Topic: Religious Leaders
The civil rights movement was both “the work of the Lord and the work of freedom,” says author Taylor Branch. “It took redemption, and it took faith and tenacity, not just an empty, simple hope.” More
For American Catholics, “the election of Kennedy was an important moment in history, where they were recognized and accepted by American society as true Americans,” says Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J. But anti-Catholicism continued to linger until JFK’s assassination, when the 34th president became an American martyr, and it was no longer acceptable to be anti-Catholic. More
This senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter says new US Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Kurtz is “not going to be just a simple culture warrior, I think he’s going to have more complexity to him.” More
Liberal Catholics who were hopeful that Pope Francis’s papacy would usher in sweeping reforms are discovering that the Church “is an institution that takes its time with major decisions, and none of this is going to happen soon.” More
Watch excerpts from a panel discussion at Georgetown University examining the influence of Pope Francis’ leadership on American public life six months after his election. More
Recent events such as the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent trial of George Zimmerman have highlighted racial divides that still exist in the U.S. 50 years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In the wake of the shooting, local black and white pastors in Sanford, Florida are taking a hard look at what more they can do to promote dialogue, understanding, and racial reconciliation. More
Latin American liberation theologians, according to Rev Thomas Reese, SJ, say the pope may not use the words liberation theology, ”but he certainly talks the talk: his concern for the poor, his desire to empower the poor to take responsibility and to be part of the community—this is very important for him. He doesn’t use the word liberation theology, but his message is very close to it.” More
“We don’t belong to anyone’s political party. We don’t belong to anyone’s organization, and so we ought to have the freedom, then, to speak prophetically to both parties and to all parties“ says the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. More
“The Bible doesn’t give us a road map for every issue. The Bible gies us a goal, a sense of what human flourishing ought to look like, and sometimes there are going to be issues where the Bible speaks very clearly to us, and we have to speak just as clearly. There are other issues where we realize we may have the same goal, but we have different ways of getting to that goal.” More
This month legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes turns 85. Watch him playing in 2004 at a service at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. More
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