Friday’s Religion News Roundup: Billy Graham’s politics, Rachel Held Evans, Cardinal Dolan’s dinner guests

Cardinal Dolan keeps Mitt Romney and President Obama from having a food fight, Rachel Held Evans doesn't see what all the fuss is about, and another nail in the DOMA coffin. Read all about it in today's Religion News Roundup.

Ryan Brenizer/Archdiocese of New York.

President Obama and Mitt Romney squared off, gently, at last night's Al Smith Dinner in New York, seated on either side of Gotham Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Full video here, and a run-down here.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York joins Mitt Romney and President Obama at the 2012 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York joins Mitt Romney and President Obama at the 2012 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

Billy Graham is getting surprisingly political at age 93, all but endorsing Mitt Romney last week and now buying ads urging people to vote for “candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. I urge you to vote for those who protect the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman.” We're pretty sure he means Romney there.


Popular evangelical author Rachel Held Evans is in a knock-down fight with Southern Baptist-affiliated LifeWay Bookstores over their decision not to stock her book because, she claims, she talks too much about her, um, lady parts. 

The Charleston-based Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina is filing divorce papers with the Episcopal Church.

The AP says pastors were among those who helped shield abusers within the Boy Scouts, according to Thursday's release of thoundands and thousands of the Scouts' “perversion files”

Yet another federal appeals court has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages. More than half of Latinos now support gay marriage, according to new Pew data.

Some cast members of TLC's “Breaking Amish” reality show say there's a hidden problem of bestiality within Amish culture

Conservative icon Dinesh D'Souza has resigned as president of evangelical The King's College in New York City after admitting he was running around with a woman who was not his wife.


Seventh-day Adventists say they won't recognize the ordinations of women from two regional bodies that bucked global church rules and voted to allow women pastors.

An Army court ruled that Nidal Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood gunman, must shave his religiously inspired beard, or someone will do it for him.

A Texas judge granted a group of cheerleaders the right to display their Bible verse banners for the rest of the season in Kountze

Outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is making one final push to get the Church of England to allow women bishops.

Hajj pilgrims are welcoming a new (required) meningitis vaccine that allows them to enter Saudi Arabia, but not everyone is convinced that it's pork-free.

Doctors in England say Malala Yousufzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was gunned down by the Taliban for having the temerity to advocate for girl's education, say she's standing up, talking and writing.


Islamist militants bulldozed the tombs of three saints from Islam's mystical Sufi sect, outside Timbuktu, saying they need to prevent idol worship.

A world-renowned Turkish concert pianist is denying charges of “explicitly insulting religious values” when he tweeted part of a 1,000-year-old poem that preaches against pious hypocrisy.

And with that, it's on to the weekend, but before you go, be sure to make sure you're subscribed to receive the RNS Religion News Roundup, every day for free, in your inbox.

— Kevin Eckstrom

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