Mitt Romney says that he’s running for president as an American, not as a Mormon, and conceded that if his religious beliefs cost him the Oval Office, then “so be it.”
Was it enough to tamp down evangelicals’ skepticism about his faith? That may depend on which evangelicals, and where they stand on the broad spectrum of religious conservatism.
The National Council of Churches has filled five new senior positions, one month after the New York–based ecumenical agency cut staff due to budget restrictions. Coping with a $1 million budget shortfall in its last fiscal year, the ecumenical agency reduced programming and cut 14 staff jobs down to five in November.
Beliefnet, one of the country’s leading Web sites devoted to religion and spirituality, is under new management as part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the Fox Entertainment Group.
The deal, announced December 4, gives Beliefnet a new solidity after it emerged from bankruptcy protection five years ago. The site is now profitable and gets 3 million visitors each month.
Pat Robertson, 77, says that his son Gordon, 49, has succeeded him as chief executive of the Christian Broadcasting Network. The senior Robertson announced the transition this month on The 700 Club, the network’s flagship program.
In the first internal survey of members of the American Academy of Religion, a poll has shown that between 70 and 75 percent, depending on the question, think it is important to hold its annual meeting concurrently with that of the Society of Biblical Literature.
“Earth Mother is fighting back—not only from the four winds but also from underneath. Scientists call it global warming. We call it Earth Mother getting angry.”
—TalkingHawk, a Native American from the Mohawk Tribe, preparing for a sacred ceremony to pray for the Earth
History books are full of seminal events: 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to a church door and launched the Protestant Reformation; or 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion.
Americans have ignored previous denunciations of violence
Dec 25, 2007
North American Muslim clerics have issued a fatwa against Islamic terrorism, hoping to build on the just-completed Mideast peace talks and a Vatican invitation to meet with Muslim leaders.
When the first translation of the long-lost Gospel of Judas was published last year amid considerable publicity, a few scholars trumpeted its apparent depiction of Judas Iscariot as a positive figure who was rewarded in the heavens for betraying Jesus.
The second encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, warning against secular ideas of progress, has prompted a lively debate among newspaper commentators in Italy—some labeling the pope a reactionary, but others springing to the pontiff’s defense.
While members of the 6.5-million-member Church of God in Christ looked ahead to the denomination’s 100th annual convocation in November, the bishop and megachurch pastor who serves as the de facto interim presiding bishop of the historically black Pentecostal denomination issued a timely message: “If we are to remain a constructive influence in society, we must be guided by godly principles that p
Voting choices "may affect the individual's salvation"
Dec 11, 2007
One year before next November’s national elections, U.S. Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved new moral guidelines for Catholic voters that prioritize ending abortion and warn that political choices could affect a person’s salvation.
The Church of England says that in 2006 for the first time the number of newly ordained women exceeded that of men, but it conceded that most women did not get positions as full-time clergy.
