Monthly Archives: September 2007
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Adventist Missionary Claims Church Benefits Are Discriminatory WASHINGTON (RNS) A Maryland county human rights office is investigating claims by a retired Seventh-day Adventist missionary who says his church is paying him a meager amount of retirement benefits based on his country of origin. Pastor Berhane Woldemariam, 71, of Adelphi, Md., […]
Amish Show the World How _ and Why _ to Forgive
By Daniel Burke — September 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Religious sects across the globe wage wars of endless retribution. Revenge fantasies fill American movie theaters. Legal courts are crammed with people seeking settled scores. So last October, when the Amish community of Lancaster County, Pa., immediately offered forgiveness to the family of Charles Roberts, the gunman who murdered […]
COMMENTARY: Reality, In the Eye of the Beholder
By Tom Ehrich — September 26, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service HELSINKI, Finland _ Seen from a car on the umpteenth consecutive day of rain, this city is easy to imagine as my host describes it _ a place of sadness and depression, where many workers shut down emotionally during the long gray months. By afternoon, however, the sun came out, […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Church Wants IRS Apology After Probe Into 2004 Sermon LOS ANGELES (RNS) A prominent liberal Episcopal church wants an apology and clarification after a two-year Internal Revenue Service probe that threatened the church’s tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon just before the 2004 elections. The IRS told All Saints […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Changing Minds and a War’s Direction
By RNS Blog Editor — September 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In explaining what it takes to be a disciple, Jesus talks of a king going to battle, asking: “(W)hat king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with […]
Natural Burials Take Dead Gently to a Green Good Night
By RNS Blog Editor — September 25, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In life, Lou Tafuri loved to fish in the waters off the New Jersey coast. In death, he sleeps with the fishes. His family couldn’t be happier. Tafuri, who died in 2005, was cremated after donating his body to science. Shortly before the ashes were returned to his daughter […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Williams Meets With Bishops, Marks New Orleans Recovery NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Episcopal bishops opened a crucial summit Thursday (Sept. 20) on how the issue of homosexuality may threaten their status within the worldwide Anglican Communion _ but still found time for a jazz-fueled prayer party, New Orleans style. Archbishop of […]
Williams is the Quiet Rock at the Center of Anglican Storm
By Bruce Nolan — September 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service NEW ORLEANS _ His admirers describe him as a brilliant theologian with the soul of a poet, but it’s the work of a diplomat _ a church diplomat, no small thing _ that brought the Archbishop of Canterbury here this week. The Most Rev. Rowan Williams’ 77-million member Anglican Communion […]
Clergy Trained in Reaching Out to Reserve Soldiers
By Jeff Diamant — September 22, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service FORT DIX, N.J. _ The Rev. Andrew Barton is a Presbyterian pastor who considers himself an advocate for peace and questions whether the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was justified. Yet he wants to be able to help counsel traumatized soldiers home from the war zone. He has wondered: […]
Ministers Must Now Be Communion Cops, Archbishop Says
By Daniel Burke — September 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A hardline U.S. Roman Catholic archbishop is urging ministers to deny Holy Communion to politicians who support abortion rights, arguing that it’s a “mortal sin” to offer the sacrament to “the unworthy.” St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, a veteran of clashes between Catholic bishops and politicians, has attempted for […]
COMMENTARY: The Witch in C.S. Lewis’ Wardrobe
By Dick Staub — September 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) After more than decade spent hosting a daily three-hour talk show, I confess it sometimes seems like there are few subjects that I have not discussed and few opinions or questions that I have not heard. So imagine my surprise at hearing one the other day while I’m waiting […]
50 Years Later, `In God We Trust’ Still Mints Controversy
By Adelle M. Banks — September 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ It’s been 50 years since “In God We Trust” first appeared on U.S. paper currency, and those four little words have proven to be the source of big debate in the courts. Michael Newdow, the California atheist known for trying to strip “under God” from the Pledge of […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — September 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service Bishops Unveil Plan to Minister to Episcopal Conservatives (RNS) As the Episcopal Church began a crucial meeting Thursday (Sept. 20) in New Orleans, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori named eight bishops to take her place in overseeing conservative dioceses that reject her leadership. Because of Jefferts Schori’s progressive theology and […]
Yom Kippur, Mortality and the Kittel
By RNS Blog Editor — September 20, 2007
At Yom Kippur, a Simple Garment Shrouds Jews in ‘Holiness’ RNS’s Ansley Roan discusses the significance of the kittel, a garmet worn by many Jews on Yom Kippur, in this week’s full text article, linked above. Quote: “We begin by wearing this white kittel Yom Kippur night,” said Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, a professor at Hebrew […]
10 Minutes With … Ted Roberts
By Nancy Haught — September 20, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The Rev. Ted Roberts moves, stands, even sits, with his back straight and his shoulders squared against the enemy. You expect that military bearing from a former fighter pilot-turned-pastor. You want that in a spiritual war against sexual addiction. Roberts, the former senior pastor of East Hill Church in […]
