Monthly Archives: January 2010
Boy in faith-healing death had obvious symptoms, doctor says
By Tracy Gordon — January 23, 2010
OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) A 16-year-old boy whose parents believe in faith healing had lifelong health problems from a urinary tract blockage that destroyed his kidneys and flooded his body cavity with urine, a medical examiner testified Thursday (Jan. 21). Jeffrey and Marci Beagley are charged with criminally negligent homicide for failing to provide medical […]
`Avatar’ leads the pack in Web site’s most `spiritual’ movies
By Tracy Gordon — January 23, 2010
(RNS) Movies about aliens, air travel, cooking, and the war in Iraq were all among the most “spiritually literate” films of 2009, according to the Web site SpiritualityandPractice.com Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, the Web site’s founders, say the 10 top spiritual movies all “raise our consciousness to a fuller engagement with our world” by […]
Church-state battle brews over shuttered churches
By Tracy Gordon — January 22, 2010
(RNS) When a church is deemed no longer viable and is ordered to be closed, who gets to decide what happens to the building? Catholic dioceses in Ohio and Massachusetts are resisting moves by local officials to apply landmark designations to shuttered churches saying such moves raise issues of religious freedom and expression. Landmark advocates, […]
Friday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — January 22, 2010
As we slide into the weekend, here’s how it’s looking out there: As we reported yesterday, the Michigan-based defense contractor says it will no longer inscribe Bible verses on its rifle scopes. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. Opening arguments are scheduled today in the murder trial of Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist accused […]
International Religious Freedom Ambassador
By Mark Silk — January 22, 2010
Now into its second decade, the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) has from the outset been seen by some as what might be called CEPA–the Christian Evangelization Protection Act. It originated in an effort to embarrass the Clinton administration, and its strongest advocates have always been folks in the conservative Christian world for whom the […]
Scruggs installed as National Baptist president
By Tracy Gordon — January 22, 2010
(RNS) The Rev. Julius R. Scruggs was formally inaugurated as president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. during a four-hour service Tuesday (Jan. 19) at the Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tenn. Scruggs, 67, pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., for 32 years, will lead the 7.5 million-member denomination for a five-year […]
Accused woman is religious but not crazy, doctor says
By Tracy Gordon — January 22, 2010
NEWTON, N.J. (RNS) A woman accused of starving her four children may be a deeply devout Christian, but her strong beliefs don’t mean she suffers from a mental illness, a psychiatrist testified on Wednesday (Jan. 20). Estelle Walker, 50, of Manhattan is on trial in New Jersey on four counts of second-degree child endangerment for […]
Muslim cops say anti-terror policies fuel `Islamophobia’
By Tracy Gordon — January 22, 2010
LONDON (RNS) A 2,000-member organization of Muslim police officers claims the government’s anti-terrorism policies are an “affront to British values” and are contributing to an upsurge in Islamophobia. The National Association of Muslim Police said in a seven-page statement to a parliamentary committee that Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s “Prevent” strategy, aimed at halting the spread […]
Muslim scholars no longer banned from U.S.
By Tracy Gordon — January 22, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) The State Department announced Wednesday (Jan. 20) that two prominent Muslim intellectuals will no longer be barred from traveling to the U.S. based on past accusations that they had supported terrorism. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed orders allowing Tariq Ramadan and Adam Habib to re-apply for U.S. visas, said State Department spokesman […]
Military contractor to pull Bible verses on weapons
By Tracy Gordon — January 22, 2010
(RNS) A Michigan military contractor said Thursday (Jan. 21) it will remove encoded scripture references on weapons it builds for U.S. military after a firestorm of complaints arose from both believers and atheists. “Trijicon has proudly served the U.S. military for more than two decades, and our decision to offer to voluntarily remove these references […]
Nearly half of Americans admit to anti-Muslim bias
By Tracy Gordon — January 22, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) Close to half of Americans admit to harboring prejudice against Muslims and negative feelings about Islam, a new study from the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies shows. The level of anti-Muslim prejudice — 43 percent of Americans admitted feeling at least “a little” — is more than twice as high as Americans’ reported […]
Thursday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — January 21, 2010
A bit of theological navel-gazing this morning over Haiti: Jeff Weiss over at Politics Daily sees a silver lining in Pat Robertson’s the devil-made-me-do-it narrative on Haiti. Newsweek’s Lisa Miller asks why God seems to hate Haiti, the “Job among nations,” and Religion Dispatches ponders why many people search for God’s fingerprints in the rubble […]
Evangelicals stake Lewis’ claim on liberal Mass. turf
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
(RNS) At the point where Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts come together, and about a mile from a forest called Satans Kingdom, Northfield, Mass., isn’t exactly what you’d call a hotbed of either conservatives or evangelicals. Yet when a new evangelical college opens there in 2012, founders hope to help end acrimonious culture wars and […]
COMMENTARY: A truly righteous Gentile
By Tracy Gordon — January 21, 2010
(RNS) Miep Gies died at age 100 in Holland on Jan. 11, a living reminder that while 6 million innocent Jews died one by one, there were also brave souls like Gies who tried to save and protect them, one by one. During World War II, Gies and four others in the Dutch resistance movement […]
Bankers indicted
By Mark Silk — January 21, 2010
I’m happy to report that someone in the New York office of Deutsche Bank has been searching Google for the words “practices of the unscrupulous money-changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men”–and as a result has happened upon this blog. The words are from FDR’s […]
