Friday’s Religion News Roundup

POTUS said gay couples deserve “the same legal rights” as everyone else, but stopped noticeably short of using the “M” word. New York lawmakers will be back at it today in a last-ditch attempt to figure out what they’re going to do on same-sex marriage. The trial of the Methodist lesbian pastor ended with a […]

POTUS said gay couples deserve “the same legal rights” as everyone else, but stopped noticeably short of using the “M” word. New York lawmakers will be back at it today in a last-ditch attempt to figure out what they’re going to do on same-sex marriage.

The trial of the Methodist lesbian pastor ended with a whimper, not a bang, with the Rev. Amy DeLong put on suspension for 20 days but allowed to stay in the pulpit.

The lead researcher on the Catholic Church’s recent sex abuse report says neither she, nor church leaders, ever attempted to “blame Woodstock” for the abuse crisis that spiked in the 60s and 70s.


Harold Camping, the doomsday preacher who said the world would end on May 21, is losing his daily radio show after suffering a stroke earlier this month.

San Francisco may or may not ban infant circumcision at the ballot box, but at least 18 states have cut Medicaid funding for circumcisions in a bid to tighten their budgetary belts.

The Forward profiles the “actually kind of hip” new female (and Jewish) editor of the NYT, while other Jews are kvetching about the loss of Jewish lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

A Pennsylvania man is facing up to 13 years in jail for directing a pot-growing operation from his jail cell; Robert Henry says he’s being prosecuted for belonging to a marijuana church, “the way the Nazis treated the Jews during World War II.” Yeah, just like that.

Five people — including a mother and her two daughters — were killed when their church van veered off the road and landed in a ditch in Louisiana. An 18-year-old Jewish man was indicted in an arson attack on a religious dissident in New Square, N.Y.

PETA has asked B16 to rule out leather seats for his new eco-friendly popemobile, saying leather production is “hell for cows.” Stephen Colbert and The White Stripes’ Jack White have a good ol’ fashioned Catholic Throwdown, including a cringe-inducing version of “Be Not Afraid.”


A Hindu man in India stopped bathing during the Nixon administration after a priest told him sacrificing soap and water would help him have a son. He’s had seven daughters.

-Kevin Eckstrom

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!