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Check out news and opinion posts across the years
Bishop Compares Fight over Female Bishops to World War II
LONDON (RNS) A leading bishop in the Church of England has triggered fury in British religious circles by likening the debate over allowing female bishops to the “serious threat” of warfare posed by the Nazis on the...
Study: Americans Crave Forgiveness but Are Choosy on Dispensing It
(RNS) Most Americans have a desire for more forgiveness in their lives, but they are more critical when choosing who to forgive, according to a new survey. Sixty-two percent of American adults said they need more...
Unanimous Baptists: Isn’t That an Oxymoron?
I have always wondered why reasonable people would think a Baptist committee could ever reach a unanimous decision. Frankly, it is remarkable "unanimous" and "Baptist" appear in the same dictionary! As the old saying...
Ironically, Few Christians Aspire to Peacemaking
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." Jesus is talking about those who have given themselves to the difficult and challenging work of making peace between individuals,...
The Danger of Making Politics Your Religion
"Politics makes a lousy religion," Nathan warned me amid a casual conversation. He should know. Nathan has spent a great swath of his life and energy yearning for political change that would create a world which, for...
Church Arsonist Sentenced to Nine Years
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (RNS) The first of three men charged with torching a black church hours after President Obama’s 2008 election was sentenced to nine years in prison on Monday (Nov. 1) for what the judge called a...
Ice Cream Company Loses Second Racy Religious Ad
LONDON (RNS) Only weeks after being censured for using ad featuring a pregnant nun, a British ice cream maker has been forced to yank a second racy ad that featured two male priests on the verge of a kiss. The powerful...
Air Force Academy Cites Progress in Tackling Religious Intolerance
WASHINGTON (RNS) A recent survey on the religious climate of the U.S. Air Force Academy showed that 41 percent of non-Christian cadets face unwanted proselytizing at least once during a year-long period. The Cadet and...
Global Baptists Mourn Attack on Baghdad Church, Islamic Clerics Criticize Assault
Baptists and other Christians in Baghdad say they are living in fear following an attack on a Roman Catholic Church in the Iraqi capital that left more than 50 Christians dead. The massacre occurred Oct. 31 when...
Middle East Needs More Peacemakers, Fewer Ideologues
The latest edition of BMS World Mission's engage magazine upset a number of folks who fervently support the nation of Israel. In pursuing our occasional "guest editor" policy, specifically designed to enable voices...
EthicsDaily.com Readership Skyrocketed in October
October was a record-smashing month for EthicsDaily.com readership, outstripping anything we could have projected. We had 729,925 pages read, compared to the previous all-time high in September 2010 of 577,885 pages...
Help the economy: buy a suit
I showed up at the polls by 6:46 a.m. on Nov. 2, and found the polling station (in a local church gym/sanctuary) already filling up with folks who were clearly voting before going in to work. I counted 60 or so voters...
Working wonders
Barnwell Chapel at Berry CollegeIt was in a litany a few years ago that I first recall hearing the phrase “a good kind of tired.” It caught my attention. Not all work is enjoyable. Some tasks just have to be done. And...
N.J. Group Helps Russian Jews Reaffirm Faith
(RNS) Veronika and Oleg Bilerman exchanged wedding vows a quarter of a century ago in an unremarkable civil ceremony in the former Soviet Union. Their Jewish faith was never acknowledged. It wasn’t until Sunday (Oct....
Vatican Seeks to Be Ally with Victims on Abuse
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican’s top spokesman appealed to victims of pedophile priests who demonstrated near the Vatican on Sunday (Oct. 31) to regard the Catholic Church as an “ally” in the struggle against the...
Religion, Politics Getting too Cozy, Carter Warns
SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) For a man who evangelized foreign leaders and taught Sunday school while U.S. president, Jimmy Carter has some strong words for what he sees as an “excessive melding of religion and politics.” And...
When You Meet a Stranger, Who Do You Really See?
My foreign-born accent gives me away in America like some characters in the Old Testament – those who were caught as spies because they could not pronounce some words in the proper dialect. Being an immigrant in the...
When Pastors Abandon the Discipline of Reading
I couldn't tell if he was making a confession or if he was bragging. The man looked up from the computer screen from where he was surfing the net and announced very matter-of-factly, "I manage this bookstore but I...
Lausanne Congress Calls for Church Repentance
Leaders of the Lausanne Movement, an evangelical Christian movement that promotes active worldwide evangelism, have called for a new Reformation and challenged participants in this year's congress to repentance,...
Retired chaplains miss the mark
A recent Associated Press article provided the disturbing news that a group of retired military chaplains are claiming that repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be a violation of their religious freedom.
What?
The high-profile policy, forged in 1993 as a first step toward moving beyond an outright ban on homosexuals in the military, forces gays and lesbians to remain in the closet in order to remain in uniform. Thus, Christian gays and lesbians (which I do not believe to be a contradiction in terms) can neither work nor worship with full integrity, having always to hide one of the deepest aspects of their identity — and their freedom is not being violated?
The retired chaplains behind the letter claim that current chaplains could be disciplined as bigots if they should preach against homosexuality, and that this violates their religious freedom.
My question is,
Right Wingers, Chelsea Clinton Included on Top Jews List
(RNS) Russian and right-wing Jews make a splash in this year’s list of influential people compiled by The Forward, the country’s largest national Jewish weekly newspaper. Crowning the 2010 “Forward 50,” published Oct....