After a few days in Denver at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, the daily Religion Roundup now returns to its regularly scheduled broadcast. A list of the award winners (all deserving of the honors) is here. The Roundup gives a special shout out to Gustav Niebuhr, who received the lifetime achievement award, and whose work should be studied by all religion journalists.

Embattled Bishop Eddie Long cast himself as a stone-throwing David as he confronted allegations that he seduced four teenage boys into sexual relationships with cars and bling. “I have never in my life portrayed myself as a perfect man. But I am not the man that’s being portrayed on the television,” Long said in a 20-minute address at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta. Worshippers applauded Long and pledged to stand behind him.

Long used his, ahem, LongFellows Youth Academy, where students learned about interest rates and sexual control, to groom the young men, according to the accusations, which now form four lawsuits against the famous pastor.

Regnum Christi, the lay branch of the disgraced Legionaries of Christ, requires members to follow strict rules on everything from e-mail to how to eat an orange, the AP finds. Ex-members also say they endured “spiritual abuse” from superiors who said breaking the rules would be violating God’s will.

Lawyers for victims of clergy sexual abuse have made a nice chunk of change, but have suffered from an all-consuming workload, battling the Roman Catholic Church, and listening to graphic accounts of child rape and molestation, the AP reports.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, said he does not oppose gay bishops – as long as they remain celibate. Williams also called the Anglican Communion’s fractious debate over homosexuality “a wound in the whole ministry.”

Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl has been tapped to head the new, special ordinariate (kinda like a diocese) for disaffected Anglicans/Episcopalians in the U.S. who want to join the Catholic Church.

A lesbian has been appointed Episcopalians’ first openly gay – and female – dean of San Francisco’s prestigious Grace Cathedral. The NYT checks in with a woman priest readying for her assignment in the Old Catholic Church in Italy.

Egypt’s Coptic Christian leader Pope Shenouda III apologized to Muslims offended by his top bishop’s disputing the authenticity of some verses of the Quran.

Jim Towey, who headed President Bush’s faith-based office from 2002-2006, says President Obama has politicized the office by enlisting religious leaders to promote the health-care bill. Towey, you may remember, was accused of similar actions in 2007 by the deputy director of the faith-based office.

Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Brad Sherman announced that they were introducing bills to amend Title VI to protect Jewish, Muslim and Sikh students from harassment at schools and colleges receiving federal funds.

From storefront chapels to megachurches to suburban synagogues, religious institutions are reeling from a decline in donations, the NYT reports.

A Detroit jury acquitted four Christian missionaries who belong to an anti-Islam group of disorderly conduct at an Arab cultural festival. Folks in Wyoming are objecting to Catholic monks’ plans to build a secluded monastery and coffee roasting barn. Having just driven through Wyoming, it’s hard to believe there’s not enough space to satisfy both parties. The state is made of space.

A federal court in New York held that the First Amendment does not give religious objectors the right to an exemption from New York’s mandatory vaccination law for school children.

The Texas State Board of Education adopted a resolution that seeks to curtail references to Islam in textbooks. I guess they won’t be recommending this new comic book, which stars a wheel-chair bound Muslim superhero (pic at top left). The Diocese of Calgary in Canada says schoolchildren should not be given homework over long weekends and holidays.