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WASHINGTON — President Obama opened his first full day in office at the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday (Jan. 21) with a diverse array of religious leaders, including the ceremony’s first-ever woman preacher, who urged him to hold onto his “ethical center” as he leads the nation. “There are crises banging on the door right…

Washington – Even before he stepped into the Oval Office on Tuesday (Jan. 20) as America’s 44th president, the nation’s Catholic bishops sent Barack Obama their public policy wish list, with a special emphasis on “the fundamental right to life from conception to natural death.” In twin letters sent to President-elect Barack Obama, Cardinal Francis…

Washington – When President Obama rose to speak between the prayers offered by evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren and civil rights veteran Joseph Lowery, he indicated — without ever saying a word — the breadth of the religious outreach ahead in his administration. Though Warren’s prayer contained touches of inclusivity, it was nonetheless explicitly and…

Washington – Seeking to revive a dispirited nation, President Obama on Tuesday (Jan. 20) told Americans to get religion — civil religion. “We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things,” Obama said, quoting St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, in one of…

NEW YORK (RNS) A new charter school will soon provide a free, secular alternative to private Jewish day schools or extracurricular religious education for students who wish to learn Hebrew. Despite the city’s large Jewish population and its dozens of public schools offering dual-language instruction in Arabic, Greek, Spanish and other tongues, the Hebrew Language…

WASHINGTON (RNS) Seven states have sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, saying a new regulation that permits health care workers to abstain from providing abortions is illegal. The suit, filed Thursday (Jan. 15) by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, seeks to block the rule that is scheduled to take effect on Jan.…

WASHINGTON (RNS) An evangelical-progressive coalition has developed an agenda aimed at moving beyond past divisions on hot-button social issues to seek policy changes on abortion, torture and other issues. After two years of discussion, they have concluded that their “Come Let Us Reason Together” agenda will include reducing abortion, protecting employment rights of gays and…

Los Angeles – Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi never imagined that her 2007 documentary about evangelical America would give her a front row seat to the downfall of one of its biggest stars, megachurch pastor Ted Haggard. She also couldn’t have predicted just how closely her life would become intertwined with Haggard’s. The two met in 2006…

New York – A Vatican evaluation of U.S. Roman Catholic seminaries in response to the clergy sex abuse scandal concluded that administrators have largely been effective in rooting out “homosexual behavior” in the schools, although the agency said it persists. The Congregation for Catholic Education sought a broad review of how the schools screen and…

Washington – The Bush administration is racing in its final moments to negotiate a deal with Israel that might allow the Jewish state to agree to a cease-fire with the militant Hamas movement and end its military operation in Gaza. On the administration’s second-to-last work day before President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, the two sides were…
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