The Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to review a lower court’s decision granting property rights to secessionist Episcopal parishes, national faith leaders are asking God to give people “employment with a living wage,” and New York officials suspect Santeria is to blame for an outbreak of goats in city parks.
Air Force cadets are attending the only Buddhist chapel on a U.S. military base out of curiosity, a Catholic priest fired for seeking a protective order from a deacon is suing his bishop, and vandals threw rocks with anti-Mormon messages at five church meeting houses near Salt Lake City. “Stop spreading your lies, pagans,” read one rock.
The U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners has returned a Torah scroll to its owners because there are not enough Jewish prisoners who use it. A central Pennsylvania town has agreed to pay $100,000 to a church after trying to shutter its homeless shelter.
A North Carolina pastor is burning “Satanic” (i.e. not King James) translations of the Bible, the Smithsonian is planning an exhibit on human evolution, and breeder Jon Gosselin is discovering his Jewish side. “Everyone in my life is Jewish now, my attorney. I love it,” he said. “The family values are great.”
African cardinals denounced “cultural imperalism,” a Ghanaian archbishop says the Catholic Church has failed Africa, and a South African court ruled that the forced circumcision of a teenager is unconstitutional. Cruel and unusual punishment, indeed.
Franklin Graham traveled to Pyongyang this week to build “a bridge for better relations” between the U.S. and Korea, and World Council of Churches General Secretary Samuel Kobia says he’s going there this week.
The bones of St. Therese of Lisieux are visiting Westminster Cathedral, the Vatican is mounting an exhibit on Galileo, and Chinese officials say a record 4.75 million tourists visited Tibet, despite the fact that the Himalayan region was closed off to foreign visitors until April.
