The Obama administration will unveil a new national security strategy that downplays the idea that the U.S. is at war with Islam, dropping phrases like “Islamic extremism” and “global war on terror.”
Speaking of war, faith groups are lining up on both sides of the debate as Congress prepares to repeal Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. The religious divisions should not be surprising, according to a new Gallup Poll, which found “gay and lesbian relations” to be among the most divisive moral issues — 52 percent say gay relations are “morally acceptable,” according to the poll; 43 percent say they aren’t.
Tea Party fav Michele Bachman, R-Minn., has proposed an amendment to a defense appropriation bill that would allow military chaplains to close public prayers however they want. Read: in Jesus’ name. The Montana ACLU is taking the case of Montana State University professors upset over the benediction delivered at this year’s mandatory graduation ceremony.
Legal loopholes mean the pensions of employees at religious organizations often aren’t protected by federal laws, NPR reports. Two Texas men were indicted on the string of church arsons in January. The Department of Veterans Affairs approved the use of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s trademark logo on government headstones and grave-markers.
A special investigator in Germany found at least 205 former students at Jesuit schools claim to have been sexually abused. The Minnesota attorney who’s made a career out of suing the Roman Catholic Church over sexual abuse now wants to go after clergy who download child pornography. Sex abuse victims are upset that an accused former Massachusetts bishop is living in a Maryland retirement home. A Polish priest had a sexual dungeon which he used to abuse teens, according to Brazilian prosecutors.
Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit Ukraine in 2012 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of a local diocese, but a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church says the anniversary “is not the best occasion” for the pope’s visit. The cardinal in charge of ecumenism says the Vatican’s WWII archives will soon be open for scholarly research. Cuba’s Raul Castro is talking with the Catholic Church about political prisoners, in a breakthrough for the communist country.
Morocco has expelled about 100 foreign Christians for disturbing “order and calm” by proselytizing. Elton John performed in Morocco last night without a hitch. Saudi Arabian Muslims are studying U.S. rehab centers to find an Islamic 12-step program. A film about French monks murdered in Algeria won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
The “Leaving Islam?” bus adds have chugged up to New York City. Authorities in an Islamic district of Indonesia are handing out 20,000 long skirts after banning tight pants and dresses. A South African paper is in trouble for printing a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad on a psychiatrist’s couch saying “Other prophets’ followers have a sense of humour.”’
