Monthly Archives: March 2011
Coalition works to protect religious employees
By Tracy Gordon — March 29, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) A coalition of religious and civil liberty groups is pushing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop employers from segregating “visibly religious employees from customers and the general public.” In a March 25 letter submitted to the EEOC, the groups asked the agency to “exercise its regulatory authority” and enforce Title VII of […]
Supreme Court to weigh churches’ employment rights
By Tracy Gordon — March 29, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Supreme Court agreed Monday (March 28) to consider whether a teacher who was fired from a religious school is subject to a “ministerial exception” that can bar suits against religious organizations. The case involves an employment dispute between a Michigan school and a teacher who is defended by the Equal Employment Opportunity […]
COMMENTARY: Discipline and diversion
By Tracy Gordon — March 29, 2011
(RNS) Saturday’s Gospel Choir performance turned on whether we were disciplined or diverted. If we were disciplined, we would watch the director closely, get our dynamics just right, make our cutoffs crisply, and perform admirably. Yet by allowing ourselves to be diverted just a bit, we made glorious music. We focused on that middle space […]
Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — March 29, 2011
A suit filed in Chicago yesterday accuses the Jesuits of “reckless disregard” for the well-being of children around an 80-year-old priest who’s now serving a 25-year sentence; this is, of course, on top of the massive $166 million case that Jesuits in the Northwest settled yesterday, and the Seattle Times says true justice for abuse […]
Mouth of Newt
By Mark Silk — March 29, 2011
In his 12th-century chronicle, The Two Cities, Bishop Otto of Freising retells the story of Bishop Tiemo of Salzburg, who as prisoner of the Emir of Memphis in 1100 was said to have broken to pieces idols that he’d been ordered to worship and was tortured to death for his pains. Otto, who had gotten […]
Obama’s Just War
By Mark Silk — March 29, 2011
Pastor Dan tweets: “Interesting. Obama engages just-war thought in re: Libya, where Augustine, the originator of the tradition, lived and died (in a war).” Well, pretty close. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo, now called Annaba, in Algeria near the Tunisian border, and there he died in 430 during the Vandals’ siege. While the just war […]
Supporters march to keep paddling at Catholic school
By Tracy Gordon — March 28, 2011
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) More than 500 students, parents and other supporters of St. Augustine High School marched Saturday (March 26) on the offices of Archbishop Gregory Aymond to oppose his call for an end to the school’s policy of using corporal punishment. The archbishop “is trying to fix something that’s not broken, and he’s going […]
Pope calls for Libyan cease-fire
By Tracy Gordon — March 28, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI is calling for an immediate cease-fire and peace negotiations in Libya, where U.S. and allied European forces have been targeting military assets controlled by the country’s dictator, Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Benedict made his statement on Sunday (March 28), following his weekly recitation of the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s […]
Bishops push back on allowing gay couples in housing
By Tracy Gordon — March 28, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) U.S. Catholic bishops are urging federal housing officials not to adopt proposed rules that would bar groups that receive federal funds from discriminating against gays, lesbians or transgender persons in housing programs. The Department of Housing and Urban Development said the new rules, proposed on Jan. 24, would “ensure equal access” to programs […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Is this about American Muslims, or America?
By Tracy Gordon — March 28, 2011
(RNS) Lately, Congress appears to be obsessed with Muslims. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is holding hearings Tuesday (March 29) on “Protecting the Civil Rights of American Muslims,” and Chairman Peter King has announced a second set of hearings on “Radicalization in the American Muslim Community” in the House Homeland Security Committee, this set focusing on […]
More U.S. colleges adding Muslim chaplains
By Tracy Gordon — March 28, 2011
ITHACA, N.Y. (RNS) When Jainal Bhuiyan attended Cornell University, he and his fellow Muslim students were mentored and led in religious prayers by a collection of Muslim professors, graduate students and staff. “That was our network that filled the void,” said Bhuiyan, 28, and now senior vice president at the New York investment bank Rodman […]
Monday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — March 28, 2011
As Japan tries to plug its leaking nuclear reactor, some Japanese have a different dilemma. The death toll from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami – tallied at 10,800 and climbing – exceeds the capacity of crematoriums in the hard-hit coastal regions, where burials are substituting for Buddhist-rooted cremation rituals. Moving from one crisis to […]
USCCB speaks
By Mark Silk — March 28, 2011
Honor obliges that I note that last Friday, the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops finally did acknowledge the eruption of scandal in Philadelphia, in the form of a statement from its Administrative Committee, conveyed over the signature of its president, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan. As Grant Gallicho points out over at dotCommonweal, the […]
Shores of Tripoli
By Mark Silk — March 28, 2011
Call me a naive religion prof., but while I was strolling among the shore birds on the Redneck Riviera, it appears as though President Obama’s little Libya gamble has been working out pretty well. He got his U.N. resolution, turned the tide of battle, achieved both tacit and active support from Arab governments, kept his […]
UN passes religious freedom resolution
By Tracy Gordon — March 26, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) U.S. officials praised a United Nations council for a new statement on religious freedom that sidestepped a divisive debate sponsored by Islamic countries over the “defamation of religions.” The U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday (March 24) approved a resolution voicing concern on “emerging obstacles” to religious freedom and growing “religious intolerance, discrimination […]
