Two major religious figures left this earthly realm on Wednesday.
The Rev. John Stott, who helped write the Lausanne Covenant and was often called the “evangelical pope,” died in England. Stott, who was 90, leaves behind more than 50 books acclaimed for their accessible theology.
And the papal ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, died during surgery on Wednesday. Sambi helped set up a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and clerical sex abuse victims three years ago. But his larger role was behind the scenes, in vetting bishop candidates for the pope.
The New York Times profiles “Batina the Hidden,” a Muslim girl from Yemen who fights bad guys in a burqa in the popular comic book series “The 99.” Next year the comic will be made into a television series that will be shown on at least four continents.
The “Knights Templar” is real, but Anders Behring Breivik is not part of it, says a man who claims to be part of an alliance of anti-Muslim, would-be crusaders. Breivik, who killed scores of people in Norway last week, has claimed allegiance to the group.
Members of the minority Muslim sect Ahmadiyah in Indonesia are decrying the prison sentence handed down to the ringleader of militant Muslim mob that attacked sect members, killing three. The sentence is 5 1/2 months.
An unusual agreement between curators at the Louvre and the National Gallery in London will place two nearly identical Leonardo da Vinci paintings side by side. The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and John the Baptist, now at the National Gallery, will be sent to the Louvre, to hang alongside The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne.
The proposed ban on the circumcision of minors in San Francisco is in trouble after a Superior Court judge tentatively ruled that it be removed from the November city ballot. Judge Loretta Giorgi argued that state law doesn’t allow the city to ban a “widely practiced medical procedure.”
Islamic Studies Professor Hussein Rashid says more Muslims than ever will be using Twitter to highlight bits of the Quran for Ramadan next month, a trick he learned from rabbis who like to twit Torah.
Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman tells his fellow Jews to beware of “those whose love for the Jewish people is born out of hatred of Muslims or Arabs.” He made his comments in the wake of reports that Norwegian killer Anders Behring Breivik had advocated a white Israeli-European alliance.
Republican Herman Cain has apologized for his assertion on the presidential campaign trail that American communities should have the right to ban mosques.
After years of uncertainty, a federal judge has ruled that the federal government can continue to fund embryonic stem cell research.
National Institutes of Health chief Francis Collins has told USA Today that “angry atheists are out there using science as a club to hit believers over the head,” and that conflicts over religion and science are often “overstated.”
– Lauren Markoe
