NEWS
By Annie Linskey, The Baltimore Sun | January 31, 2012
They have the governor's backing and a rewritten bill, but advocates of legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland have made little progress in quieting the concerns of many faith leaders who adamantly oppose the legislation. "Society should protect and strengthen marriage and not undermine it," said the Rev. Derek McCoy, who heads the Maryland Marriage Alliance, a new coalition aimed at stopping the measure. "There are many Marylanders who believe marriage should be defined as between one woman and one man. " He was among a series of pastors who offered that message Tuesday at a packed hearing on Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
NEWS
By Julie Scharper, The Baltimore Sun | May 19, 2010
Religious leaders gathered Wednesday morning to ask the Baltimore City Council to support a controversial package of taxes proposed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to help plug a $121 million budget gap. The brief news conference organized by the BUILD interfaith coalition marked the first public event supporting Rawlings-Blake's tax package, which has drawn fierce opposition from retailers, beverage distributors, hotel owners and a host...
NEWS
By Reported by Frank P.L. Somerville | August 18, 1994
Religious leaders in Maryland, along with many thousands of others around the world, are taking sides as the debate heats up over preparations for next month's United Nations population conference in Cairo, Egypt.Baltimore Archbishop William H. Keeler is the chief spokesman in the United States for the official Roman Catholic concern that the conference -- with the backing of the Clinton administration and many non-Catholic church groups -- will endorse abortion as a basic human right.As president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Keeler has led the attack on parts of a draft plan for the Cairo session, which he said urges that contraceptives and abortion "be provided to unmarried minors without parental knowledge or support, and envisions the widest possible distribution of condoms."
NEWS
By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | February 9, 1998
BEIJING -- A high-profile delegation of U.S. religious leaders began arriving in Beijing yesterday for a three-week tour of China to examine the state of religious freedom here, one of the most volatile human rights issues in American diplomacy.While it is being described as private, President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin of China agreed to the mission during their summit meeting in October, and the White House picked the three-man delegation: a Jewish leader, an evangelical Protestant leader and a Roman Catholic archbishop.
NEWS
By John Rivera and John Rivera,SUN STAFF | February 2, 2000
Religious leaders can best advance the cause of civil rights by encouraging their congregations to vote in this year's elections and to participate in the census, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume told a smattering of national church representatives yesterday. Several dozen ministers and rabbis gathered in Baltimore for a two-day National Religious Leaders Summit called to reaffirm ties between churches and synagogues, the African-American community and the Baltimore-based civil rights organization.
NEWS
By Howard Libit and Howard Libit,SUN STAFF | September 11, 2001
Maryland high school students will soon be hearing about the importance of academics from a new group of adults: the religious community. The state's religious leaders are scheduled to announce this morning that they're joining the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education's "Achievement Counts" campaign. The program -- which in the past has relied on radio campaigns and classroom speakers -- will seek to encourage ministers, priests, pastors and rabbis to talk to students about the value of working hard in school.