Monthly Archives: August 2009
Female Muslim journalist faces trial for wearing pants
By Tracy Gordon — August 26, 2009
(RNS) Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein will face trial Sept. 7 for wearing trousers in violation of government decency statutes derived from Sharia law. If convicted, she faces 40 lashes and a fine. But it’s the Sudanese government, not Hussein, who wants the trial to go away. “This is a turning point. We have a woman […]
Vatican says layman cannot lead Maryknoll order
By Tracy Gordon — August 26, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has forbidden a Catholic missionary group to install a layman as the leader of its American branch, insisting that the job be reserved for a priest. The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, a U.S.-based Catholic foreign mission society, voted in May to make Brother Wayne Fitzpatrick its U.S. regional superior. But […]
School officials face trial for breaking pledge not to pray
By Tracy Gordon — August 26, 2009
WASHINGTON — Two Florida school officials will be in court next month to answer charges that they violated a court order when they prayed in public after a school secretary was cleared on similar charges. The case, which defense attorneys say is an unprecedented display of government intrusion into the right of personal religious expression, […]
Measure for Measure
By Daniel Burke — August 26, 2009
Q: What do Quentin Tarantino, Eric Holder and Abdel Baset al-Megrahi have in common? A: They have all forced us, in the last week, to consider the boundaries of vengeance. Tarantino’s new movie “Inglourious Basterds,” follows a troop of Jewish soldiers who take Nazi scalps during WWII. Our own Nicole Neroulias says the movie is […]
Ethicist: Beware, Baptist birthers
By Adelle M. Banks — August 25, 2009
Baptist ethicist Robert Parham has weighed in on the “birthers” movement that continues to question whether President Obama was born in the U.S., warning Baptists should avoid getting caught in the fray. He points to a story in the Mohave Daily News, which reports that Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said at a town hall meeting […]
In ‘Basterds,’ vengeance is ours, saith the Jews
By Tracy Gordon — August 25, 2009
(UNDATED) Talk about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In Quentin Tarantino’s blood-soaked new film “Inglourious Basterds,” Brad Pitt and his merry band of Jewish soldiers bash Nazi soldiers’ heads with a baseball bat and collect their scalps in a bid to avenge their people and stop the Holocaust. At […]
COMMENTARY: This is really important. No, really.
By Tom Ehrich — August 25, 2009
(UNDATED) It happened two weeks ago — Information Overload Awareness Day — but I missed it. Too much information got in the way, I guess. But it isn’t too late to worry about the estimated $900 billion that “information overload” costs the U.S. economy each year, or to spend $898.50 on the event sponsors’ “Information […]
Age and same-sex marriage
By Mark Silk — August 25, 2009
Referring to the Lax/Phillips paper on same-sex marriage in the states I cited (in re: Catholic populations) a month ago, Ryan Sager dramatizes the age gap by noting: “If people over 65 made the laws, 0 states would have gay marriage; if people under 30 made the laws, 38 states would have gay marriage.” Now […]
Why evangelicals support Israel
By Mark Silk — August 25, 2009
There’s been some back and forth on TPM lately on the nature of evangelical support for Israel, and specifically the extent to which it rests on millennialist expectations–the need for an in-gathering of the Jews in order to prepare the way for Armageddon, the Second Coming, etc. In fact, it’s hard to put a clear […]
WaPo calls torture torture
By Mark Silk — August 25, 2009
If only in light of the persistent reluctance of leading media outlets (including the New York Times) to use the word “torture” to describe what the Bush administration sanctioned and conducted under the name of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” today’s WaPo editorial is noteworthy: The real culprits in this sordid story are those higher-ups, starting with […]
Lutheran churches blast ELCA for gay clergy policy
By Tracy Gordon — August 24, 2009
(RNS) The leaders of two conservative Lutheran denominations blasted the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for approving a measure on Friday (Aug. 21) to allow non-celibate gay clergy. Both the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod said the ELCA’s new policy goes against Scripture by condoning a practice that they say is […]
18 churches aim to share one building in Hamburg
By Tracy Gordon — August 24, 2009
TRIER, Germany (RNS/ENI) Eighteen Christian denominations in Hamburg have launched an effort to share a single church building in a new seaside “Harbor City” residential development. “It’s intended to serve the inhabitants of the Harbor City development, as well as tourists and people who work here, offering a place of silence and giving them the […]
Lutherans cautious on split after gay vote
By Tracy Gordon — August 24, 2009
(UNDATED) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had debated lifting its ban on non-celibate gay clergy for years, with tensions flaring at each biennial Churchwide Assembly. Still, when the ban was finally lifted late Friday (Aug. 21), it came as a surprise — and an unwelcome one at that — to some conservatives in the […]
The Vatican remembers Paul is Dead
By Francis X. Rocca — August 24, 2009
The livelier feel of L’Osservatore Romano over the last three years owes much to the Vatican newspaper’s expanded and increasingly friendly coverage of contemporary secular culture — or at least Baby Boom culture — including pop music. In the latest example, an entire page of tomorrow’s edition is devoted to the 40th anniversary of the […]
And now with the weather, here’s Charlie Crist
By Kevin Eckstrom — August 24, 2009
Oh, for the days when Pat Robertson could claim credit for diverting hurricanes from the Eastern seaboard at will … Robertson, it seems, has some new competition: Flordia Gov. Charlie Crist, who is musing aloud whether the main reason the Sunshine State has been hurricane-free is that God is answering his prayers. Yes, people, this […]
