With apologies to Fyodor, today’s roundup is officially titled “Sex Crimes & Punishment.”
To wit, Americans would rather catch politicians with their pants down than with their hands in the cookie jar, according to a new RNS/PRRI poll.
And when it comes to sex scandals, it’s the lies and cover ups that bother people more than the hanky-panky, the survey says.
White evangelicals were most likely to say that private sins should disqualify pols from public life.
Then again, evangelicals as a whole say their influence in the U.S. is waning, according to a new Pew poll. Their brethren in the Global South, by contrast, are more bullish about their cultural sway.
A self-help guru touted by Oprah and “The Secret” crowd was found guilty of negligent homicide for three deaths in a 2009 sweat-lodge ceremony.
An Amish man in Indiana who sent more than 600 text messages, including lewd images to a 12-year-old girl, was arrested when he arrived in his horse and buggy for what he expected to be a sexual hook up.
A United Methodist Church jury convicted the Rev. Amy DeLong of marrying a lesbian couple against church rules. DeLong was found not guily of being a “self-avowed practicing homosexual,” though, because the partnered lesbian refused to answer questions about whether she is celibate.
Anti-Islamic Dutch politician Geert Wilders was acquitted of hate speech charges by an Amsterdam court.
Dutch lawmakers plan to ban centuries-old Jewish and Muslim traditions of slaughtering animals, but agreed to offer religious exemptions if the rituals do not cause additional suffering.
Fashion designer John Galliano, on trial for hurling anti-Semitic insults in a Paris cafe, said it was the booze (not the Jews) that made him lash out.
Christians in the Middle East and North Africa are struggling “to keep hope alive” (really, Reuters?) in the Arab Spring democracy movements.
China’s state-controlled Catholic church says it will move swiftly to appoint new bishops, a step that will make Rome very unhappy.
A coalition of Jews and Muslims filed a lawsuit to block a San Francisco ballot measure that would ban the circumcision of male children. Colorado will end Medicaid coverage of circumcision, a rather unkind cut for some religious groups.
More than 120 Spanish Catholic priests are criticizing church leaders for enlisting high-profile corporate sponsors for Pope Benedict XVI’s August visit. Hey, maybe they can sign up this new cologne, “Benedictus,” made especially for the pontiff.
From the press release: “Doctor Frederick Hass, founder of Excelsis, created this fragrance appropriately with linden blossom from Benedict’s native Germany, frankincense from the Holy Land and bergamot from Italy. The result is subtle and dignified, befitting a man of finely cultivated tastes… The overall impression is one of understated elegance.”
In others words, just the scent a an 84-year-old celibate needs for Saturday nights filled with elderly nuns and stacks of books.
Yr hmbl aggregator,
Daniel Burke
