The much ballyhooed health-care summit is taking place today at Blair House (I know all of you are watching at your “summit parties”). The U.S. Catholic Bishops urged Congress to set aside partisan divisions and enact “genuine health care reform” that protects “the life, dignity, consciences, and health of all.”
Investigators seized books on demons and atheism from a home linked to one of the men charged with setting a Texas church on fire.
The chaplain’s office at Andrews Air Force Base has disinvited Family Research Council Prez Tony Perkins from its National Prayer Luncheon after Perkins denounced Obama’s call to end don’t-ask-don’t-tell. NPR interviewed the Pew Forum about its finding that 80 percent of Americans believe in miracles. The LA Times says genetics was the elephant in the room during the Prop 8 trial in California.
Several hundred churches are moving toward a split with the ECLA, the AP reports, but only 28 have voted to leave so far, a small portion of the denomination’s 10,000 congregations. The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is looking for a new bishop after its last selection failed to gain consent from the wider church. The NCAA dropped ads from Focus on the Family from one of its Web sites.
Liberal Christians are organizing to stop a Mennonite college in Indiana from playing the national anthem before sporting events. Nurses in New York City are going Zen (that’s Zen with an upper-case “z” ABC News) and a new study says Zen meditation can reduce the brain’s sensitivity to pain. Another study says belief in God helps depression sufferers. Wonder if that will help the poor people of Utah, who will still find it hard to get a drink.
The first female head of Germany’s Protestants resigned after she was arrested for drunk driving. ELCA Presiding Bishop Hanson called her resignation “a great loss.” The Obama administration and the UN criticized Israel for designating two West Bank shrines as national heritage sites. A Belgian Catholic priest is in trouble for presiding at a gay marriage.German prosecutors are investigating allegations of sexual abuse at two Catholic schools.
Uma Thurman’s dad said Tibetans are like the Na’vi. Brazil wants Columbia Pictures to pay for using its famous Christ the Redeemer (pic at top left) statue in the movie 2012. Hey, at least he ain’t drinkin and smokin.
