Thursday’s Religion News Roundup: GOP plans Jeremiah Wright ads; sparring over Sebelius speech; Pat Robertson = Zen master

GOP activists are planning ads that tie Obama to Jeremiah Wright. Georgetown U. and the Archdiocese of Washington are sparring over Sebelius. Jesus is a video game character and Pat Robertson is a Zen master.

GOP activists and a conservative billionaire are working on campaign ads that tie President Obama to controversial comments by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, according to the NYT. 

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal leaked to the Times. 

Tensions between the Archdiocese of Washington and Georgetown University are escalating ahead Friday's address by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the Jesuit school.


The Vatican dismissed former Canadian bishop Raymond Lahey, who was convicted of possessing child pornography, from the clerical state. 

Legionaries of Christ leaders knew that the Rev. Thomas Williams had fathered a child many months before they public acknowledged it, Reuters reports.

More than half of Catholics (55 percent) say bishops are less likely to cover up abuse cases today than in the past, according to a survey of U.S. Catholic magazine readers. 

Not to be outdone by their episcopal counterparts to the south, Canada's Catholic bishops are mounting a “religious freedom” campaign to combat “aggressive relativism.”  

A California presbytery bucked the PCUSA's top court by refusing to punish a pastor who was found guilty of performing same-sex marriages. 

Continuing a loooooonnng courtship, the Vatican says “further discussions” will be needed with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) before they get back together.


Popular pastor and gospel singer Marvin Winans, who delivered the euology at Whitney Houston's funeral, was assaulted and carjacked in Detroit.  

Chuck Colson was memorialized at Washington National Cathedral in a service steeped in prayers about prison and redemption.

The idea of heaven as a lofty place with angels playing harps is all wrong, says Anglican theologian N.T. Wright

A Christian softball league in Missouri benched a team whose church has a bisexual pastor, even though she doesn't even play. 

Hasidic Jews are rallying against the Internets, and spreading the word via Twitter. 

Jesus Christ is now a video game character.

Pat Robertson says you should break your friends' Buddha statues, which sorta makes him a Zen master.  

Yr hmbl aggrgtr,

Daniel Burke 

Photo courtesy of The New York Times

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