(RNS) Pope Benedict XVI has signed with a major record label to cut an album of songs and prayers to the Virgin Mary. Geffen Records, whose artists include Ashlee Simpson and Snoop Dogg, will release “Alma Mater,” featuring the pope’s chants and prayers along with eight original classical compositions, on Nov. 30. Benedict’s voice, in…

(RNS) The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, an early proponent of the prosperity gospel best known as “Rev. Ike,” died Tuesday (July 28). He was 74. Rev. Ike was among the first in the 1970s to harness the power of television for evangelizing and was fond of saying that his church was for the “do-it-yourself…

(RNS) Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a longtime U.S. civil rights activist, have been named recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom. “Each has been an agent of change,” President Obama said of the 16 people who will receive the nation’s highest civilian honor. “Each saw…

NEW YORK — When the Rev. Brad Braxton was tapped last year as the next senior pastor of Riverside Church, he was billed as an energetic and dynamic preacher with the power to reinvigorate the flagship pulpit of progressive Protestantism. Soon, however, those very qualities got in the way. Some parishioners found him a little…

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