Free Republic

Amidst the worldwide furor over the death of one pope and the election of another, one of the best-known figures in Washington's evangelical Christian community quietly died April 18 of colon cancer. The passing of Diane Knippers, 53, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, came as a surprise. Friends and family say that even two days before her death on a Monday afternoon, she thought she was checking into the hospital only for a quick surgery. But she slipped away.

The Washington Post reported yesterday on the installation of the Rev. Samuel Lloyd as the new dean of the Washington National Cathedral.      I am not surprised by what Rev. Lloyd said at his installation.  I am not surprised that readings from the Koran were included.  I suspect that this is a reflection of the 'new thing' that the 'spirit' (whatever that is) is doing in the Diocese of Washington.   I've been in the National Cathedral and estimate that it can seat a couple of thousand people.  The Post article said that 'hundreds' came to this installation service.  (And at...

D iane Knippers, a religious strategist who helped conservative Christians raise an increasingly loud and unified voice in the traditionally liberal bastions of mainline Protestantism in recent years, died on Monday in Arlington, Va. She was 53. The cause was cancer, according to the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a small but influential Washington group, of which Mrs. Knippers, a laywoman, was the longtime president. The institute is a resource center for conservative members of the mainline denominations - primarily the Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopal Churches - disaffected by their churches' policies, especially on sexuality. When the Episcopal Church consecrated...

Episcopalian leader lashes out at Bush for 'reprehensible' policy Tuesday, January 14, 2003 BY KEVIN ECKSTROM RELIGION NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- The top bishop of the Episcopal Church, in a stinging rebuke of American foreign policy, said the United States is rightly "hated and loathed" around the world for its "reprehensible" rhetoric and blind eye toward poverty and suffering."I'd like to be able to go somewhere in the world and not have to apologize for being from the United States," Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold 3rd said Friday in an interview with Religion News Service. Griswold, head of the 2.3million-member...