Monthly Archives: May 2006
`Ten Commandments Judge’ Readies for Another Fight: With optional trims to 900 words
By Kim Chandler — May 26, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service GALLANT, Ala. _ Covered in dirt and sawdust, Roy Moore is spending this Saturday not on the campaign trail, but restoring a dilapidated barn that will one day house a horse for his wife. Using an old bucket for a seat, Moore sits down to explain that he doesn’t really […]
In Poland, Pope Confronts Personal Ghosts From Nazi Holocaust: With optional trim to 750 words
By RNS Blog Editor — May 26, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service WARSAW, Poland _ Joseph Ratzinger was an 11-year-old with a budding interest in classical music and the Roman Catholic priesthood when the Jewish community of his hometown in southern Germany began to disappear. How clearly he remembers what led to their departure _ the smashing of windows, the flight of […]
COMMENTARY: The Future of the Diaspora _ Jewish and Otherwise
By James Rudin — May 26, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) During the recent immigration rallies held throughout the country, I heard one young woman tell a TV interviewer she was “a proud member of the Mexican Diaspora living in the U.S.” Her use of the term Diaspora caught my attention and set me thinking how this ancient Greek word […]
Religious Education and Academic Freedom
By RNS Blog Editor — May 25, 2006
Conservative Home-School College Confronts a Staff Exodus RNS’ Adelle Banks reports on a controversy at Patrick Henry College, where about one-third of the faculty is resigning, saying their academic freedoms have been violated. The full text of the article is linked above. Quote: “If you’re going to convince somebody of your position, you can’t just […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 25, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Vermont Catholic Church Protects Parish Assets in Trusts (RNS) The Roman Catholic Church in Vermont has placed each of its 128 parishes in charitable trusts, a legal strategy that church leaders hope will protect parish assets from being seized to settle sexual abuse lawsuits. As a result of the move, […]
Lutheran Hospital, Caught in Crossfire, Struggles to Stay Afloat
By Michele Chabin — May 25, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Augusta Victoria Hospital, a facility that treats Palestinian residents from the West Bank as well as some Arabs from East Jerusalem, has a million-dollar view from its perch atop the Mount of Olives. Built in 1910 by Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II, the stone building affords a heart-stopping vista […]
Falling Ranks Send Nuns From Convent to Community
By RNS Blog Editor — May 25, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. _ A moving crew unbolted the solid wooden pews from the floor of the chapel at Sacred Heart convent. The hallways were filled with mattresses, boxes and other personal effects of the eight Nigerian religious sisters who had called the 17,000-square-foot convent their home for the past decade. […]
Gospel Singer Gives Voice to His Faith
By RNS Blog Editor — May 25, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Kirk Franklin’s speaking voice sounds thick and kind of fuzzy, but let’s not get any rumors started about throat problems. Actually, the gospel triple threat _ performer, songwriter and producer _ says he just rolled out of bed and picked up the phone. This is his morning voice, his […]
Photographer Captures `Soulfulness’ of Black Churches
By Adelle M. Banks — May 25, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Alarmed by the rash of church fires that struck the South a decade ago, photographer Jason Miccolo Johnson felt driven to help preserve the vibrancy and history of the nation’s black churches. His 10-year project resulted in “Soul Sanctuary,” a hardcover book filled with images he photographed across […]
COMMENTARY: Pet This Dog, Don’t Shoot It
By RNS Blog Editor — May 25, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) “The Da Vinci Code” has now entered movie theaters the way a large wet black Labrador dumbly but amiably invades a living room and seeks approval by shaking himself dry midst the retreating guests. In short, this movie, condemned as rabid by certain Vatican officials and fundamentalist preachers, is […]
RNS Weekly Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 24, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Swiss Religious Leaders Launch Europe’s First Interfaith Council PARIS (RNS) Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in Switzerland have inaugurated the country’s first interfaith council _ and possibly the first in Western Europe _ aimed at promoting dialogue, peace and understanding among the country’s three main religions. “The most important thing […]
Disputed Report on Religious ID Badges Stirs Concern in Iran
By Omar Sacirbey — May 24, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A human rights group says disputed reports that Iran will force non-Muslims to wear color-coded badges will make it harder to investigate legitimate religious persecution and other abuses by Tehran’s hard-line Islamic regime. The author of the disputed report, Iranian-born writer Amir Taheri, is sticking by his story, which […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 24, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Congress Approves Increase in Indecency Fines WASHINGTON (RNS) Social conservative activists are cheering a Senate vote last week (May 19) to significantly increase the penalty to radio and television broadcasters for airing “indecency.” Passed unanimously by a voice vote, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act raises the maximum penalty to $325,000 […]
Muslims Find an Open Door in Europe’s Churches
By Elizabeth Bryant — May 24, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service PARIS _ They came politely to St. Hippolyte Catholic Church one Wednesday afternoon: the middle-aged mason from Algeria; the onetime farmer from Mali; the two young Mauritanians who had fled drought and despair stalking their desolate country. And like a growing number of European parishes, St. Hippolyte let them in. […]
Conservative Home-School College Confronts a Staff Exodus
By Adelle M. Banks — May 24, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ A Christian college focused on shaping home-schooled students for careers in public service will lose about one-third of its faculty after several professors at the young school charged their academic freedoms were violated. Administrators at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., which opened in 2000, called the professors’ […]
