Monthly Archives: July 2011
COMMENTARY: Looking back at 640,000 words
By Tracy Gordon — July 27, 2011
(RNS) I salute New York Yankee Derek Jeter, who recently recorded his 3,000th base hit. But I also have an eye on another statistic: my own. Since 1991, I have written nearly a thousand Religion News Service columns, numbering about 640,000 words. While that may represent lots of verbiage, crafting 700-word columns is like squeezing […]
Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Daniel Burke — July 27, 2011
The “Bell of Hope,” a gift from London to NYC after 9/11, will toll at historic St. Paul’s Chapel at noon today in remembrance of Norway’s massacre victims. Meanwhile, the debate rages on about whether Anders Breivik is a “Christian” terrorist, or a “fundamentalist nationalist,” or some other “-ist.” Norwegian Muslims are hoping the atrocities […]
Hill hearing again targets radicalized Muslims
By Tracy Gordon — July 27, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) The third in a controversial series of congressional hearings on the “radicalization” of American Muslims showcased on Wednesday (July 27) a militant Somali group that some experts say poses a serious risk to the United States. Al-Shabab has recruited more than 40 Americans and 20 Canadians, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of […]
Is Anders Breivik a `Christian’ terrorist?
By David Gibson — July 27, 2011
Some have pushed back against such a carefully cordoned-off interpretation of Breivik's faith, or Christianity itself.
Tuesday’s Godbytes
By Jack Jenkins — July 27, 2011
Like much of the world, the blogosphere is fixated on the tragic killings in Norway today, with the folks over at Religious Dispatches ruminating on the idea that “Christian Terrorism” is embodied in the suspected Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh: “Both were good-looking young Caucasians, self-enlisted soldiers in […]
Faith-healing parents lose custody of daughter
By Tracy Gordon — July 27, 2011
OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) State officials will retain legal custody of a 19-month-old girl whose devoutly religious parents treated the girl’s vision-threatening medical condition with prayer instead of taking her to a doctor. Timothy and Rebecca Wyland were convicted in June of first-degree criminal mistreatment and sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years […]
Episcopalians turn to social media for growth
By Tracy Gordon — July 27, 2011
(RNS) The Episcopal Church is urging congregations to embrace social media websites like Facebook and Twitter in a push to highlight the Internet as a tool for church growth. The church released a 12-page white paper, or instruction guide, last week, (July 20) listing “best practices” for how congregations can make use of social media. […]
Church-state groups slam Obama on hiring issue
By Tracy Gordon — July 27, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) President Obama’s status-quo stance on the controversial issue of faith-based hiring has drawn criticism from atheists and church-state watchdogs. Responding to an atheist at a town hall last week at the University of Maryland, College Park, the president discussed whether religious groups receiving government funds should be permitted to make religion-related hiring decisions. […]
‘Instant churches’ convert public schools to worship spaces
By Tracy Gordon — July 26, 2011
(RNS) Praise the Lord and pass the crates with the prefab pulpit and the portable baptistery inside. The Forest Hills Community Church is moving into P.S. 144 — sort of. Every Sunday morning, the elementary school in Queens, like dozens more schools in New York City and thousands more nationwide, is transformed into a house […]
Building for God, or ourselves?
By Tracy Gordon — July 26, 2011
(RNS) Poet W.H. Auden once described cathedrals as “Luxury liners laden with souls, Holding to the east their hulls of stone.” It’s an evocative image and a reminder that a cathedral, no matter how grand, is meant to be a vehicle of sorts — elevating the souls of worshippers and transporting them to a place […]
Faith-healing parents lose custody of daughter
By Tracy Gordon — July 26, 2011
COMMENTARY: Time to man the defenses in class warfare
By Tom Ehrich — July 26, 2011
(RNS) What does a plutocracy look like? It looks like Washington 2011. Republicans want to do the impossible: balance a budget without raising revenue, specifically without reversing the tax giveaways to the rich that brought about the massive deficit they are struggling to correct. Democrats seem to feel helpless in the face of relentless lobbying […]
Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup
By Lauren Markoe — July 26, 2011
The World Trade Center cross should not be part of a national 9/11 memorial, say atheists who have filed suit to stop its display. The cross is two intersecting steel beams found in the towers’ wreckage, and is revered by some as a sign of God’s presence at the terror attack. Americans want their presidents […]
Godbytes, Helter Skelter edition
By Daniel Burke — July 26, 2011
Are anti-Islamic American bloggers morally culpable for the murderous attacks in Oslo? Or are they like the Beatles, whose song “Helter Skelter” was tragically misused by Charles Manson? That question has been bouncing through the blogosphere since Anders Behring Breivik’s 1,500 anti-Muslim manifesto was posted online last Friday. (Slate has posted a video by Breivik, […]
U.S. conservatives on the defensive after Oslo killings
By Tracy Gordon — July 26, 2011
(RNS) For years, many religious and political conservatives in the U.S. have sought to connect Islam to violence carried out by Muslims, and argued that Muslims often fail to denounce terrorism committed by Islamic extremists. But in the wake of the horrific attacks in Norway by a right-wing extremist who identified himself as a Christian […]
