Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, folks. Welcome back to the fray.
Muslims in Oregon are bracing for backlash after a Somali-American man was accused of trying to blow up a van full of explosives during Portland’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The FBI is investigating a fire Sunday at the Islamic center in Corvallis, about 75 miles southwest of Portland, where suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud occasionally worshipped.
Until recently, Mohamud had seemed to be a well-adjusted American teenager, interested in basketball, girls and the night life at Oregon State University, where he studied engineering, the NYT reports.
At a service marking the beginning of Advent on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI called on politicians, the media and world leaders to show more respect for human life at its earliest stages.
President Obama told ABC that his faith has deepened since he entered the White House, and that he, like 85 percent of African Americans, says grace daily before dinner. A 67-foot-tall Engleman spruce from northwest Wyoming is arriving in Washington, D.C., to be this year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas tree.
A lawyer says a Pakistani court has barred the country’s president from pardoning a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy before it rules on her appeal, according to the AP. Muslim law, which prohibits closed adoptions, has left Muslim orphans with little chance of finding a permanent Muslim home in America, the AP reports.
Conservative Anglican leaders rejected a proposed covenant designed to hold their global communion together less than a week after the Church of England gave preliminary approval to the plan.
A group of Indian-Americans is mounting a campaign to acquaint Westerners with Hinduism, the faith that it says underlies Downward Facing Dog, Mountain Pose, etc.
Canadian police have charged a senior Orthodox prelate with sexually assaulting two boys during the 1980s, the latest in a series of accusations against Orthodox officials, Reuters reports.
If your Christmas list this year includes every item mentioned in “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” be prepared to pay nearly $100,000, according to the AP’s tally. ‘Tis the season for Creche Wars, and Atheists and Christian Culture Warriors have dutifully marched to their respective battle stations. Despite its bankruptcy pleadings, Crystal Cathedral may stage its ornate “Glory of Christmas” event this year, the LA Times reports.
Through Facebook, Israeli investigators have caught 1,000 women who lied about how religious they are to get out of military service. A 15-year old English girl has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred after she posted a video of herself burning a Quran on Facebook. The N.J. pastor who barred church officials from using Facebook, saying it can lead to adultery, will take a sabbatical, after the pastor admitted that he engaged in a three-way sexual relationship a decade ago.
A Pennsylvania pastor is considering restarting a “Printers’ Mass” at 2:30 a.m. Sundays — just after the bars close. The Mass, first celebrated in 1905, once attracted ink-stained employees from the seven daily newspapers then printed in Pittsburgh. Support your local newspapers, folks; good old print will never spy on you.
