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San Diego – The head of the largest branch of American Judaism is urging members of the movement to do more to observe Shabbat. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said in a speech to the group’s biennial convention that stressed families need a day when they can “stop running around…

Associated Press Mina, Saudi Arabia _ – Mohammed Abdel-Salam Ali, a 60-year-old Egyptian farmer, spent years scraping together nearly $11,000 to bring his wife and son here to perform Islam’s hajj pilgrimage. Once here, they have slept for days in tiny one-person tents on the side of the road at the hajj’s sacred sites, walking…

By Kat Glass Religion News Service (RNS) The United Nations is looking to partnerships with the faith community to spearhead the drive against global warming. The U.N. recently linked with the Bath, U.K.-based Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), pouring funding and attention into the ARC’s ongoing campaign to use faith groups as a vessel…

Associated Press – December 19, 2007 DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican Mike Huckabee, the former Baptist preacher, is depending on more than a leap of faith to win the Iowa caucuses. Leading in polls, Huckabee is determined to make up for his skimpy organization in the state by enlisting national evangelical Christian supporters to rev…

By Tom Feran 2007 Religion News Service CLEVELAND — The biggest holiday of the Muslim year, Eid al-Adha, begins on Dec. 19 (Wednesday) this year. Its proximity to Christmas happens only once every three decades because Muslims use a lunar calendar. For Ohio author Asma Mobin-Uddin, it’s a sweet coincidence that might bring wider interest…

By Kevin Eckstrom Religion News Service History books are full of dates that mark seminal events: 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door and launched the Protestant Reformation; or 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion. Those boldface dates are preceded by less prominent but nonetheless decisive times: 1516, when…

Associated Press The six prosperity gospel ministries under scrutiny by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley are a tough group to take on. The televangelists are veterans at outmaneuvering opponents, and in this case are even getting support from their critics. Religious groups who consider the prosperity gospel a rip-off still see the inquiry as a potential…

The Miami Herald Washington – Alarmed by what they called a “hateful tenor,” a group of religious leaders, including the former pastor at Miami’s Notre Dame D’Haiti Catholic Church, on Monday called on presidential hopefuls to stop demonizing undocumented immigrants. The call came as immigration emerges as one of the most contentious issues in the…

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service (UNDATED) Come each December, high atop the choir loft of St. Luke Community United Methodist Church in Dallas sit the traditional three purple and one pink Advent candles for several Sundays. But as the month comes to a close, another candelabra appears when the Kwanzaa kinara — with…

Associated Press – December 17, 2007 WASHINGTON – Unable to override a promised veto, Democrats have backed down on their insistence that the 2008 foreign aid budget reverse President Bush’s ban on providing aid to family planning groups abroad that offer abortions. A measure to ease restrictions on international aid was stripped this weekend from…

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