Monthly Archives: May 2011
Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — May 31, 2011
Hope everyone had a memorable Memorial Day. I bet Westboro Baptist Church did, after they were outnumbered 80 to 3 by protesters, including some purporting to be from the KKK, at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday, where President Obama and other dignitaries spoke. European Union leaders said they would defend religious freedom in the Middle East […]
Chaplains disrespecting religious liberty
By Mark Silk — May 31, 2011
When Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell sails off into its well-deserved sunset, gay and lesbian military personnel will be able to get married to members of their own sex without being cashiered, should they be fortunate enough to be posted in a state where same-sex marriage is allowed. But they won’t be able to get married on their military […]
Happy Memorial Day
By Daniel Burke — May 30, 2011
The Religion News Roundup is off today for Memorial Day. We’ll see you here tommorrow, same Bat channel, same Bat time. cheers, RNS
Crystal Cathedral goes up for sale
By Tracy Gordon — May 28, 2011
(RNS) The Crystal Cathedral has announced plans to sell its iconic glass-walled church in Southern California to pay back creditors and overcome bankruptcy. Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman, daughter of founder Robert H. Schuller, said the church will remain as a tenant and will have the option to buy back some of church’s campus in […]
Bishop Long settles sex suit out of court
By Tracy Gordon — May 28, 2011
(RNS) Bishop Eddie Long, an Atlanta-area megachurch pastor, has settled suits out of court with four young men who accused him of sexual misconduct, his church announced Thursday (May 26). “After a series of discussions, all parties involved have decided to resolve the civil cases out of court,” Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church said […]
Friday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — May 27, 2011
Let us raise a pint today to the late Joe Feuerherd (at left), the hard-charging editor-in-chief of National Catholic Reporter, who died yesterday at the too young age of 48 after a valiant fight with cancer. Joe, the rest of us ink-stained wretches were privileged to count you among us, and we’ll miss you. From […]
God at the root of Malick’s `Tree of Life’
By Tracy Gordon — May 27, 2011
LOS ANGELES (RNS) Terrence Malick’s new film, “Tree of Life,” is nearly indescribable. Not because its beauty or virtuosity are beyond words, although it has its moments. “Tree of Life,” which opens on Friday (May 27), is iconoclastic, its plot nonlinear, constructed by a series of impressions, images and the emotionally charged dynamic between its […]
Donohue v. Jay Report
By Mark Silk — May 27, 2011
What was Bill Donohue thinking when he decided to devote 24 pages to attacking the Jay Report for exonerating gay priests of responsibility for the sexual abuse crisis? The report contends that because homosexuals became a major presence in the priesthood only in the 1970s, they could not have brought about a crisis that began […]
NCR publisher Joe Feuerherd dies at 48
By Tracy Gordon — May 27, 2011
(RNS) Joe Feuerherd, the editor-in-chief of National Catholic Reporter, who embodied the weekly newspaper’s fierce independence and liberal tilt, died on Wednesday (May 25) after an 18-month bout with cancer, NCR has announced. Feuerherd, who was also NCR’s publisher, was 48. A lifelong Catholic, Feuerherd began at NCR as an intern in 1984 while studying […]
Q&A with Elizabeth Smart
By Tracy Gordon — May 26, 2011
(RNS) For 18 months, she wasn’t a famous kidnapping survivor, nor the star witness in a headline-grabbing trial, nor the face of nonprofit group designed to help young abuse victims. She was simply Sister Smart. Elizabeth Smart, now 23, talked about her Mormon mission — an overseas adventure that took her to Paris soon after […]
Second Catholic priest sworn in as House chaplain
By Tracy Gordon — May 26, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Rev. Patrick Conroy was sworn in Wednesday (May 25) as House chaplain, making him the first Jesuit to hold the position, and the first candidate forced to navigate around the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal. “It’s clear this loyal servant of the faithful is uniquely suited to serve as chaplain of the people’s […]
Vatican closes monastery that attracted aristocrats, dancing nun
By Tracy Gordon — May 26, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has closed the monastery of a fourth-century Roman basilica on account of “liturgical and financial irregularities” that included performances by a nun who had once been a lap dancer. The Vatican cited “behavior not consonant with the monastic life” at the monastery attached to the Basilica of Santa Croce in […]
Adventists in Calif. city lose Sunday mail delivery
By Tracy Gordon — May 26, 2011
LOMA LINDA, Calif. (RNS) Postal carrier Ruth Gomez had prayed and waited for five years to be transferred to the Loma Linda Post Office so that she could finally put to rest the conflicts between her faith and her job. As a Seventh-day Adventist, Gomez observes the Sabbath on Saturday and Loma Linda, with its […]
COMMENTARY: Harold and me
By Tracy Gordon — May 26, 2011
(RNS) California radio evangelist Harold Camping’s false prophecies about the Rapture and the end of the world, first in 1994 and now again in May 2011, are a bit of deja vu. Harold and I, you see, have a history. As a college student in the Bay Area in the late 1960’s, I read the […]
Thursday’s Religion News Roundup
By Kevin Eckstrom — May 26, 2011
I’m just gonna go ahead and kick this off with our favorite story of the day: The decapitated head of St. Vitalis of Assisi, the patron saint of venereal disease (who knew?), will be auctioned off on Sunday. Could be yours for the low-low price of around $1,700. More here. The street preacher who kidnapped […]
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