WASHINGTON (RNS) — When conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck warned church-goers to “run as fast as you can” if their pastors preach about “social justice,” was he also encouraging them to run from the Bible? That’s what some progressive Christian leaders…
Washington in a war of words over how to label terrorists
WASHINGTON (RNS) — In addition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration is fighting on another front — a domestic war of words over how to describe the threat posed by militant Islamic terrorism. Earlier this spring,…
Is the Tea Party unbiblical? It all depends on your perspective
WASHINGTON (RNS) — When conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck warned church-goers to “run as fast as you can” if their pastors preach about “social justice,” was he also encouraging them to run from the Bible? That’s what some progressive Christian leaders…
Novelist Anne Rice: Committed to Christ but leaving Christianity
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Former vampire novelist Anne Rice says she’s leaving Christianity again because she no longer wants to be identified with such a “quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” Anne Rice Born and raised a Catholic, Rice left…
Virginia re-enactor brings gospel to former Civil War battlefields
GETTYSBURG, Pa. (RNS) — From his Old Testament beard down to his scuffed boots and battered Bible, Alan Farley looks the perfect picture of a Civil War chaplain. On a dusty field five miles from where the Battle of Gettysburg…
Homeowners weigh morality of walking out on mortgages
ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS)—Lynn Thompson quit paying the mortgage on her investment property—not because she couldn’t afford the payments, but because she thinks walking away is better for her long-term financial health. trategic defaults on home mortgages accounted for 31 percent…
Churches start their own humanitarian aid agencies
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Members of Metro Community Church in Englewood, N.J., support the missionaries sent by their denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, to the Congo, but Africa is a distant and dangerous trip from the 400-member flock. “We can’t send our short-term…
Mormon imagery seen in ‘Twilight’
LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula began haunting the imagination in 1897, popular culture has identified Christian symbols — crucifixes, holy water, Communion wafers — as weapons to ward off a blood-thirsty vampire. Kristen Stewart (Bella) and…
Mormon influence, imagery run deep through ‘Twilight’
LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula began haunting the imagination in 1897, popular culture has identified Christian symbols — crucifixes, holy water, Communion wafers — as weapons to ward off a blood-thirsty vampire. Kristen Stewart (Bella) and…