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Los Angeles — Controversy, if nothing else, sells newspapers and movie tickets. It worked with Ron Howard’s first film adaptation of a Dan Brown novel, 2006’s “The Da Vinci Code,” and Hollywood is hoping it will work again for their second collaboration, “Angels and Demons,” which opens nationwide on May 15. Howard recently stoked the…

Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land, a leading Christian conservative who helped advance the Bush administration’s agenda on a range of social issues, said Monday (May 4) that the formerly sanctioned practice of waterboarding of suspected terrorists is torture and “violates everything we stand for.” Land, who is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission…

A watchdog group that monitors inappropriate proselytizing in the military has renewed calls for a Pentagon probe after a recent Al Jazeera English news segment showed U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan preparing to distribute Bibles printed in the Pashto and Dari languages. “These inciteful actions are grossly offensive to not only Muslims in Afghanistan and across…

(RNS) Moves to create two Florida license plates with images of a crucified Jesus on one, and a stained glass window and cross on another, have died in the Florida legislature. Both plates had come under blistering criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Associated…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Obama administration says it will issue a proclamation marking the National Day of Prayer on Thursday (May 7), but appears to be moving away from the White House ceremonies hosted by former President George W. Bush. “President Obama is a committed Christian and believes that we should be engaging Americans of faith…

JERUSALEM – The Vatican’s representative to the Holy Land on Monday played down the controversies that could mar next week’s visit by Pope Benedict XVI: the conduct of a wartime predecessor and the church’s perceived lenience toward a Holocaust-denying priest. Benedict’s remarks about Muslims have stirred anger in the Arab world, as well. But Monsignor…

Newly uncovered documents reveal that President Franklin D. Roosevelt worked quietly in the late 1930s to find havens for European Jews, contradicting the view that he ignored their plight in the years leading up to the Holocaust. Roosevelt was “a master politician who tried to carry out some humanitarian steps while juggling political and military…

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI departs next Friday (May 8) for what promises to be one of the most eventful and memorable events in his reign: a week-long visit to the Holy Land, with stops in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Benedict has presented the trip as first and foremost a pilgrimage to…

(RNS) A large survey on American attitudes toward homosexuality reveals a “nuanced and at times inconsistent” view on gay rights, with Americans saying states should not be forced to recognize same-sex unions, but also saying gay couples should have access to federal spousal benefits like Social Security. The poll of more than 2,000 registered voters…

Cambridge, Mass. — On the campus of the country’s premier scientific university, the world’s best-known Buddhist leader on Thursday (April 30) called on educators to teach ethics and compassion without a basis in religious belief. Hundreds gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the Dalai Lama, speaking from the seated, cross-legged position of a…
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