NEW YORK (RNS) — Celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, spiritual counselor to Michael Jackson and author of the best-selling Kosher Sex, is about to publish Kosher Jesus. The Orthodox Boteach deems it “the true story of Jesus of Nazareth … a…
Supreme Court sides with churches in employment fights
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 11 unanimously threw its support behind a church school that fired a teacher, using a widely watched church-state case to bolster a legal doctrine that exempts religious institutions from some civil…
Billy Graham returns home after hospital stay
MONTREAT, N.C. (RNS) — Evangelist Billy Graham returned to his North Carolina home Dec. 6 after a six-day stay in a nearby hospital where he was treated for pneumonia. Billy Graham continues to write two years after his last official crusade….
American Muslims hopeful about life in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, an extensive new survey of Muslims finds them as optimistic as other Americans, even as large minorities of Christian Americans question Muslims' loyalty to the United States. The survey, released by the…
State Department tries to raise visibility of religious freedom
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Often accused of ignoring religion as they craft foreign policy, the White House and State Department are trying to show that religion is a rising priority for U.S. diplomacy. The most recent case in point: Secretary of…
High profile for religious freedom
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Often accused of ignoring religion as they craft foreign policy, the White House and State Department are trying to show that religion is a rising priority for U.S. diplomacy. The most recent case in point: Secretary of…
Religious persecution more prevalent, more severe in Muslim countries
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The New Year’s Day massacre at a Coptic church in Egypt. Christian converts facing the death penalty in Afghanistan. Swastikas painted on a Jewish synagogue in Venezuela. As the headlines deliver fresh stories of the persecution of…
Religious persecution on the upswing?
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The New Year’s Day massacre at a Coptic church in Egypt. Christian converts facing the death penalty in Afghanistan. Swastikas painted on a Jewish synagogue in Venezuela. As the headlines deliver fresh stories of the persecution of…