religion

Stories 441 - 460 | << Prev   Next >>

Russians Flock to New Religions
Russians Flock to New Religions
Jul 17, 2007 3:42 PM CDT

Russians Flock to New Religions

Followers of the 'new' Jesus head to Siberia to build a town

(Newser) - Is a former traffic cop named Sergei Tropov really the reincarnation of Jesus? Five thousand devoted followers of the Church of the Last Testament believe so, and they've relocated to a remote corner of the Siberian wilderness, where they are constructing a new town founded on the 18-year-old religion. The...

LA Cardinal Apologizes to Abuse Victims

Record $660M deal means cardinal won't have to testify

(Newser) - Cardinal Roger Mahony publicly apologized yesterday to the 508 plaintiffs in a sexual-abuse lawsuit the archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to settle for a record $660 million. Mahony, who met privately with many of the victims abused by clergy, said he wished their lives were like a videotape—"...

'Eco-Kosher' Eating Joins Religion, Ethics

New rabbinical food certification will reflect expanding values

(Newser) - Ancient Jewish dietary laws meet contemporary concerns about how food is produced in what the Washington Post calls the "eco-kosher" movement. American Jews are increasingly concerned about  labor standards, treatment of animals, and ecological impact of what goes on their table, even if they don't keep kosher, and religious...

Former Gay Converters Apologize
Former Gay Converters Apologize
Jun 28, 2007 11:14 AM CDT

Former Gay Converters Apologize

Erstwhile opponents affirm homosexuality

(Newser) - Three ex-leaders of the country's largest Christian gay-conversion ministry apologized for their behavior yesterday, saying the group had caused psychological distress to those it claimed to help. An Exodus International co-founder, now out as a gay man, lamented that the organization had made people feel "compelled to try to...

Barack Bashes Right for 'Hijacking' Faith

Dem candidate inveighs against evangelicals for dividing the country

(Newser) - Barack Obama assailed right-wing evangelical leaders yesterday, accusing them of "hijacking" faith and politicizing religion, the Daily News reports. Addressing the national conference of the United Church of Christ, he criticized "so-called leaders of the Christian right" for demonizing Democrats and convincing Americans that Christians' main concerns are...

Blair to Convert to Catholicism
Blair to Convert to Catholicism
Jun 22, 2007 5:38 AM CDT

Blair to Convert to Catholicism

Being Anglican was politically expedient, but the PM's been drawn to the Roman church for 30 years

(Newser) - Tony Blair is about to become a Roman Catholic, the Guardian reports. His wife is a practicing Catholic, his children were raised in the faith, and the PM has attended mass with them often. But political considerations have kept him officially Anglican all these years. With his last day in...

Mormon Faith Bedevils Romney Bid
Mormon Faith Bedevils Romney Bid
Jun 20, 2007 9:56 PM CDT

Mormon Faith Bedevils Romney Bid

Voters wary; rivals quick to take advantage (and apologize later)

(Newser) - Mitt Romney is still having to explain and defend his religion on the campaign trail. In recent weeks, staffers for two GOP rivals sent out e-mails questioning Mormon beliefs (the candidates later apologized), notes ABC News. And Romney himself has had to battle misconceptions about his faith, especially with regard...

Hollywood Prays for Laughs from the Faithful

With 'Evan Almighty,' Universal skews pious in comedy division

(Newser) - God is returning to the big screen this Friday in Universal's Evan Almighty, a big-budget comedy aimed at the churchgoing. The LA TImes recalls that Hollywood used to balk at religiously-inflected films, but saw the light when Mel Gibson's spiritual blockbuster The Passion of the Christ raked in $370M in...

Ruth Graham Dead at 87
Ruth Graham Dead at 87
Jun 15, 2007 4:14 AM CDT

Ruth Graham Dead at 87

Motorcycle-riding evangelist's wife recalled as spirited, opinionated

(Newser) - Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, stayed in the background of the legendary evangelist's ministry but was far from obscure. The missionary's daughter was at once demure, feisty, independent, and unpredictable, the LA Times reports. Graham, who died yesterday at 87, was also an accomplished poet and parent to five...

Paris Declares She's Got God Intentions

Prison turns heiress towards religion, ABC

(Newser) - Paris Hilton says she's found God and will change her life at the end of her 45-day jail term. Barbara Walters chatted with the heretofore mischievous and materialistic heiress on a collect call from prison, and recapped the conversation on yesterday's View. "I have become much more spiritual,"...

'Heresy' Goes Digital
'Heresy' Goes Digital
Jun 8, 2007 11:24 AM CDT

'Heresy' Goes Digital

Italians Catholics renouncing their faith turn to the Web for help with 'debaptism'

(Newser) - Cutting ties with the Catholic Church is, in theory, a relatively simple matter known as "debaptism." More and more Italians who aren't worried about the Vatican's formal stance on what it calls "an act of apostasy, heresy or schism" are finding the documents they need online. Wired ...

Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control
Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control
May 29, 2007 7:50 AM CDT

Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control

Cheaper pills give poor women same right to family planning, says president

(Newser) - Just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI decried contraception as a threat to the future of Latin America on his visit to Brazil, Brazil's president announced that the government would subsidize birth control pills at private pharmacies so poor women can have "the same right that the wealthy have to...

Pope Backtracks on Muslims
Pope Backtracks on Muslims
May 29, 2007 5:31 AM CDT

Pope Backtracks on Muslims

Benedict rebuilds demoted department the leads dialog with Islamic world

(Newser) - The Pope applied some salve to wounded relations with the Muslim world yesterday after neglecting and then appearing to slander Islam in a speech last fall. In a surprising reversal, Benedict XVI announced he is restoring the Vatican department responsible for Muslim affairs, which he demoted in importance last year.

Tolerant Swiss to Ban Minarets?
Tolerant Swiss to Ban Minarets?
May 28, 2007 9:57 PM CDT

Tolerant Swiss to Ban Minarets?

(Newser) - The Swiss have gone NIMBY (not in my back yard) on minarets.  While Switzerland's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, a number of leading politicians want to ban them via a referendum this fall.  There are now exactly two minarets in all of Switzerland.

Desmond Tutu to Anglicans: Get Over It

Church should attend to AIDS, corruption, Darfur—not gay priests

(Newser) - Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on Africa's Anglican church to let go of what he called its "extraordinary obsession" with gay priests and same-sex marriage.  The church should, instead, be paying attention to the crises caused by AIDS, Darfur and Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe's corruption. 

Creationists Open History Museum
Creationists Open History Museum
May 24, 2007 5:40 PM CDT

Creationists Open History Museum

On the sixth day, God created dinosaurs, says curator

(Newser) - A $27 million museum opening in Kentucky next week promises a different kind of take on natural history: a biblical one. At the Creation Museum, the Earth is 6,000 years old, evolution is a yarn, and dinosaurs were booked on Noah's Ark.

Falwell's Death Ends an Era
Falwell's Death Ends an Era
May 16, 2007 9:08 AM CDT

Falwell's Death Ends an Era

Fineman takes the measure of a partisan preacher and his political legacy

(Newser) - It's impossible to grasp the profound change in American political life in the last quarter-century without understanding Jerry Falwell and the movement he fostered, writes Newsweek's Howard Fineman. Falwell, who died yesterday, created the Moral Majority, helped launch the Reagan Revolution, and dug the evangelical foundations—currently shifting—on which...

Televangelist Falwell Dead at 73
Televangelist Falwell Dead
at 73
May 15, 2007 1:09 PM CDT

Televangelist Falwell Dead at 73

Controversial conservative mixed religion, politics

(Newser) - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and mixed evangelism with conservative social criticism, died today after collapsing in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He was 73. A lightning rod for controversy, Falwell once called AIDS "the wrath of a just God against homosexuals"...

Pastor: Killer Possessed by 'Demonic Power'

Cho's mother sought spiritual healing as son deteriorated

(Newser) - The mother of Seung Hui Cho sought spiritual healing for her angry, troubled son, the Washington Post reports in an examination of the Virginia Tech shooter's mental state. The head pastor of the One Mind Church in Woodbridge, Virginia, said his church was approached last summer to help deliver the...

McGreevey Makes a Leap Of Faith
McGreevey Makes a Leap
Of Faith
May 3, 2007 7:29 AM CDT

McGreevey Makes a Leap Of Faith

Gay former N.J. governor to become an Episcopal priest

(Newser) - James McGreevey, who resigned as New Jersey governor to avoid being outed by a former gay lover, plans to become an Episcopalian priest. McGreevey, who had been a Catholic, was received into the faith at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan Sunday, and has been accepted into the Master of Divinity...

Stories 441 - 460 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser