ThursdayâÂ?Â?s Religion News Roundup

Alabama takes center stage, as a federal judge’s ruling upholding core elements of the state’s toughest-in-the-nation immigration law was at least a partial victory for religious leaders who opposed the entire law. U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn ruled that the religious leaders did not have standing to challenge the law, though other groups – including […]

Alabama takes center stage, as a federal judge’s ruling upholding core elements of the state’s toughest-in-the-nation immigration law was at least a partial victory for religious leaders who opposed the entire law.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn ruled that the religious leaders did not have standing to challenge the law, though other groups – including the Obama administration, did.

But Blackburn did block a section of the law that makes it a state crime to knowingly harbor, conceal or transport an undocumented alien, which church leaders said would make religious services and ministries involving unlawful aliens illegal.


Gov. Robert Bentley, whose Baptist faith is central to his platform, was pleased with the ruling on his most notable legislative achievement so far.

Happier still are companies that are turning a profit in the illegal immigration crackdown business.

Alabama is better than every other state in teaching children about civil rights history, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Michele Bachmann, currently trailing in the GOP presidential sweepstakes, urged Christians not to “settle for anything less than what this great and almighty God has planned for you.”

Bachmann’s talk at Liberty University reprised her line to Republican voters not to settle for a popular front-runner (Perry? Romney?) who is less than the best.

Elsewhere among Virginia’s evangelical notables, Pat Robertson said his televised remarks advising the husband of an Alzheimer’s victim to get a divorce and marry his girlfriend were “misinterpreted.”


“I want to say I envy the Catholic priest, because when they have someone in confession it’s all kept secret,” Robertson said with a laugh on his TV show. “When I have somebody asking me for advice, it spreads worldwide and it’s misunderstood.”

In Ohio, a small Methodist congregation and a jumbo megachurch are in a billboard war over homosexuality: “Being Gay Is a Gift from God,” says one, “Being Gay is NOT a gift from God — Forgiveness, Love, and Eternal Life Are,” says the other. Guess which is which.

Atheists in Michigan say their billboard campaign has boosted attention and attendance.

The Washington Post’s “On Faith” panel debates the role of faith in the economy, which gives panelist Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite a chance to cite the inimitable Colbert neologism, “Moneytheism.”

It’s finally splitsville between the Vatican and Italy’s scandal-tarred playboy-cum-prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. And an apartment-dweller in England has reproduced the Sistine Chapel in his tiny rented flat.

And I bury the lead: The real religion news of the day of course concerns America’s national religion, baseball.

The Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night capped an amazing run to the wild-card spot with a stunning victory over the Yankees while the Red Sox staged an epic collapse that had them recalling decades of futility and the 1986 World Series (Can I get an “Amen”? Please. That’s all we Mets fans have these days).


Yes, don’t forget the once-reliable Braves ceding to the Cardinals last night. But the Rays-Red Sox inversion raises a host of theological issues – theodicy, intercessory versus imprecatory prayer, and the power of curses.

It all had rationalists like numbers-cruncher Nate Silver turning to “various divine and karmatic explanations,” while social scientists were trying to explain sports curses as a psychological hangover from past failure.

Which is why Mets fans think old-fashioned miracles are still the way to go.

— David Gibson

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