Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup: Religion in Wisconsin recall; Romney’s military record; Young snake handlers

Religion in the Wisconsin recall; Nuns benefit from Vatican publicity; Romney got religious exemption from Vietnam draft; young snake handlers

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker survived his recall election.

Many Catholic and mainline Protestant leaders spoke out against Walker's union-busting, but, as usual, evangelicals brought the ground troops.

Our man in Milwaukee says the city's former archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, campaigned for Walker as well, though perhaps more subtly. 


The LA Times says neither President Obama nor GOP challenger Mitt Romney are talking much about religion these days, perhaps a politically astute tact. “It's a losing issue for both of them,” said a veteran Democratic political consultant.

The AP scrutinizes Romney's military record, or lack thereof, and finds that he received a 31-month “minister of religion” deferment from the Vietnam War draft while serving a Mormon mission in France. 

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The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied en banc review in Perry v. Brown, setting up a Supreme Court showdown over Prop 8

The Conservative Jewish movement established same-sex marriage guidelines, which nobody seems to be very worked up about.  

A Christian wedding photographer will appeal a New Mexico court decision that her refusal to shoot a lesbian commitment ceremony violated anti-discrimination statutes.

Muslim civil rights activists are headed to court over the NYPD's surveillance program, which they say violates their constitutional rights.

Philly churches are challenging a new law that bans feeding the homeless in city parks.


The Philly Catholic archdiocese has spent $11.6 million in the last year defending itself in clergy sexual abuse cases.  

The NYT looks into the 38 Tibetan Buddhists who have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest of Chinese rule. 

Remember that Buddhist couple who lived in the Arizona desert and were so close they never left each other's side? Well, she remarried and her new husband was found dead, in a bizarre saga that remains largely unexplained.  

Pope Benedict XVI's former butler is facing up to eight years in jail for allegedly stealing confidential documents from the pope's own desk. 

A group of Roman Catholic nuns is planning a bus trip across nine states this month to highlight their ministry with the nation’s poor and disenfranchised – a symbolic rebuttal to the Vatican. Kudos to Laurie Goodstein of the Times for not using the words “nuns on the run” in her story. I could not have resisted the temptation. 

If nothing else, these Vatican crackdowns are great publicity for the sisters. Sister Margaret Farley saw her book soar from # 142,982 to 16 on Amazon's bestseller list after the CDF's censure was announced on Monday. 


The new film, “Hell and Mr. Fudge,” follows an ur-Rob Bell whose unorthodox doctrine of hell gave Alabama the shakes back in the day.

Speaking of the South, if you haven't read Bob Smietana's piece on young snake handlers in Tennessee than you should. Great reporting; great story. Cut it out, Bob. You're making the rest of us look bad.  

Yr hmbl aggrgtr,

Daniel Burke

 

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