Inspiration Faith & Prayer Health & Wellness Entertainment Love & Family
Newsletters Special Offers

Beliefnet News

WASHINGTON (RNS) Support for abortion is declining across the country, with Americans now evenly divided on whether it should be legal, a new report shows. In 2007 and 2008, supporters of legal abortion more clearly outnumbered opponents, but recent surveys by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 47 percent…

(RNS) When the Dalai Lama came to Washington two years ago, he was feted with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, as President George W. Bush and a bipartisan delegation looked on. But as the exiled Tibetan leader returns for another visit to the nation’s capital next week (Oct. 5-10), there is…

WASHINGTON (RNS) A slight majority of American Jews approve of the Obama administration’s Israel policy, but an almost equal number oppose his call for an end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, according to a new poll. The 2009 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion found that 54 percent of American Jews approve of…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has asked U.S. Catholic bishops to fund a $1.1 million investigation of American nuns ordered by church authorities in Rome. “We have a projected budget of $1,100,000 for the three years which the total work of the apostolic visitations will require,” Cardinal Franc Rode, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for…

WASHINGTON (RNS) As thousands of gays and lesbians prepare to march on the nation’s capital to push for equal rights, leaders from a range of faiths say it’s time to stop using religion as a weapon to oppose same-sex marriage. What’s more, advocates for gay rights say their faith and a sacred belief in justice…

(RNS) Catholic, Lutheran and United Methodist leaders will gather in Chicago on Thursday (Oct. 1) to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a milestone agreement on the long, slow and often painful road to Christian unity. The celebration, held at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago, will pay tribute to the signing of the Joint Declaration…

(RNS) Does an offended observer who drives by a cross-shaped war memorial in the middle of the desert have a right to call for its removal? And can that 7-foot cross stand without violating the constitution’s prohibition of government establishment of religion? The Supreme Court will consider those questions in the case of a cross-shaped…

NEW YORK, Sep 29, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) — Bernard Madoff, architect of the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, had the opportunity to ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur. Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons would not comment on whether Madoff took advantage of the day, the most sacred in the Jewish Calendar,…

NEW YORK – Organized religion was already in trouble before the fall of 2008. Denominations were stagnating or shrinking, and congregations across faith groups were fretting about their finances. The Great Recession made things worse. It’s further drained the financial resources of many congregations, seminaries and religious day schools. Some congregations have disappeared and schools…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Visiting the Czech Republic 20 years after a Velvet Revolution overthrew the nation’s communist regime, Pope Benedict XVI called on one of the world’s most secular societies to reclaim its Christian heritage as the basis for “true freedom.” “True freedom presupposes the search for truth — for the true good– and hence…
archives most recent
search this blog
More from Beliefnet and our partners