Mid-City Christian: Religion and Ethics Newsweekly

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Religion and Ethics Newsweekly

This Week on Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

Following is a brief outline of the stories Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly will be covering this week. Every Friday evening, the transcript and streaming video of each report will available on our Web site . Please note that in case of breaking news, stories may be subject to change.

FEATURED SEGMENTS

Islam and Modernity
In Egypt, an increasingly devout nation is grappling with the challenges of how to practice Islam in a fast-changing, globalized world. Islamic internet sites and satellite channels are emerging to help guide Muslims through confusing times. But although the sites are using modern technology, many are enforcing traditional messages, and that’s leading critics to question just how well Islam is adapting to the demands of the 21st century.

In this report filed from Cairo, Kate Seelye explores the conflict between modern technology and Islamic tradition. “I can travel anywhere in the world through my internet connection,” notes human rights activist Dalia Ziade with the American Islamic Congress. “I can go to the U.S right now and see anything there. So how come in this open communication with the whole world, I’m still in prison with these ideas . . . fundamentalist ideas that go back 1,400 years?"

Sing Sing Seminary
Sing Sing, the maximum security correctional facility located approximately 30 miles north of New York City along the banks of the Hudson River, is a forbidding place. But behind its imposing prison walls, several of the 1,800 incarcerated inmates are finding new hope and purpose in their lives through a longstanding program sponsored by New York Theological Seminary. The non-denominational course, which receives funding from churches, foundations and individuals, offers an accredited master's degree in professional studies in religion. And, during the 26 years it’s been in place, approximately 350 student inmates have graduated.

Lucky Severson travels to Sing Sing for a behind-the-scenes look at how this seminary program is transforming inmates’ lives. According Julio Medino, who participated in the course during his own imprisonment and then later founded the Exodus Transitional Community to help ex-cons with their re-entry into society, “The New York Theological Seminary master’s degree program for me, when I was in that classroom, was one of the single most important turning points in my life.”

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The Clash of Civilizations
Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, famous for his thesis about the clash of civilizations, died on December 24. Read what ethicists and theologians have had to say about religion and Huntington's foreign policy theory.

The Arab-Muslim World
In 2003, correspondent Kate Seelye had a rare interview with Hume Horan when he was senior Coalition Provisional Authority adviser on religious affairs in Iraq. Revisit his remarks about Islam and the Arab world.

WHAT'S AHEAD

January 16: “MLK and the Obama Inauguration" — As the nation prepares for the inauguration of America's first black president, Kim Lawton talks with religious leaders about the African-American Church's responsibility to carry forth the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

ONE NATION

Hear more from religious leaders about what they most hope for in the first 100 days of the Obama administration.

THE LIFE OF MEANING

The companion book to Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, now available in paperback in bookstores nationwide, can also be ordered through Shop Thirteen. “The Life of Meaning,” edited by the program’s executive editor and host Bob Abernethy and longtime journalist William Bole, features a collection of insightful, moving and eloquent observations on life and how to live it by some of the most thoughtful men and women in America, and beyond. Among them are Desmond Tutu, Francis Collins, Marianne Williamson, Irving Greenberg, Barbara Brown Taylor, Harold Kushner, Madeleine L’Engle, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Jimmy Carter and the late William Sloane Coffin.

DAILY NEWS HEADLINES

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