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Sun Apr 24 04:14:23 EDT 2011
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Mormon Men Delaying the Walk Down the Aisle - SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) John Evans is in no hurry to get married.
The 25-year-old returned LDS missionary lives with his parents, works full time, takes night classes toward an English degree and, with law school looming, is building up his savings.
Evans goes on dates, but they tend to be expensive so he prefers developing friendships first. Sometimes he finds it easier just to hang out with the guys at his Mormon fraternity.
"My dating pace is right for me," Evans says. "I don't feel...
Supreme Court Limits Prisoners’ Right to Sue - WASHINGTON (RNS) Prison inmates who are deprived of their religious rights cannot sue states for monetary damages, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday (April 20). Inmate Harvey Leroy Sossamon III said a Texas state prison illegally prevented him from attending religious services. Sossamon had been on cell restriction for disciplinary reasons at the time. Sossamon alleged that the prison's actions violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which protects...
Love Lost and Found on Opposite Sides of Border - BARTA'A, Israel (RNS) Fatmeh Kabaha spent most of her life surrounded by her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews in a small Palestinian village just minutes from the border that separates the Palestinian territories from Israel. Six years ago, she married a fellow Palestinian widower who lived on the Israeli side of the "green line" that slices through town. But finding love on one side of the wall, she found, meant leaving behind her family on the other. In 2002 at the height of the...
Study: Congregations Slowly Recovering From Recession - (RNS) The recession was a double-barrel blow to American congregations: directly hurting their budgets while also stretching them thin due to increased needs for counseling, emergency housing and other social services. But the worst seems to be over, according to a report released Thursday (April 21) that found that one in 10 have begun to recover from the loss, and more than 40 percent are now stable or increasing financially. The "Holy Toll" report, based on the 2010 Faith Communities...
Scholar Challenges Thursday Date of Last Supper - LONDON (RNS) A top British scientist claims his biblical, historical and astronomical research shows Christians have been observing Jesus' Last Supper on the wrong day of the week. Cambridge University Professor Colin Humphreys says Jesus' final meal with his disciples actually was eaten on the Wednesday before the Crucifixion -- one day earlier than has been traditionally accepted. The mix-up, Humphreys concludes in his new book, The Mystery of the Last Supper, may be because...
Cookbook Preserves Treasured Recipes from the Holocaust - (RNS) The last time Regina Finer's mother cooked the soft, dense potato dumplings called kluskies, Regina couldn't have been more than 12. It was the same year the Nazis took Finer's parents from their home in the Warsaw ghetto -- she never saw them again -- and sent her, her sister and an aunt to the Majdanek concentration camp. Finer's mother never got a chance to teach her daughter how to make the dumplings, a Passover specialty. By the time Finer landed in America with a new husband...
Poll: Americans See Clash Between Christianity, Capitalism - (RNS) Are Christianity and capitalism a marriage made in heaven, as some conservatives believe, or more of a strained relationship in need of some serious couples' counseling? A new poll released Thursday (April 21) found that more Americans (44 percent) see the free market system at odds with Christian values than those who don't (36 percent), whether they are white evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics or minority Christians. But in other demographic breakdowns, several...
Beatification of Nazi Martyrs Divides Lutherans, Catholics - LUEBECK, Germany (RNS) Residents of this north German city have long taken pride in four native sons -- three Catholic priests and a Lutheran pastor -- who were beheaded in quick succession on Nov. 10, 1943 by the Nazi regime. The commingled blood of Catholic priests Johannes Prassek, Hermann Lange, Eduard Mueller and Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink spawned an ecumenical cooperation between the city's majority Lutherans and minority Catholics that still lasts. But the Vatican's...
State Department Fires Back at Ambassador - WASHINGTON (RNS) The State Department fired back at a prominent Catholic ambassador who said the agency has a "rigidly narrow" view of foreign policy that neglects the role of religion in world affairs. "I can't imagine an agency that has a broader portfolio," State Department spokesman Evan Owen said on Monday (April 18). "We have an ambassador for religious freedom; we have an office for international religious freedom; we publish two reports a year on religious freedom; we maintain a...
British Man Sentenced to 70 Days for Burning Quran - LONDON (RNS) A British former soldier has been jailed for burning a copy of the Quran in front of shoppers in England -- an act the judge described as "theatrical bigotry." Andrew Ryan was sentenced to 70 days for setting fire to the Islamic holy book on Jan. 19 in Carlisle with a cigarette lighter after his first attempt with matches failed. The 22-year-old ex-soldier's lawyer, Margaret Payne, said his fury was "directed toward radical Islam such as the burning of poppies and...