WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — 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…
BC event features winter adventure, faith decisions
BLUEFIELD, Va. — Three hundred thirty-three youth from 12 churches across Virginia stormed the Bluefield College campus Jan. 14-16 for the school’s three-day extreme winter worship adventure known as Winter Blast. With skiing, sledding, tubing and other snow activities on…
Documentary on bishop premieres at Sundance
PARK CITY, Utah (RNS) — It’s been years since the incident, but Bishop Gene Robinson’s heart still races when he sees it on film. Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly bishop, was preaching in London when a man in the…
Workers at religious institutions fear future of pensions
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (RNS) — Sue Fritz tended to the sick for more than two decades as a nurse at St. Peter’s University Hospital. By the time she left for another job in 1999, she was vested in the hospital’s…
Shhh! Pope praises value of short tweets, silence
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Benedict XVI praised new communications technologies like Twitter on Jan. 24, saying that even “concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible,” can convey “profound thoughts.” Benedict did not explicitly refer to…
‘A miniature Christian bookstore’ in your palm
NEW YORK (RNS) — God may hold the whole world in his hand, but persecuted Christians can now hold an entire seminary library on a fingertip. Bible League International is working with the Digital Bible Society to carry the thumbnail-sized…
COMMENTARY: Competing in the free market
NEW YORK (RNS) — If local newspapers are dying, where will we get the trustworthy news we need to be responsible citizens, neighbors and economic contributors? It’s a good question. Here’s another. If slow-moving, complacent old-economy enterprises like Kodak continue…
‘A miniature Christian bookstore’ in the palm of your hand
NEW YORK (RNS) — God may hold the whole world in his hand, but persecuted Christians can now hold an entire seminary library on a fingertip. Bible League International is working with the Digital Bible Society to carry the thumbnail-sized…
Bodily desecration is disturbing — but why?
NEW YORK (RNS) — The recent outrage over a video allegedly showing U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters provided Americans with a disturbing reminder that war can reduce men to revenge-seeking brutality that defies human norms. It’s nothing new:…
Poll: Preachy politicians turn off many voters
NEW YORK (RNS) — If there’s one thing the fractious Republican field agrees on, it’s that personal religious devotion is central to their campaign message. Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and even Ron Paul stress their faith on the…
Megadeth star takes metal — and seminary — on tour
CLAYTON, Mo. (RNS) — As new students wandered onto the campus of Concordia Seminary last September, they were joined by another group of theological rookies — mostly midcareer types — joining the school’s program that allows students to train for…
Muslim men convicted of advocating death for gays
LONDON (RNS) — In the first case of its kind, a British court has convicted three Muslim men — who claimed they were acting under teachings of their religion — of openly advocating the execution of gays. Jurors in Derby,…