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WASHINGTON (RNS) A commuter rail line in suburban Washington is defending its decision to award a contract to a company partially owned by a French railway that was used by Nazi Germany to transport people to death camps. Mark Roeber, a spokesman for Virginia Railway Express (VRE), said complaints raised by Holocaust survivors in a…

By DANIEL BURKE c. 2010 Religion News Service (RNS) Proposals to have the Presbyterian Church (USA) denounce or divest from Caterpillar Inc. because the company sells bulldozers to Israel are not playing well in Peoria. The central Illinois city is home to the heavy machinery manufacturer, and a healthy number of local Presbyterians count on…

(RNS) An Orthodox Jewish woman is one of Newsweek’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America this year, reflecting a major shift in the magazine’s fourth-annual compilation of top Jewish leaders. Sara Hurwitz, who debuts at No. 36, made headlines when Rabbi Avi Weiss (No. 18) of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, N.Y., granted her the…

Associated Press – June 30, 2010 RICHMOND, Va. – Nearly 50 Virginia prisoners are being held in perpetual isolation because they refuse to cut their hair, several for religious reasons. The Associated Press reported in May that 10 Rastafarian inmates had been in segregation for more than 10 years for refusing to comply with the…

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News June 26–(AKI) – Pakistan on Friday said it would monitor Google, Yahoo, and other popular websites to to weed out what the government considers material that could be offensive to Islam. The country in May blocked access to Facebook for two weeks following a “blasphemous” contest by some users to draw…

Associated Press – June 29, 2010 VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI is creating a new Vatican office to fight secularization and “re-evangelize” the West – a tacit acknowledgment that his attempts to reinvigorate Christianity in Europe haven’t succeeded and need a new boost. Benedict announced the new office during a vespers’ service Monday, confirming…

Associated Press – June 28, 2010 VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Monday issued an unprecedented rebuke of a top cardinal who had accused the retired Vatican No. 2 of blocking clerical sex abuse investigations, publicly dressing down a man who had been praised for his criticism of church abuse cover-ups. The silencing of Cardinal…

(RNS) After a seven-week probe into whether seminary dean Ergun Caner exaggerated his dramatic conversion from militant Islam to evangelical Christianity, Liberty University announced Caner will remain on faculty, but no longer as dean. The investigation, prompted by a growing coalition of skeptical Muslim and Christian bloggers, concluded Caner, 43, had converted from Islam as…

By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2010 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday (June 28) that a Christian student group must accept gays and non-Christians as members if it wants to be officially recognized by a public university. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court’s 5-4 majority, said the “all-comers”…

(RNS) Do a Google search on Shirien Elamawy and you’ll find her Tweets, her Egyptian Gumbo website, her college newspaper columns, and the beginnings of her Muslim children’s book. What you won’t find anywhere is an image of Elamawy herself. It’s not attached to a screed she wrote against Oprah Winfrey, nor a speech she…
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