(RNS2-MAR10) Left to right, Karley Scott Collins, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Jessica Dickey star in the Lifetime Movie Network original film "Amish Grace." For use with RNS-AMISH-FILM, transmitted March 10, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Jack Zeman/Lifetime Movie Network. | Download/Purchase this photo
Film on 2006 massacre stirs talk among Amish
By Ivey DeJesus
NICKLE MINES, Pa. (RNS) In the movie, the winding Lancaster County roads, the hay in the barn and even the men’s black boots are squeaky clean, not soiled with the mud and manure that are accoutrements of Amish life.
In the movie, the women have skillfully arched eyebrows; the men manicured fingernails that bear no trace of farm chores. Their handsome faces are void of the weathering from wind and sun.
And in the movie, the unfathomable horror that played out here on the morning of Monday, Oct. 2, 2006, when a lone gunmen entered the sanctity …
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
The growing sex abuse scandal in Germany's Catholic Church is heating up -- again -- now that the Regensburg diocese says it will name an outside investigator to probe charges of physical and sexual abuse swirling around a famed boys choir that the pope's own brother directed for 30 years.
In Sweden, at least three newspapers on Wednesday published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog after a plot was uncovered by Muslim extremists -- including an American woman known as "Jihad Jane" -- …
RNS CHURCH FORGIVE (RNS2-MAR08) Jose Feliciano is accused in the murder of the Rev. Edward Hinds, pastor of St. Patrick Church in Chatham, N.J. Feliciano, a former janitor for the church, is suspected after Hinds reportedly made plans to fire Feliciano for failing to pass a routine background check. For use with RNS-CHURCH-FORGIVE, transmitted March 8, 2010. RNS photo by Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger.
(RNS1-MAR10) Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's recent novel, ``36 Arguments for the Existence of God,'' is a thoughtful and irreverent romp through the contemporary debate between atheists and believers. For use with RNS-10-MINUTES, transmitted March 10, 2010. RNS photo courtesy Steven Pinker. | Download/Purchase this photo
10 Minutes with … Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
By Daniel Burke
(RNS) A famous atheist who harbors a secret soul. A 6-year-old Hasidic mathematical genius. A pompous and increasingly loony college professor with delusions of divine grandeur.
These are the characters that populate Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s recent novel, “36 Arguments for the Existence of God,” a thoughtful and irreverent romp through the contemporary debate between atheists and believers.
Like Cass Sunstein (the novel’s soulful atheist), Goldstein has added an appendix with 36 arguments about God to her book—and found the flaws in each.
The award-winning philosopher/novelist talked about why 36 is a sacred number, what …