Adelle M. Banks joined the Religion News Service staff in 1995 after working for more than 10 years at daily newspapers in the upstate New York communities of Binghamton and Syracuse, The Providence Journal, and the Orlando Sentinel.
Before coming to RNS, she was a full-time religion reporter for six years in Orlando, covered the beat during part of her time in Syracuse and contributed to religion coverage at the other papers. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., Banks was a third-place winner in the Religion Newswriters Association’s Religion Reporter of the Year contest in 2011 and 1998. She also has been honored by Associated Church Press.
WASHINGTON (RNS) A bronze statue of civil rights heroine Rosa Parks was unveiled Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, a day for fellow members of her African Methodist Episcopal Church to celebrate one of their own among the pantheon of American heroes.
(RNS) When aging religious leaders reach the top echelons of temporal and spiritual power, their followers have a certain expectation: Till death us do part. But Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise resignation has shifted that calculus, prompting introspection about when, if and how to let go of religion’s senior management.
(RNS) Despite the tough economy, many of the nation’s largest churches are thriving, with increased offerings and plans to hire more staff, a new survey shows.
(RNS) Bishop Eddie Long is facing a suit from former members of his suburban Atlanta megachurch who say he encouraged them to invest in a company that was operating an alleged Ponzi scheme.
(RNS) Evangelist Billy Graham has rubbed elbows with celebrities ranging from presidents to journalists to musicians. In “Billy Graham & Me,” a new book in the “Chicken Soup for the Soul’’ franchise that was released Tuesday, 101 people who have met Graham on the public stage share their private memories of the 94-year-old preacher.
(RNS) Christian conservative leader James Dobson, the founder of the Focus on the Family ministry, has gained a new title: novelist. Working with co-author Kurt Bruner, a Texas pastor, he’s out with “Fatherless,” the first of a dystopian trilogy.
(RNS) The decision by Boy Scouts officials to postpone any change in policy about gay membership was fueled by an “outpouring of feedback.” A lot of that reaction came from religious groups, who sponsor 70 percent of Scout troops.
(RNS) Forty years after the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion, children who were conceived through rape — and women who were raped and chose to end the pregnancy — are speaking out, opening a new front in the often-fraught discussions of a decades-old culture war.
(RNS) Leaders of Catholic and Reformed churches have signed an agreement to recognize each other’s sacraments of baptism in a public step toward unity among groups often divided by doctrine.
Throngs of anti-abortion activists gathered on the National Mall Friday (Jan. 25) for a rally marking the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion. After speeches by new March for Life President Jeanne Monahan and political and religious leaders, they marched to the steps of the high court. RNS video and photos [...]
