Faith
Rabbi has a message for old and young Jews: Change or die
(RNS) Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, ordained in the liberal Reconstructionist tradition, sees a divide between generations of American Jews that could spell disaster for the community.
One generation he calls “legacy” or “tribal” Jews — those who built the national organizations and synag...
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Pope Francis: Wasting food is like stealing from the poor
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Wednesday (June 5) denounced consumerism and what he called the “culture of waste” of modern economies, especially when it comes to food.
“Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry,” he said during his we...
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Jewish federations support egalitarian space at Western Wall
JERUSALEM (RNS) The Jewish Federations of North America announced Monday (June 3) that its trustees had passed a resolution in favor of a nonsegregated place where men and women can pray and read from the Torah at the Western Wall, the Jewish holy site.
Worshippers at the Western...
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COMMENTARY: Mindless metrics
(RNS) The go-to number in American religion is “ASA” — average Sunday attendance. Or as an irreverent colleague put it, “Fannies in the pews.”
It’s a meaningless metric, but it’s easy. Open the doors on Sunday, wait for the stragglers, then dispatch ushers to count the house.
En...
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ELCA Lutherans elect first openly gay bishop
(RNS) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has elected its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. R. Guy Erwin, to oversee churches in Southern California, four years after the church allowed openly gay men and lesbians to serve as clergy.
Following a wider trend within other mai...
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Catholic leaders urge support for Boy Scouts after shift on gays
(RNS) The U.S. Catholic Church’s top liaison to the Boy Scouts of America is telling Catholic Scout leaders and troop sponsors that the BSA’s new policy welcoming gay Scouts “is not in conflict with Catholic teaching” and they should continue to support scouting programs.
“Scoutin...
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Vatican Bank downplays scandals but promises reform
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The new head of the Vatican Bank admitted that the scandal-scarred institution must address its tarnished reputation, even among Catholics, even as he defended recent efforts toward financial transparency.
Ernst von Freyberg, a German aristocrat and financier, w...
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Want to improve Muslim attitudes? Get them online
(RNS) Want Muslims to have a better opinion of the United States? Get them on the Internet.
That would seem to be the lesson from an analysis released Friday (May 31) by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that found that Muslims who use the Internet are much more likely to se...
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Oldest known Torah scroll discovered in Italy
ROME (RNS) An Italian university professor on Wednesday (May 29) said he has found what is believed to be world’s oldest complete Torah scroll.
Mauro Perani, professor of Hebrew at the University of Bologna, said the scroll originally was believed to be no more that a few hundred...
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Syrian civil war forces Sunni and Shiite Muslims to pick sides
Eds: A version of this story originally appeared in USA Today. It is available for use by RNS subscribers. Please use the USA Today byline.
AMMAN, Jordan (RNS) The Syrian civil war is increasingly drawing in nations across the Middle East, a regionwide conflict that threatens to p...
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