Washington Post Examines Make-Your-Own Religion

Articles about Christians and Christianity from the world’s newspapers

Christianity Today January 1, 2000

Front page of Washington Post looks at Americans’ ‘new God’

On Tuesday’s front page, Lynn Garrett tells reporter Hanna Rosin, “People borrow ideas from different traditions, then add them to whatever religion they’re used to. But they don’t want anything to do with organized religion.” It’s not a new story by any stretch, but it’s an interesting one that Rosin handles deftly in this journalistic treatment of “unique religions” (if the first link doesn’t work, try here)

Textbooks ignore role King’s religion, says rabbi

“Public school textbooks … either gloss over or are mute about the degree to which King drew upon his religious beliefs,” Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer in Monday’s USA Today. “Instead, textbooks tend to focus on secular thinkers who influenced him, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau.”

Boycott may ensue against gay-rights oppponent’s bus company

Brian Souter, chairman of Stagecoach, Britain’s biggest transport company, is funding a campaign in Scotland against the repeal of a law banning the promotion of homosexuality. The company has launched its own campaign to make sure everyone knows he doesn’t speak for the company. Still, gay rights groups are gearing up for a boycott.

Anglican, Orthodox leaders join Pope for ‘most significant ecumenical event’ of the year

Metropolitan Athanasios, from the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, and George Carey, archbishop of Canterbury, helped Pope John Paul II open the Holy Door of St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica. Ironically, the ceremony also touched on the Catholic doctrine of indulgences, which was the controversial doctrine that sparked the Protestant Reformation. Many Protestant leaders declined their invitation, says the New York Times.

Federal law aimed at allowing religious meetings in schools now used by gay clubs

“The number of gay and lesbian clubs meeting on high school grounds has grown dramatically, from fewer than 100 to more than 600 in just two years,” says a front-page story of USA Today. The article attributes the growth in large part to a 1984 federal law pushed through by religious conservatives.

Cal Thomas pontificates on Jane Fonda’s conversion

“Fonda wisely has declined to speak with reporters. She also should decline for a while to speak publicly and to the religious establishment,” he writes in his syndicated column. “Before God could use Moses, He sent him to wander in the desert for 40 years to cleanse him of self-reliance. Also, after the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (and his name change to Paul), the apostle was privately instructed by his new friends, those whom he once persecuted, before he spoke publicly.”

Related Elsewhere

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