Friday’s Religion News Roundup: Duggars for Romney, Gay marriage wars, Muslim dirty laundry

Catholic parishes in Seattle are saying they won't distribute flyers as part of the campaign to overturn the state's new same-sex marriage law. Are Mormons covertly working to overturn Maryland's same-sex marriage law? One DC gay publication says yes. Sign that the GOP primary slugfest is finally, mercifully over: TV's 19-kids-and-counting Duggar family has thrown […]

Catholic parishes in Seattle are saying they won't distribute flyers as part of the campaign to overturn the state's new same-sex marriage law.

Are Mormons covertly working to overturn Maryland's same-sex marriage law? One DC gay publication says yes.

Sign that the GOP primary slugfest is finally, mercifully over: TV's 19-kids-and-counting Duggar family has thrown its support to Mitt Romney after being big fans of Rick Santorum. 


In Pittsburgh, several priests told Bishop David Zubik that his “To hell with you” rhetoric over the Obama administration's birth control coverage plan is alienating rank-and-file Catholics.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meanwhile, is invoking the names of saints and martyrs who would not bow to Caesar in their call for a “fortnight of freedom” against the birth control mandate. Is it just me, or did the Tea Party surrender all of its freedom rhetoric over to the bishops?

Up in New York, city officials are (again) weighing whether to provide landmark status to the perpetually unfinished Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is selling bits of its property off to condo developers to help raise some cash.

Do you know how many members are in your religion? Or “the process by which you came to your religion?” If not, you might not be able to get a state-issued ID card in Pennsylvania if you have religious objections to photographs.

Muslim groups are upping the ante in their bid to deny a spot to outspoken activist Zuhdi Jasser on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom; he calls it a “smear tactic.”

CT talks to Marshall Allman, who plays Christian author Donald Miller in the film adaptation of Miller's book, “Blue Like Jazz,” which opens today in limited release. Raymond Moody, the guy who coined the term “near-death experience,” wonders what it all means.


Spain is looking into allegations that some 1,500 newborns were taken from their mothers and given up for adoption overseas during the Franco era.

A Canadian art student is at the center of a cultural firestorm after she took a photo of a fully veiled Muslim woman holding up a flowery bra while she was folding laundry.

— Kevin Eckstrom

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