Monthly Archives: June 2010
Raelians want to rehab `reputation’ of the swastika
By Tracy Gordon — June 24, 2010
(RNS) The Raelians have designated this Sunday (June 27) as “World Swastika Rehabilitation Day,” saying the ancient symbol should no longer be damned by its ties to Nazism. A cross with arms bent at 90-degree angles, the swastika was adopted by the Nazi Party in the 1920s. A version of the swastika dates to ancient […]
Deputies looking for sweet-toothed bandit
By Tracy Gordon — June 24, 2010
LaPLACE, La. (RNS) Was it frequent trips to the dentist for cavities? Or a trail of sugar ants? Sheriff’s investigators in St. John the Baptist Parish aren’t saying how 31-year-old Jason Dumas became their chief suspect in a scam that left a church on stuck with a nearly $10,000 bill for a fraudulent order for […]
Is Facebook a sin? Some Muslims think so
By Tracy Gordon — June 24, 2010
(RNS) Do a Google search on Shirien Elamawy and you’ll find her Tweets, her Egyptian Gumbo website, her college newspaper columns, and the beginnings of her Muslim children’s book. What you won’t find anywhere is an image of Elamawy herself. It’s not attached to a screed she wrote against Oprah Winfrey, nor a speech she […]
Thursday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — June 24, 2010
A Pakistani court sentenced five American Muslims to ten years of hard labor for conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks. The Illinois State Police revoked the appointment of its first Muslim chaplain, citing links to a Muslim charity with ties to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group. Muslims are criticizing the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday […]
Secrecy keeps victims, accused in the dark
By Tracy Gordon — June 24, 2010
(RNS) Daniel Donohue doesn’t know when the call will come. He could be anywhere — at the supermarket, poolside with his four children, or in a classroom studying social work — when he learns the fate of the priest he says molested him as a teenager. Donohue testified against the priest at a church tribunal […]
COMMENTARY: Doctor’s orders
By Tracy Gordon — June 24, 2010
(RNS) There’s an illness that stubbornly resists both treatment and cure. I call it “Israelphobia,” and it is, unfortunately, a chronic condition. The malady’s major symptom is a negative obsession about Israel that involves a hypocritical double standard when judging Israeli actions in comparison with all other nations’ behavior. Other signs of the disease include […]
For the Mormon political scoop…
By Mark Silk — June 24, 2010
…the go-to source is Joanna Brooks, over at Religion Dispatches. In the latest of her posts, Brooks explains why Mike Lee’s victory in Utah’s GOP Senate primary Tuesday was not the clear-cut Tea Party triumph that some–i.e. WaPo’s David Weigel–imagine it to be. In Utah, Mormon roots run very deep, and you can’t tell the […]
Christian, Jewish scholars urge changes to Oberammergau script
By Tracy Gordon — June 23, 2010
(RNS) Jewish and Christian scholars have called for a full edit of the script for the world’s largest Passion play, currently on stage in southern Germany, even as changes couldn’t be made until at least 2020. Produced once every 10 years, the Oberammergau Passion Play in Bavaria is the largest and one of the oldest […]
Four in 10 Americans see Jesus’ return by 2050
By Tracy Gordon — June 23, 2010
(RNS) Four in 10 Americans believe Jesus Christ will return to earth by 2050, while a slightly larger portion (46 percent) don’t believe they’ll see a Second Coming by mid-century, according to a new survey. As part of Smithsonian Magazine’s 40th anniversary issue, 1,546 adults were asked to guess the forecast of war, energy, science […]
Study: Devout are less stressed than non-believers
By Tracy Gordon — June 23, 2010
TORONTO (RNS) Religion may provide a “buffer” allowing the devout to feel less anxiety when they make mistakes, compared with non-believers, according to new scientific research. Researchers at the University of Toronto measured “error-related negativity” — people’s defensive response to errors — and compared it to religious belief. Their findings were published in the journal […]
Mormon influence, imagery runs deep through `Twilight’
By Tracy Gordon — June 23, 2010
LOS ANGELES (RNS) Ever since Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” began haunting the imagination in 1897, popular culture has identified Christian symbols — crucifixes, holy water, Communion wafers — as weapons to ward off a blood-thirsty vampire. The “Twilight” novels and film franchise have religious associations, too — but most of them come from the Church of […]
Wednesday’s roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — June 23, 2010
An 83-year-old nun in Harlem died when a minivan involved in a police chase crashed into a crowd of pedestrians. Nikki Haley, a Sikh-turned-Christian GOP state senator in South Carolina, won her run-off race last night and is poised to become the state’s next governor, despite 11th-hour charges that she’s not really a Christian. In […]
Abuse scandal may lead to exodus for German Catholics
By Tracy Gordon — June 23, 2010
BERLIN (RNS) In the months since news of child sexual abuse scandals roiled German society, barely a week goes by without news of yet another Catholic parish reporting declining membership. While it may be premature to estimate the long-term impact of the scandal — especially since many of the cases were decades old — the […]
COMMENTARY: We’re all in this together
By Phyllis Zagano — June 23, 2010
(RNS) Pope Benedict XVI could not have predicted the heartbreak in the Gulf of Mexico when he wrote his World Day of Peace Message for 2010, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation.” Still, his words now hit home in the combined mistakes and insensitivity of mega-corporation British Petroleum and the disaster unfolding in […]
