Conservative politicians in Europe are stepping up their anti-Muslim rhetoric and forging ties across borders, Reuters reports.

A Tea Party founder who once belonged to the United Methodist Church now calls the denomination the “First Church of Karl Marx,” and says, “If you hate America, you have a great future in the Methodist Church.”

A businessman says his “Catholics Come Home” campaign has drawn 200,000 former Catholics back to the fold. In one diocese alone, more than 17,000 Germans left the Roman Catholic Church this year, according to German media. Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley has apologized to parishioners after a priest called several men “cowards” for accusing the church’s former pastor of abuse. Evangelicals have found a new mission field … in Boston.

An American tourist killed in a forest outside Jerusalem was part of an evangelical ministry that promotes Christianity among Jews, according to the AP. A Colorado scientist says he’s found the spot where Moses parted the Red Sea. The Utah site where Mormons massacred members of a 19th Century Arkansas wagon train is on its way to becoming a National Historic Landmark.

A Virginia state legislator plans to introduce a bill in the state’s House of Delegates that would ban gays from serving in the Virginia National Guard. A gay Muslim man in Malaysia has attracted death threats and castigation from Islamic clerics after talking about his sexuality in Internet videos.

Ecumenical News International, an award-winning agency reporting on religion (and RNS partner) and based at the World Council of Churches, has been temporarily closed and had its two top editors removed, Reuters reports.

A Michigan state judge who regularly spouts religious rhetoric from the bench, calling marijuana “the devil’s weed” and dolling out harser penalties for crimes committed during the holy month of Ramadan, has qualified immunity from suits that complain about his behavior, a federal appeals court ruled.

The fire department had to be called to a California mall after a Flash Mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus nearly tore the roof off that sucker.

The daughter of acclaimed childrens’ book author Roald Dahl has forsaken booze and cocaine for the nunnery. Not so, British comedian Ricky Gervais. “When confronted with anyone who holds my lack of religious faith in such contempt, I say, `It’s the way God made me,’ Gervais writes in a WSJ column.

After a previous bidder finked out, a new buyer has emerged for the rare Honus Wagner baseball card that was bequeathed to an order of Roman Catholic nuns in Baltimore. Rick Warren and the Dalai Lama have been named two of the world’s most influential tweeters.

A North Carolina woman believes Jesus will return to Earth next year on Mr. T’s birthday (see pic at top left). He pities the fool, I’d imagine.