Karen Long
Karen Long is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Karen Long
Colm Toibin’s Virgin Mary is far from meek and mild
By Karen Long — December 7, 2012
(RNS) The traditional Christmas image of the Virgin Mary -- silent, obedient, observant -- has cemented a potent ideal in the Western imagination. Now the masterful Irish writer Colm Toibin puts a jackhammer to the cozy, safe, Christmas-card version in "The Testament of Mary.'' By Karen Long.
10 Minutes With … Thomas Nevin
By Karen Long — February 8, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Thomas R. Nevin has a complicated relationship with a saint. The modest, erudite professor at John Carroll University in Cleveland has just finished “Therese of Lisieux: God’s Gentle Warrior,” a book that is both readable and provocative. He begins it in a Carmelite monastery in 1897 as the French […]
`Gramma’ Shares Faith in Stories
By Karen Long — September 9, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Laura Lipari is a veteran storyteller. For decades she has kept Catholic school children enthralled, sometimes telling about her adventures translating for the Allied troops and escaping the Nazis during World War II, more often relating Bible stories. Some of those children are college graduates now, and occasionally […]
Did High-Born Nun Pen Bold Love Letters?: `Letters of a Portuguese Nun’ by Myriam Cyr (Miramax
By Karen Long — January 24, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Who can resist a gorgeous love letter, particularly the throbbing words of a nun whose soldier has returned to duty, leaving her distraught in her convent? Not many, it turns out, when the letters are this frank, intelligent and lush _ both back in 1669, when they first appeared, […]
Subject of New Book a Saintly Inmate
By Karen Long — May 5, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Twenty-eight years ago, a short, wealthy Californian pulled on a black dress and a black veil that she had stitched herself, trying to look “nunny.” She stood before her mirror and took the name Mother Antonia, chosen for the Catholic priest who had inspired her to stick with her […]
While Some Religions Raise Glasses to Alcohol, Others Eschew It
By Karen Long — January 5, 2005
c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the sixth century, St. Bridget of Ireland wrote a poem describing heaven as a lake of beer. The Holy Family resided on its shore, able to lap the frothy drink through all eternity. In the seventh century, Muhammad understood Allah to reveal that strong drink was “Satan’s handiwork.” […]
NEWS FEATURE: Movement Seeks to Curb `Negative Tongue’
By Karen Long — January 1, 2000
c. 2000 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Deborah and Abby Ross, a mother and daughter from Orange, Ohio, stood near the exit of a Cedar Point roller coaster, watching the human parade. “People at Cedar Point often wear shorts who shouldn’t wear shorts,” Deborah Ross said. “We decided to try to find something good about […]
NEWS FEATURE: Cleric Pens Soul-Searching Book About the Priesthood
By Karen Long — January 1, 2000
c. 2000 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ With a frank, scholarly new book, the Rev. Donald B. Cozzens draws on 35 years as a priest to explore the beset soul of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Some of his fellow clerics are calling it a masterpiece. Cozzens, 60, has spent his life as a priests’ priest, […]
NEWS STORY: Alabama’s Churches Challenged to Support Public Schools
By Karen Long — January 1, 2000
c. 2000 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM _ At least two Alabama Baptist churches are taking up a challenge from a fellow Baptist to help the state’s schools after churches played a key role in defeating an education lottery last year. But not all in the denomination think that’s an appropriate idea. Wayne Flynt, an Auburn […]
NEWS FEATURE: Cleric Pens Soul-Searching Book About the Priesthood
By Karen Long — January 1, 2000
c. 2000 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ With a frank, scholarly new book, the Rev. Donald B. Cozzens draws on 35 years as a priest to explore the beset soul of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Some of his fellow clerics are calling it a masterpiece. Cozzens, 60, has spent his life as a priests’ priest, […]
NEWS FEATURE: Movement Seeks to Curb `Negative Tongue’
By Karen Long — January 1, 2000
c. 2000 Religion News Service CLEVELAND _ Deborah and Abby Ross, a mother and daughter from Orange, Ohio, stood near the exit of a Cedar Point roller coaster, watching the human parade. “People at Cedar Point often wear shorts who shouldn’t wear shorts,” Deborah Ross said. “We decided to try to find something good about […]
NEWS STORY: Alabama’s Churches Challenged to Support Public Schools
By Karen Long — January 1, 2000
c. 2000 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM _ At least two Alabama Baptist churches are taking up a challenge from a fellow Baptist to help the state’s schools after churches played a key role in defeating an education lottery last year. But not all in the denomination think that’s an appropriate idea. Wayne Flynt, an Auburn […]
NEWS FEATURE: Reincarnation claims awe once-skeptical writer
By Karen Long — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Tom Shroder’s earlier book, a whodunit he edited while editor of the Miami Herald’s Tropics magazine, went for the belly laugh. “Naked Came the Manatee” started with a chapter by humorist Dave Barry and was continued as a serial by 12 additional writers over 13 weeks in the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Author urges sexual counter-revolution
By Karen Long — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ At age 23, Wendy Shalit has burst onto the American public scene as the newest Rorschach test. Reactions to her book promoting sexual modesty range from raves to withering dismissals. George Will, in Newsweek, turned in a rave: “Think Katie Couric with Edith Wharton’s mind.” Fellow Gen-Xer Katie […]
NEWS FEATURE: When does life end? Brain-death guidelines at center of debate
By Karen Long — January 1, 1999
c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Consider three cases: Teresa Hamilton, 13, falls into a severe diabetic coma and is diagnosed as brain-dead. Her family refuses to accept this and insists on taking her body home, on a ventilator. Despite Florida law that states that people with dead brains are legally dead, and over […]
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