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By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Religion News Service Now the “Mountain Meadows Massacre” is becoming more than a subject of somber reflection within tight-knit Mormon circles. Two new films and a forthcoming book aim to tell the nation what happened, why and — perhaps most important — whether the revered Mormon prophet Brigham Young ordered the…

By Chris Herlinger Religion News Service NEW YORK — When the Rev. Bob Edgar announced that he was stepping down as head of the National Council of Churches, someone suggested that he might apply for the soon-to-be-vacant pulpit across the street at the historic Riverside Church. “But Bob,” his wife told him, “you only have…

Associated Press GENEVA, Aug. 15–Evangelical groups have joined efforts spearheaded by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and mainstream Protestant churches to create a common code for religious conversions that would preserve the right of Christians to spread their religion while avoiding conflict among different faiths. The World Council of Churches, which joined the Vatican last year in…

USA Today – July 26, 2007 Some public schools and universities are granting Muslim requests for prayer times, prayer rooms and ritual foot baths, prompting a debate on whether Islam is being given preferential treatment over other religions. The University of Michigan at Dearborn is planning to build foot baths for Muslim students who wash…

Associated Press – August 14, 2007 VIENNA, Austria – They were planted to honor one pope. Now they’re being purged for another. Four stately lime trees ceremoniously planted near a popular Roman Catholic shrine in 1983 for a visit to Austria by the late Pope John Paul II are being uprooted to make way for…

By Robert Schwaneberg (RNS) Luisa Paster and Harriet Bernstein of Ocean Grove, N.J., say they were not trying to start a federal case when they complained last month to the state’s civil rights agency. “All that we were trying to accomplish was to have our civil union in the boardwalk pavilion” in Ocean Grove, a…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A man charged with dragging Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel from a hotel elevator apologized in court Monday to the Nobel laureate over the alleged anti-Semitic attack. Eric Hunt, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, battery, stalking, elder abuse and hate crimes following the February incident…

MEXICO CITY, Aug 13, 2007 (UPI via COMTEX) — The international rights group Amnesty International is poised to defy the Roman Catholic Church by endorsing abortion rights for rape victims. The group’s leaders are meeting Mexico City this week, and the British newspaper, The Independent, said they were expected to endorse a board recommendation last…

CHICAGO (RNS) — Efforts to eliminate a celibacy requirement for gay Lutheran clergy failed Saturday (Aug. 11) at a churchwide assembly, but delegates urged bishops to refrain from disciplining sexually active gay pastors. After five days of debate among delegates from the 5 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, voting members deferred any changes in…

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Democratic presidential contenders Thursday sought to underscore their differences with Republicans on gay and lesbian rights, but leading candidates also faced sharp questions on their reluctance to embrace marriage for same-sex couples. In a forum focusing on gay issues sponsored by a gay-rights organization and aired on a gay-oriented cable channel,…
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