Monthly Archives: September 2010
Israeli court rules against segregated sidewalks
By Tracy Gordon — September 29, 2010
JERUSALEM (RNS) Ultra-Orthodox leaders on Tuesday (Sept. 28) removed barriers separating men and women from a Jerusalem street after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the tall screens were illegal. Representatives of the Eda Haredit, an ultra-Orthodox organization that enforces modesty, erected the barriers in the religious neighborhood of Meah Sha’arim at the start […]
Shootings at Ohio, Texas churches stirs concerns
By Tracy Gordon — September 29, 2010
(RNS) Three outbursts of violence in or near churches, including one during worship services, are raising safety concerns for church leaders. Eddie Contreras, youth pastor at Walnut Park Casa De Mi Gloria Church in Garland, Texas, was speaking to a group of students Friday evening (Sept. 24) when Jose Pablo, a student struggling with family […]
Va. imam named head of largest Muslim group
By Tracy Gordon — September 29, 2010
(RNS) The Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim group in the U.S. and Canada, on Tuesday (Sept. 28) named a gregarious Sudanese-born Virginia imam as its new president. Imam Mohamed Magid, executive director of the 5,000-family All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Sterling, Va., will succeed outgoing president Ingrid Mattson, who in 2006 […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Ignorance, not Islam, is the enemy
By Tracy Gordon — September 29, 2010
(RNS) In a single vote, the Texas State Board of Education managed to undermine Christian-Muslim relations, hamper religious literacy and impose ignorance on our kids at a time when they need knowledge to live and work in a competitive and integrated world. Board members — no foreigners to strange and bizarre decisions — voted to […]
For hopeful Muslim immigrant, no ordinary phone call
By Tracy Gordon — September 29, 2010
BALLWIN, Mo. (RNS) Adil Imdad had just finished installing a hardwood floor in his new house when his cell phone rang. Imdad, 41, an environmental engineer and devout Muslim from Pakistan, had moved to the United States as a teenager and became a citizen in 1986. He hoped the new house would be the base […]
Is it free speech or intimidation?
By Kevin Eckstrom — September 29, 2010
Contra Costa Times (RNS): A few bullet holes may be the difference between a burned Quran left at a mosque in Knoxville, Tenn., and one left at a mosque in East Lansing, Mich. Read more.
Shape-Note Singing Lives On Through Small Dedicated Following
By Kevin Eckstrom — September 29, 2010
Huffington Post (RNS): The archaic sounds that fill the historic former church sanctuary echo, hauntingly, like a whispering ghost from the past. Read more.
Embattled Philadelphia bishop says he won’t resign
By Kevin Eckstrom — September 29, 2010
Pew Forum (RNS): The embattled Episcopal bishop of Philadelphia is defiantly refusing to resign, saying his three years of “suffering” through various church trials has “strengthened” his ability to lead his diocese. Read more.
Tuesday’s roundup
By Daniel Burke — September 28, 2010
Atheists and agnostics know more about religion than Roman Catholics and other Christians, according to new study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Mormons and Jews did pretty well on the survey, but more than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the man who started the Protestant Reformation. […]
Poll finds unbelievers know the most about belief
By Tracy Gordon — September 28, 2010
WASHINGTON (RNS) Who can best answer questions about religion in America? Based on a new survey released Tuesday (Sept. 28) by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, it’s your atheist or agnostic neighbor, followed by the Jew or Mormon down the street. A significant percentage — four in 10 — of Roman Catholics […]
COMMENTARY: The dangerous allure of magical thinking
By Tracy Gordon — September 28, 2010
RIO RANCHO, N.M. (RNS) A dozen Presbyterian teenagers learned important lessons this week in the difference between work-and-outcomes vs. “magical thinking.” In a mainline denomination whose latest national statistics show alarming decay, they boldly collaborated with parents and a professional chef to put on a spaghetti dinner for mission funding. From table settings to matching […]
Chaput sticks it to the religion beat
By Mark Silk — September 28, 2010
At the Religion Newswriters Association meeting in Denver last weekend, the local Catholic ordinary, Archbishop Charles Chaput, delivered himself of a classic culture-war critique of the news media’s coverage of religion: Journalism is composed of knowledge-class professionals who make secularist assumptions about American society that shows they are out of touch with real Americans. Coverage […]
Long vows to fight sexual misconduct charges
By Tracy Gordon — September 28, 2010
(RNS) Bishop Eddie Long, the Atlanta-area preacher facing charges from four young men that he coerced them to have sex, told his congregation Sunday (Sept. 26) he is “under attack” and will fight the allegations against him. “I’ve been accused,” Long told the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. “I’m under attack. I […]
RNA honors top religion reporting
By Tracy Gordon — September 28, 2010
DENVER (RNS) Religion reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times won top honors Saturday (Sept. 25) at the 2010 Religion Newswriters Association’s annual awards competition. The RNA also honored former New York Times religion reporter Gustav Niebuhr with its William A. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award. Niebuhr, who left the beat in 2001, […]
