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By G Jeffrey MacDonald Religion News Service Stephen Dear has spent the past 10 years waging an uphill battle to abolish the death penalty in the American South. He’s had virtually no help from the region’s powerful evangelical clergy. But unlike in years past, Dear has new confidence that within six months, he can round…

Associated Press – January 7, 2008 WASHINGTON – Supreme Court justices indicated Monday they are deeply divided over a challenge to the way most states execute prisoners by lethal injection, which critics say creates an avoidable risk of excruciating pain. With executions in the United States halted since late September, the court heard arguments in…

Associated Press – January 4, 2008 AUSTIN, Texas – Texas schoolchildren will continue to pray or meditate during a daily minute of silence after a federal court threw out a challenge to the state law. The ruling issued Thursday stems from a complaint by a North Texas couple who say one of their children was…

United Press International – January 7, 2008 VATICAN CITY, Jan 7, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) — Pope Benedict XVI spoke at the Vatican calling for daily prayer to rid the Catholic Church of “grave situations” involving the sexual activity of some clergy. The pope asked Roman Catholics to pray for the “mercy of God for…

Associated Press – January 4, 2008 DES MOINES, Iowa – After all the campaigns’ sophisticated media tactics and high-tech maneuvering, Iowa voters offered the presidential candidates a version of Politics 101: In this state, stick to the basics. “This couldn’t have happened in New York or California,” said Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford,…

Associated Press – January 4, 2008 WASHINGTON – Scientific advisers to the government emphasize in a report the importance of teaching evolution in public schools. The report by the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine follows up on similar past publications, the last of which came out in 1999. The new document…

By Kim Lawton c. 2008 Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly (UNDATED) Christmas, despite what the calendar says, isn’t over. And the star — “star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright” — that shone over Bethlehem won’t go dim until it gets its proper due on Epiphany on Sunday (Jan. 6). As told…

Associated Press Norfolk, Va. – Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Wednesday that 2008 will be a year of violence worldwide and a recession in the United States, followed by a major stock-market crash by 2010. Praying about events in the coming year and sharing what he believes God has told him is an annual tradition…

Associated Press Manchester, England – “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe, who captivated moviegoers as the bespectacled schoolboy wizard, has donated the first pair of glasses he wore as a child to an art exhibition marking the horrors of the Holocaust. The British actor joins several other celebrities and members of the public whose spectacles will…

Associated Press Vatican City – The Vatican has begun drafting a document to elaborate on Pope Benedict XVI’s recent liberalization of the old Latin Mass because some bishops are either ignoring his move or misinterpreting it, Vatican officials said. The Vatican’s No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said in comments published Thursday that the Vatican would…

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