(RNS) As world leaders and ordinary citizens gathered to remember Nelson Mandela, abortion foes objected in blistering tones to his support for a sweeping abortion rights law they said negates any good the anti-apartheid leader achieved.
(RNS) Writing on the eve of the departure of world leaders to Johannesburg to attend a memorial service for Mandela, who died last week, Dominic Lawson wrote in the Daily Mail: "He was a giant -- but how absurd for the BBC to compare Mandela to Christ."
(RNS) Nelson Mandela was educated, first at Clarkebury and then at Healdtown, Methodist boarding schools that provided a Christian liberal arts education.
As a devout secularist with one hand always on the deep pulse of history, I cannot help but feel moved and appreciative of the role that Nelson Mandela played in the peaceful transit of South Africa from apartheid prejudice to a working democratic structure.
JOHANNESBURG (RNS) Will native son and national hero Nelson Mandela survive his latest bout with illness? That is the single question dominating headlines, speeches, Twitter and conversation throughout South Africa.
It’s an unusual situation in a country where death is an off-limits topic due to local culture.