Friday Religion News Roundup: Mormons march in LGBT parade; Wild Goose Festival; Fortnight for Freedom starts

Mormons march in LGBT Pride parades; Americans trust Obama over Romney on social issues; the first Baptist missionary may have been a freed black slave

How do you know it's summer? Lots of people are taking it outside in marches, rallies, parades and festivals.

Today is Day 2 of the Catholic Fortnight for Freedom. Check local diocesan listings for events.

This weekend, Mormons are preparing to march in seven LGBT Pride parades across the U.S. and Chile, a sign subtle changes are afoot in the LDS Church's position on gays, says Joanna Brooks at Religion Dispatches.


And young evangelicals are awaking to a muggy June day at a 72-acre campground near Chapel Hill, N.C., for the second Wild Goose Festival. Christian heavy metal fans will celebrate the last Cornerstone Festival beginning July 2.

Americans trust President Barack Obama over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney on social issues, 52 percent to 36 percent, according to a new AP-GfK poll released Friday. But voters are split on gay marriage, the poll finds.

The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against two towns dominated by a polygamous sect on Thursday, accusing officials of failing to protect nonmembers and enforcing the edicts of leader Warren Jeffs above the law.

CNN is reporting that an Oxford University scientist has tested six small bone fragments of a man who lived in the time of Jesus.  The fragments found on on an island named Sveti Ivan, or St. John, near south coast of Bulgaria, raised speculation they may belong to John the Baptist. But of course, there's no DNA database of the early saints.

Fresh on the heels of Fred Luter's historic election as president the Southern Baptist Convention, messengers also considered whether the first U.S. Protestant missionary may have been a black man. George Liele, a freed slave, started a church in Jamaica 30 years before revered Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann, left for Burma in 1812.

The election of an African-American as president of the SBC, and the religious liberty drive among Roman Catholics has Bill Leonard speculating about the nation's two largest religious groups. Leonard, a professor at Wake Forest University's Divinity School, says the developments are driven by a loss of cultural privilege.


For more fascinating insights on the state of religion, don't forget to tune into today RNS Godcast, where Kevin Eckstrom, David Gibson and RNS blogger Jana Riess kick around the news of the week. 

Image: Wild Goose Festival at Shakori Hills in North Carolina June 24, 2011. Credit: RNS photo by Courtney Perry

Yonat Shimron

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