Jim Newton By Bob Allen Longtime Baptist journalist Jim Newton died Jan. 16 at Baptist Hospital hospice care in Clinton, Miss., after a battle with leukemia. Newton, 75, was born in Kingsville, Texas, into the third generation of a family…
Supreme Court declines to review prayer case
By Bob Allen The U.S. Supreme Court declined Jan. 17 to reconsider a lower court’s decision barring a North Carolina county from invoking prayers in Jesus’ name at twice-a-month meetings of its main governing body. The court declined without comment…
Flood of ‘de-baptisms’ worries European church leaders
PARIS (RNS) — A decade ago, Rene Lebouvier requested that his local Catholic church erase his name from the baptismal register. The church noted his demands on the margins of its records and the chapter was closed. But the clergy…
Christians report lowest growth rate in Israel
JERUSALEM (RNS/ENInews) — Christians have the lowest growth rate among the Israeli population, according to a recent report from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the Jan. 6 report, the Christian growth rate of 0.9 percent lags behind…
Court orders occupiers out of St. Paul’s Cathedral
LONDON (RNS) — Britain’s High Court on Jan. 18 ordered anti-corporate protesters evicted from a camp they have occupied for three months outside London’s iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral. The demonstrators, identifying themselves as the Occupy London Stock Exchange movement, set…
Supreme Court declines to review N.C. prayer case
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined Jan. 17 to reconsider a lower court’s decision barring a North Carolina county from invoking prayers in Jesus’ name at twice-a-month meetings of its main governing body. The court declined without comment…
At 27, new imam represents a homegrown American Islam
ST. LOUIS (RNS) — At just 27 years old, Asif Umar is the new imam of Daar-ul-Islam mosque, the largest mosque in the metro area. The son of Indian immigrants is devoted to the city’s sports teams, marking the end…
Pressler denies Santorum endorsement was rigged
By Bob Allen The host of a weekend gathering of religious conservatives seeking consensus on an alternative presidential candidate to GOP front-runner Mitt Romney denied charges that balloting was rigged to give Rick Santorum the nod over rivals Newt Gingrich…
MLK holiday a day of service for church
By Alice Horner Observing a national holiday honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., members of a Baptist church in Baltimore took advantage of their day off from work for service opportunities as a way to live out the…
MLK holiday a day of service for Baltimore church
BALTIMORE (ABP) — Observing a national holiday honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., members of a Baptist church in Baltimore took advantage of their day off from work for service opportunities as a way to live out the…
Muslims say Ron Paul is their kind of Republican
NEW YORK (RNS) — Growing up in rural parts of the American West, Nadja Adolf’s libertarian streak developed early on. “When you come from a countryside that can kill you,” said Adolf, a Muslim convert in her late 50s, “there…
Will evangelical endorsement fuel Santorum surge?
NEW YORK (RNS) — The Iowa caucuses revived Rick Santorum’s underdog presidential campaign. Now an influential assortment of Christian conservatives has moved to consecrate it. On Jan. 14, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania sewed up the endorsement from a…