Monthly Archives: May 2008
Rick Warren goes global
By Kevin Eckstrom — May 29, 2008
Already established as perhaps the most important voice in contemporary American Evangelical Christianity, Rick Warren last week pressed the button that he hopes will take his “brand” to the ends of the earth.
Nepal formally abolishes Hindu monarchy
By Kevin Eckstrom — May 29, 2008
The main palace in Nepal’s capital lowered the flag of the country’s royal family Thursday, a day after lawmakers abolished the world’s last remaining Hindu monarchy.
Famed geneticist to leave NIH
By Kevin Eckstrom — May 29, 2008
Francis Collins, the guitar-playing geneticist who mingled a belief in Christianity with a defense of evolution, said Wednesday that he would step down as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Priest at center of Boston scandal wants new trial
By Kevin Eckstrom — May 29, 2008
Defrocked priest Paul R. Shanley, a notorious figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal who was convicted in 2005 on rape and sexual assault charges, has filed a motion for a new trial.
Baptists face wide-open leadership race
By RNS Blog Editor — May 29, 2008
THIS WEEK’S COLUMNISTS
By RNS Blog Editor — May 29, 2008
Protestant-Catholic-None
By Mark Silk — May 29, 2008
The latest Pew poll shows Barack Obama widening his slight lead among Catholics over John McCain since April from two to four percentage points, losing seven percentage points to McCain among Protestants, and increasing his margin over him among the unaffiliated by nine percentage points. The biggest shift came among white evangelicals, who now favor […]
The Abortion Card
By Mark Silk — May 29, 2008
GOM wonders why John McCain, in seeking to firm up his evangelical support, hasn’t played the abortion card. After all, his record on abortion (with the not unimportant exception of his support for stem cell research) is as good as any pro-lifer could wish. The answer, I submit, is that abortion has become a much […]
COMMENTARY: Finding faith on Facebook
By Cathleen Falsani — May 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) What began with simple curiosity has, in a few short weeks, become something deeply meaningful. And it all happened on Facebook. Like many folks who skew more toward Generation X than Generation Z, I started my foray on Facebook as an exercise in ennui-abatement. I went looking for college […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — May 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service New leader named for United House of Prayer for All People (RNS) An Augusta, Ga., pastor has been chosen as the new bishop of the United House of Prayer for All People. Apostle C.M. Bailey succeeds Bishop S.C. “Sweet Daddy” Madison, who served as bishop for 17 years, The Washington […]
Diaries shed light on unlikely would-be U.S. saint
By Daniel Burke — May 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It’s a sunny Sunday in 1938, and Dorothy Day is feeling less than saintly. Flies swarm around piles of garbage as “hopeless human beings” _ the drunks and the insane who visit the Catholic Worker house in Pittsburgh for food and shelter _ surround and oppress her. In her […]
Nun, 93, preaches the gospel behind razor-wire fences
By Charles Honey — May 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service MUSKEGON, Mich. _ Sister Elizabeth Barilla rolled in a wheelchair past inmates playing basketball as a pleasant breeze blew across the campus of the Muskegon Correctional Facility and sun glinted off the razor-wire fences. The Dominican nun was impatient to arrive for her monthly 6:15 p.m. class teaching the Bible […]
10 minutes with … Donald Cozzens
By RNS Blog Editor — May 29, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) During his recent trip to America, Pope Benedict XVI attended a youth rally at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y. _ the same school where enrollment has dwindled to the point that no new prospective priests are enrolled next fall. As the U.S. church ordains its crop of some […]
Update: Calvin professor leaves, in part over membership rules
By RNS Blog Editor — May 29, 2008
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.-A Calvin College professor who was denied an exemption from school policy that requires faculty to belong to the Christian Reformed Church said she is leaving for a teaching position in California.
New leader named for United House of Prayer for All People
By RNS Blog Editor — May 29, 2008
An Augusta, Ga., pastor has been chosen as the new bishop of the United House of Prayer for All People.
