Officials in a New Jersey town have headed off a constitutional battle over freedom of religion by amending an anti-littering ordinance so that Patrick Racaniello can display a cross in his front yard.
How likely is it that the discovery of a two million year-old “missing link” fossil in Africa will yank the chain of the evolution-doubting Republican candidates?
Rick Perry is still catching heat for enlisting Galileo in his cause against climate change.
At Wednesday night’s GOP debate, the audience cheered a question put to Perry about the liberal application of the death penalty in Texas, but some conservatives continue to find that reaction unsettling.
Or, as comeback blogger Rod Dreher puts it, “a vile, repulsive thing.”
Otherwise, the debate generally avoided religious questions. Maybe they should invite New York Times editor Bill Keller next time.
Religious conservatives upset with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plans to leave clergy off the roster of speakers on Sunday’s 9/11 anniversary observance delivered a petition with 62,000 signatures asking that he reconsider.
Schismatic Catholics on the pope’s right flank lower expectations for a breakthrough ahead of crucial talks with the Vatican next week, while authorities in Berlin have nixed a proposal to use large billboards to welcome the German pope when he travels there on September 22, suggesting “they would make the town look ugly and could cause accidents by distracting attention.”
On the plus side for the pontiff, a German toy company is selling special edition “Pope Benedict XVI Teddy bears” in advance of the return of the native. It is made out of blond mohair, filled with excelsior and costs about $315.
The teddy isn’t necessarily irreverent, as Benedict incorporates a bear motif on his coat of arms – the Corbinian bear, which is an interesting tale.
New Mexico’s governor, Susana Martinez, is a hardliner against illegal immigration, but has now acknowledged that her own grandparents came to the United States illegally from Mexico.
Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is appealing his conviction for sexual assault of a child. He was convicted of taking two girls, ages 12 and 15, as plural wives and sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison.
Faith with works rocks: Greek Orthodox nuns from the Monastery of St. John Forerunner in Washington state feared a wildfire was threatening their convent so they rolled up the sleeves of their habits, grabbed garden hoses and helped firefighters contain the flames.
Forty-five years ago today, Sandy Koufax, a southpaw who became the greatest pitcher of his day and a hero to American Jews for his talent and his refusal to pitch in a World Series game on Yom Kippur, pitched “the most perfect of perfect games” as his Dodgers beat the Cubs 1-0.
“There are two times in my life the hair on my arms has stood up,” Dodger general manager Al Campanis once said. “The first time I saw the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the first time I saw Sandy Koufax throw a fastball.”
Art knows no bounds.
— David Gibson
