Monthly Archives: December 2011
Thursday Godbytes: Google holiday treats; 3D printed dreidels; Vader Did You Know?
By Jack Jenkins — December 23, 2011
Google is getting getting into the holiday spirit. If you go to google.com right now and search for the phrase “let it snow,” you’ll get a wintery surprise. The same is true if you search for “Hanukkah,” although with fewer snow flakes. (For more Google fun, search for “tilt” or “do a barel roll”) Despite […]
Evangelicals side with Catholics on insurance mandate
By Tracy Gordon — December 23, 2011
WASHINGTON (RNS) Catholics who have pushed back against a White House policy that would require many religious insurers to cover contraception are getting a high-profile assist from dozens of evangelical leaders. “We write in solidarity, but separately — to stress that religious organizations and leaders of other faiths are also deeply troubled by and opposed […]
ThursdayâÂ?Â?s Religion Roundup: Warm Solstice, Dobson novels, Driscoll’s sex lives, Santorum v. P
By David Gibson — December 22, 2011
Happy Solstice! Shortest day of the year today, and Pagans and Druids and others, oh my, enjoyed unseasonably warm weather as they danced around Stonehenge. For we fathers of daughters, it’s time for another round of “Sunrise, sunset.” Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri has fixed the Obama’s horrifyingly irreligious and un-American “holiday” card (or so […]
German Jews ride renaissance against tide of assimilation
By Tracy Gordon — December 22, 2011
LUEBECK, Germany (RNS) Yelizaveta Paliy arrived in this northern port city from Ukraine in 1995 on the second day of Hanukkah. After years of celebrating the Jewish festival of lights behind drawn curtains in her homeland, Paliy went to Luebeck’s historic synagogue and lit the candles in freedom for the first time. “I cried like […]
Tebow is top religion author of 2011
By Tracy Gordon — December 22, 2011
(RNS) Critics have hammered Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow for everything from his throwing style to his trademark professions of evangelical faith. But this much is now beyond dispute: the guy has a gift for selling books. Tebow’s Christian life story, “Through My Eyes,” has become the top-selling new release of 2011 from HarperOne, a […]
Magi would have a tough time finding frankincense
By Tracy Gordon — December 22, 2011
(RNS) The world may still have gold and myrrh, but it's quite possible that frankincense could become a thing of the past, given ecological pressures on the arid lands where it grows in Ethiopia. The storied resin — known to millions as one of the three gifts of the Magi, the wise men who visited […]
Pope pins financial mess on ‘crisis of faith’
By Tracy Gordon — December 22, 2011
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Europe’s economic and financial crisis is the consequence of an “ethical crisis” and a “crisis of faith,” Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Dec. 22), resulting in the triumph of selfishness over social responsibility. Benedict made his remarks in his annual Christmas speech to the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church’s central administration at […]
A soupcon of anti-Mormonism
By Mark Silk — December 22, 2011
As the Gingrich balloon sinks back to earth under the weight of its own bombast, Airship Romney motors along, buoyed by the improbability of the alternatives and imperilled only by…the Dark Cloud of Mormonism. Maybe. To find out, the Salt Lake Tribune engaged Mason-Dixon to do some polling on religion and the GOP’s Great Race, […]
Feds charge 12 in Amish beard-cutting attacks
By Tracy Gordon — December 22, 2011
CLEVELAND (RNS) Federal prosecutors have expanded their case against members of a breakaway Amish sect for their roles in shaving the hair and beards of people considered to be their religious enemies. An indictment issued Tuesday (Dec. 20) in U.S. District Court lists 12 suspects, including the sect’s leader, Samuel Mullet, 66. The FBI originally […]
Wednesday Godbytes: Politician Hanukkah Tweet-Off; Shroud of Turin; The New Dominionists
By Jack Jenkins — December 21, 2011
Yesterday, as mentioned, was the first day of Hanukkah. We all know what that means: It’s time for a good, old fashioned Politician Holiday Well-Wishing Tweet Off! This year most of the Republican presidential candidates got in on the holiday tweet-fest (although apparently nothing yet from Ron Paul or Rick Santorum?), each with their own […]
Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup: Christianity moves south; Heaven moves to New Jersey
By Daniel Burke — December 21, 2011
Ever wonder why you don’t get Christmas cards from your congressional representative? Well, a 1974 statute prohibits members of Congress from sending holiday cards, personal greetings and the like. The point is that taxpayer dollars should only be used for official business. Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., he of the “Save Christmas Act,” is pushing the […]
Atheists aim to change image of penny-pinching Scrooges
By Tracy Gordon — December 21, 2011
(RNS) If Dec. 10 had been an average day for Doctors Without Borders, the Swiss charity that sends medical help into crisis areas, its website would have logged 4,000 hits. Instead, it was bombarded with more than 10 times that amount as atheists from the user-driven news site Reddit.com participated in a fundraiser that has […]
Church says N.Y. woman is source of sainthood miracle
By Tracy Gordon — December 21, 2011
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (RNS) A 65-year-old woman from Chittenango, N.Y., was inexplicably healed of pancreatitis in 2005, Catholic leaders say, and is the source of the second miracle that will make Blessed Mother Marianne Cope a new U.S. saint. “I’m very happy to be here and I thank the Lord,” Sharon Smith said Tuesday (Dec. 20) […]
Boy is source of Native American saint’s miracle
By Tracy Gordon — December 21, 2011
(RNS) Jacob “Jake” Finkbonner of Ferndale, Wash., was 5 years old in 2006 when he split his lip playing basketball, developed a deadly flesh-eating strep infection and lay near death for months at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Jake’s father, Don, is Native American and a member of the Lummi tribe. The family’s priest at the time, […]
Ala. governor rejects bishops’ immigration plea
By Tracy Gordon — December 21, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Gov. Robert Bentley won’t support a repeal of the state’s get-tough immigration law, rejecting a Christmas appeal from a group of top religious leaders. “Gov. Bentley believes Alabama needs an effective illegal immigration law because the federal government has failed in its duties to enforce the law,” wrote Bentley’s press secretary, Jennifer […]
