NEW YORK (RNS) — Muslim American groups are calling for the resignation of New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly after the NYPD showed a documentary, The Third Jihad, to more than 1,489 police officers and detectives in 2010. Muslim…
Alaska Airlines suspends prayer cards
NEW YORK (RNS) — After causing a bit of turbulence with some passengers, Alaska Airlines will no longer serve prayer cards with in-flight meals, the company announced Jan. 25. The cards, which take a line or two from the Book…
COMMENTARY: The ultimate badge of honor
(RNS) — Even though men and women from every faith have been members of our armed forces since the Revolutionary War, the struggle for Catholic and Jewish chaplains to gain equality within the American military has been long and difficult….
Richmond girl recognized for exuberance in missions
RICHMOND, Va. — Missions is part of Hannah Craft’s spiritual DNA, say those who know the 12-year-old well. A member of North Run Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., Craft has always shown enthusiasm for learning about and doing missions, says…
At 200, missionary movement ponders the future
SALEM, Mass. (RNS) — When America’s first ordained missionaries sailed from here to India 200 years ago, they kicked off a movement to spread the faith and created America’s most potent export: Christianity. That’s the message that will reverberate across…
At 200, missionary movement ponders the future
SALEM, Mass. (RNS) — When America’s first ordained missionaries sailed from here to India 200 years ago, they kicked off a movement to spread the faith and created America’s most potent export: Christianity. That’s the message that will reverberate across…
Leonard installed in Baptist studies chair at Wake divinity school
By Jim White Amid academic pageantry, Baptist historian Bill Leonard was officially installed Jan. 24 as the first Dunn Professor of Baptist Studies at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. James Dunn and Bill Leonard recessing after the divinity school’s…
10 minutes with … Lobsang Sangay
DHARMSALA, India (RNS) — At least three Tibetan Buddhist monks drank gasoline and set themselves ablaze in January, bringing the count of self-immolations to 15 since March 2011. Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, attributes the deaths…
COMMENTARY: Spike Lee does right thing by religion
PARK CITY, Utah (RNS) — I have a confession to make. The only real reason I saw Spike Lee’s new film at the Sundance Film Festival here is because it is set in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, where…
After angering Catholics, White House honors teachers
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Following days of tension between the Obama administration and the U.S. hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, the White House on Jan. 25 heralded nine Catholic educators as “Champions of Catholic Education.” “Irony is the word of…
Top Catholic bishop feels betrayed by Obama
WASHINGTON (RNS) — In the wake of President Obama’s controversial decision to mandate that religious groups pay for contraceptives for their employees, much of the coverage focused on how the president had disappointed progressive allies by giving religious groups an…
Why Mitt Romney can’t be the Mormon JFK
NEW YORK (RNS) — Mitt Romney’s sudden downgrade from Republican frontrunner to potential also-ran coincided with a massive shift of conservative Christians voters in South Carolina to Newt Gingrich’s camp. Why? Many observers trace it to lingering suspicion among evangelicals…