Browse Archives
Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Senators Debate Bill to Recognize Gay Marriages
WASHINGTON (RNS) Senators wrestled with issues of faith and religious freedom on Wednesday (July 20) as they debated a new bill that would allow the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. The Senate...
Campus Crusade Ditches Name for ‘Cru’
(RNS) Campus Crusade for Christ is out. “Cru” is in. The 60-year-old evangelical ministry announced its new name at a staff conference in Fort Collins, Colo., on Tuesday (July 19), saying the old name had become...
Governors Seek Prayers for Rain, Deny Climate Change
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is using her bully pulpit to call Oklahomans to prayforrain. More than 40 percent of Oklahoma is experiencing an exceptional drought, the most severe category measured by climatologists....
Methodist Leaders Challenge SBC Official on Altering DREAM Act
United Methodist Church leaders sent a letter to the ranking members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security opposing the altering of the DREAM Act urged by a Southern...
UN Goals to Halve Poverty Remain on Target
International aid can – and does – make a difference. That's the verdict from international development charities recently in the wake of a generally positive United Nations update on progress toward the Millennium...
Tales of Three Temples (Part Two): the Bayon temple of Angkor Thom
A hundred years after the heyday of Angkor Wat, the Khmer capital of ancient Cambodia was overrun in a surprise attack by a people called the Chams. A new king, Jayavarman VII (1181-1219), rose to power by successfully...
Hindus Sue Restaurant over Meat Mistake
EDISON, N.J. (RNS) A group of Hindus can sue an Edison restaurant for money to travel to India, where they say they must purify their souls after eating meat, a state appellate court panel ruled Monday (July 18). The...
Chaput Will Upend Convention in the Most Conventional of Cities
(RNS) The most obvious reason that Pope Benedict XVI sent Archbishop Charles Chaput from Denver to take over the prestigious Archdiocese of Philadelphia was the same one that has shaped almost every major development...
Watkins Re-elected President of Disciples
(RNS) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) voted to re-elect the Rev. Sharon Watkins as head of the denomination, capping off a weeklong assembly that mixed mundane church business with hot-button issues such as...
Reality Is on Our Side
Al Gore told members of The Climate Project in a July conference call, "Reality is on our side." He announced the rebranding of the organization from The Climate Project to TheClimateRealityProject, and he unveiled a...
British Churches Support Poverty-Reduction Goals
"The poor you will always have with you," Jesus said. For most of Christian history, that has been regarded either as a statement of melancholy but unalterable truth or as a declaration of divine intent: "The rich man...
Can We Love People Without Liking Them?
"We have to love all people because Jesus commands us to do so, but that doesn't mean we have to like them." We hear this too much and too often by Christians who pretend to be friends of Jesus. Who are we fooling?...
Churches Divided on Hungary’s New Religion Law
(RNS/ENInews) Christian leaders in Hungary are divided over a restrictive new law on religion, with larger denominations welcoming its curbs on church activities and smaller groups voicing fears for their future. “We...
Pennsylvania Debates Whether Thou Shalt not Hunt on the Sabbath
HARRISBURG, Pa. (RNS) Two of the most influential forces in conservative lobbying are poised to go head-to-head this fall over an issue that some Pennsylvania lawmakers dread might be one of the most difficult of the...
Neither We, Nor Michele Bachmann, Are Anti-Catholic
MILWAUKEE (RNS) Recent news reports have thrust the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) into the middle of a presidential campaign. What has catapulted this relatively small Lutheran church body into the media...
Why The Dalai Lama’s Message of Peace Resonates
Tenzin Gyatso is known around the world as the Dalai Lama. He was in Washington, D.C., recently, and I could have gone to hear him speak. One day I even had a free ticket in my hand, but I gave it back as I had already...
Disregarding the Bible’s Full Context Carries Risks
Colin Harris, professor of religion at Mercer University, sent me a very helpful and encouraging email following my previous column on the subject of the narrative structure of the Bible versus the non-narrative nature...
South Sudan’s Churches Focus on Reconciliation
The church has a crucial peace-building role to play in South Sudan, the world's newest country, according to a Baptist leader there. Rev. Ramadan Chan Liol, general secretary of the Sudan Interior Church, which is...
More Questions, Fewer Answers, on the Afterlife
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) For millennia, people have been trying to imagine what happens after death. Is there an afterlife, a heaven? Who gets in? And what happens to those who don’t? Books trying to provide answers...
Court Says Store Discriminated Against Muslim
(RNS) Abercrombie & Fitch violated civil rights law when the clothier refused to hire a Muslim woman because she wears a headscarf, a federal district court has ruled. “We were very excited to hear that the judge...
Ireland Pushes Priests to Report Confessed Sex Abuse
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Ireland’s prime minister said Catholic priests could be jailed for failing to report child sex abuse crimes they hear during the sacrament of confession, regardless of the confidentiality imposed by...