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WASHINGTON (RNS) A national network of faith-based organizations, homeowners and community organizers met with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday (Nov. 3), urging him to tackle problems with fraudulent foreclosures. Organizers from the group People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO) and other activists said a program designed to modify mortgages, enacted soon after President Obama…

By Daniel Burke c. 2010 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) As Democrats conduct a grim postmortem on Tuesday’s (Nov. 2) elections, some liberal leaders say one diagnosis is already clear: the party’s outreach to religious voters was lifeless from the start. Democrats took control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008 in…

By Adelle M. Banks c. 2010 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) Twenty-one Christian leaders met and prayed with President Obama on Monday (Nov. 1), discussing joint concerns about poverty, U.S.-Cuban relations and peace in the Middle East. Leaders from the National Council of Churches thanked the president for the passage of health care reform and…

WASHINGTON (RNS) A recent survey on the religious climate of the U.S. Air Force Academy showed that 41 percent of non-Christian cadets face unwanted proselytizing at least once during a year-long period. The Cadet and Permanent Party Climate Assessment Survey, which was released Friday (Oct. 29), analyzed religious, racial and gender relations within the academy…

By Ann Rodgers c. 2010 Religion News Service Pittsburgh (RNS) The entrance to the Vatican Splendors exhibit evokes a part of St. Peter’s Basilica that few tourists ever see: the archaeological excavation beneath the altar, where the modest grave of St. Peter lies amid elaborate first-century pagan mausoleums. The choice of beginning with the grave…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing plans by two Iowa churches to host early voting during worship services. “Combining polling places with religious services is an invitation to the abuse of both religion and the civic act of voting,” said Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa,…

International Herald Tribune – October 21, 2010 A plan for Mr. Obama to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar appears to have foundered on the thorny question of how he would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires. The Golden Temple, a sprawling and serene complex of gleaming gold and polished marble that is the…

(RNS) As the U.S. has grown more diverse, more Americans believe that being a Christian is a key aspect of being “truly American,” researchers say. Purdue University scholars found that between 1996 and 2004, Americans who saw Christian identity as a “very important” attribute of being American increased from 38 percent to 49 percent. Scholars…

By Francis X. Rocca c. 2010 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) Two American archbishops, one serving in Rome and the other in Washington, D.C., will be granted a cardinal’s red hat in a ceremony at the Vatican next month, Pope Benedict XVI announced on Wednesday (Oct. 20). Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and Archbishop…

By Nicole Neroulias S c. 2010 Religion News Service (RNS) Visit a Roman Catholic and an Eastern Orthodox liturgy, and the differences are stark: Catholic statues vs. Orthodox icons, celibate vs. married priests, communion wafers vs. hunks of bread. Pay closer attention, and other distinctions become apparent, including how each side makes the sign of…

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