad campaigns. The 3 million-member American Family Association ended […]
COMMENTARY: The Top 10 Religion Stories of 2005
By RNS Blog Editor — December 16, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Here are my picks for the top ten religion stories of 2005: 1. The death of Pope John Paul II in early April and the election two weeks later of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Benedict XVI was the runaway winner of the year. The extraordinary electronic and print media […]
Betting on Children’s Hanukkah Game Raises Concern
By RNS Blog Editor — December 16, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Is Hanukkah a gambler’s holiday? According to some, it has the potential to be. Among the festivities associated with the holiday is the children’s game of dreidel _ a penny-betting game involving a spinning top. Innocent enough. But at a time in American culture when gambling is increasingly popular […]
Italian Gay Priests Criticize New Vatican Guidelines
By RNS Blog Editor — December 16, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Defending the role of gay priests as an asset to the Roman Catholic church, a group of gay Italian clergy has issued an open letter that criticizes recent Vatican guidelines on homosexuality. Signed by 39 priests, the letter is a rare demonstration of open dissent in the […]
Not a big fan of “holiday” greetings…
By Tracy Gordon — December 16, 2005
Quote of the Day: Banner outside Without Walls International Church “To HELL With Happy Holidays.” -Banner outside Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., a megachurch co-pastored by Paula and Randy White.
Gay Italian priests protest Vatican document; Joseph Smith’s 200th birthday; and a dark side t
By RNS Blog Editor — December 16, 2005
Thursday we report on gay Italian priests who are protesting the Vatican document on homosexuality. Stacy Meichtry writes from the Vatican City: Describing their sexuality as an asset to the Catholic priesthood, a group of gay Italian clergy has issued an open letter that criticizes a recent Vatican document on homosexuality. Signed by 39 priests, […]
No Church on Christmas Day?
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2005
Some Churches to Close on Christmas Sunday Some megachurches are taking Christmas Sunday off this year, as reported by Adelle Banks and Jason Kane in the RNS article of the week, linked above. Quote: When Christmas and Sunday occur on the same day-which last occurred in 1994-what’s a church to do? At a time when […]
Year in Review: Death Loomed Large in 2005
By Kein Eckstrom — December 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) They say death waits for no one and makes no appointments. Just ask the 1,000 people killed by Hurricane Katrina, the 70,000 dead in October’s Pakistan earthquake, or the 181,000 lives claimed by the Asian tsunami that hit in late 2004, overshadowing the dawn of 2005. Death came suddenly, […]
COMMENTARY: Ordinary Catholics Can’t Relate to These Extraordinary Saints
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Several theologians have objected to the fast track to sanctity on which Pope Benedict XVI has placed his illustrious predecessor, John Paul II. These scholars argue that, great and good as the late pope was, his suppression of theological dialogue retarded the reforms of Vatican Council II. If he […]
COMMENTARY: Ordinary Catholics Can’t Relate to These Extraordinary Saints
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Several theologians have objected to the fast track to sanctity on which Pope Benedict XVI has placed his illustrious predecessor, John Paul II. These scholars argue that, great and good as the late pope was, his suppression of theological dialogue retarded the reforms of Vatican Council II. If he […]
Iraqi elections; federal budget protests; our year-end review; and 2005’s disastrous “ac
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2005
Ashtar Analeed Marcus reports on the concerns of exiled Iraqi Christians casting their votes here for the elections in their homeland: Yalda Hajey, draped in traditional Assyrian scarves around his neck and waist, with red and green feathers protruding from his hat, dropped his vote into a ballot box, dipped his finger into a purple […]
A Year When `Acts of God’ Prompted Soul-Searching From Diverse Camps
By RNS Blog Editor — December 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Millennia have passed since biblical times when every disaster seemed to be a call to repentance, but a look back at 2005 shows that some human impulses die hard. The year’s catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes, famines and other disasters raised choruses of prayer, not only for relief from suffering, but […]
Church Activists Arrested in Capitol Budget Protest
By Kein Eckstrom — December 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ More than 130 singing church activists were arrested Wednesday (Dec. 14) outside the U.S. Capitol in a dramatic confrontation with a 2006 federal budget that they reject as immoral. Protesters were arrested after they blocked the main entrance to the Cannon House Office Building during a carefully choreographed […]
Church Activists Arrested in Capitol Budget Protest
By Kein Eckstrom — December 15, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ More than 130 singing church activists were arrested Wednesday (Dec. 14) outside the U.S. Capitol in a dramatic confrontation with a 2006 federal budget that they reject as immoral. Protesters were arrested after they blocked the main entrance to the Cannon House Office Building during a carefully choreographed […]
