Monthly Archives: April 2011
COMMENTARY: My name is Wall Street, and I have an addiction
By Tracy Gordon — April 19, 2011
NEW YORK (RNS) Reading the business section lately is like sitting in an alcoholic intervention. As people describe wound after wound, abuse after abuse, the alcoholic says he is fine and huffs out the door for another drink. The difference is that, instead of heading straight for the tavern, many business leaders first visit their […]
Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — April 19, 2011
President Obama hosted an Easter prayer breakfast at the White House this morning, and briefly addressed the assembled 130 clergy and faith leaders. After citing Isaiah 53:5, Obama said: “This magnificent grace, this expansive grace, this `Amazing Grace’ calls me to reflect. And it calls me to pray. It calls me to ask God for […]
Burned church nears completion as suspect found guilty
By Tiffany McCallen — April 18, 2011
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (RNS) As a white man surrendered to federal marshals Friday (April 15), workers were rebuilding the pulpit of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ he was convicted of burning down the night of President Obama’s election. Michael Jacques, 26, surrendered a day after a jury convicted him on civil rights and arson […]
Senate confirms religious freedom ambassador
By Tiffany McCallen — April 18, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) A New York minister will soon fill the Obama administration’s long-vacant position to oversee international religious freedom after the Senate voted to confirm the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook for the post. Thursday’s (April 14) voice vote positions Cook to become the first female and the first African-American in the post after a lengthy […]
Kmiec’s gospel falls flat in Foggy Bottom
By Tiffany McCallen — April 18, 2011
(RNS) The State Department has a “rigidly narrow” view of diplomacy that neglects religion’s role in foreign affairs, a prominent Catholic ambassador charged on Sunday as he announced his resignation. Other foreign policy experts have another name for it: Religion Avoidance Syndrome. And the departure of Douglas Kmiec as ambassador to Malta, they say, is […]
Monday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — April 18, 2011
Happy almost-Passover, Jewish friends. President Obama sent his greetings today, comparing the Exodus-remembering rituals to the headlines that tell “modern stories of social transformation and liberation unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa.” Why will this Passover really be different from all others? Because Quinoa will be on the table, saith the Old Grey […]
Beatification of Nazi martyrs divides Lutherans, Catholics
By Tiffany McCallen — April 18, 2011
Anonymous gossip site raises concerns on college campuses
By Tiffany McCallen — April 18, 2011
MADISON, N.J. (RNS) Earlier this semester, an anonymous poster on a college gossip website posed a question to Drew University students: Who are the fattest people on campus? “Call `em out!” the poster said. When a Drew freshman saw her name on the site, followed by cruel comments about her weight, she was devastated, her […]
Let my people go
By Mark Silk — April 18, 2011
As the first seder approaches, I call your attention to several items of interest: 1. The Great Quinoa Kashrut L’Pesach controversy. Wherein it is shown that the only sure way to be sure that this strange New World grain passes muster is for a rabbi to set up shop in the Bolivian highlands. 2. The […]
Muslim Punk
By Omar Sacirbey — April 16, 2011
The highlight of my week had to be watching a screening of The Taqwacores, a 2010 film about Muslim punk rockers, and the 45-minute performance that followed by Sunny Ali and The Kid, who describe themselves as Philadelphia’s only Pakistani Cowboy Punk band. It was part of the Muslim Film Festival in Boston, sponsored by […]
Belgian bishop says nephews’ abuse was a `game’
By Tracy Gordon — April 16, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Belgium’s Catholic bishops declared themselves “extremely shocked” on Friday (Apr. 15) by a former bishop who described the sexual abuse of two young nephews as a “game” that did not involve penetration or physical violence. Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who resigned a year ago as bishop of Bruges after admitting that he had […]
Russian Jehovah’s Witness cleared on extremism charges
By Tracy Gordon — April 16, 2011
MOSCOW (RNS/ENInews) A Jehovah’s Witness on trial in Siberia was found innocent on Thursday (April 14) of charges of “inciting religious hatred and enmity,” in a case that was seen as a litmus test of Russian religious freedom. Aleksandr Kalistratov had been accused of distributing Jehovah’s Witnesses literature, which has been qualified as extremist in […]
White man found guilty in arson at black church
By Tracy Gordon — April 16, 2011
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (RNS) Breaking a two-day deadlock, a federal jury convicted a white man, Michael F. Jacques, on all three charges Thursday (April 14) for a fire that destroyed a black church the night of President Obama’s election. The guilty verdicts rocked Jacques and his family members, who had hoped the deadlocked jury might result […]
Center provides home away from home for expat soldiers
By Tracy Gordon — April 15, 2011
JERUSALEM (RNS) When Passover begins on Monday (April 18) at sundown, Roxanne Fogelman, a 22-year-old Israeli combat medic, won’t be attending a seder at her family’s home in Oregon. Instead Fogelman, who moved to Israel on her own in 2009 after visiting the country on a Birthright Israel youth program, will join 600 other “lone […]
COMMENTARY: A new leader for challenging times
By Tracy Gordon — April 15, 2011
NEW YORK (RNS) The heady days of American congregational expansion are over. The nation’s largest Jewish group, the 1.5 million-member Union for Reform Judaism, is now confronting the same stagnant or even declining membership trends that have become routine for Catholic, mainline Protestant and even some evangelical churches. So when the URJ recently tapped Rabbi […]
