Valentine’s Day candy
The confectionery company that sells 4 million pounds of traditional heart-shaped candies stamped with popular sayings has some new ones this year. They include: UR HOT, TEXT ME, and LOML (or Love of My Life). For the discontinued sayings, click here.
The religiously unaffiliated have high expectations they will have sex today, Valentine’s Day. Older, mainline Protestants, less so.
Onto more serious news: Eleven Roman Catholic cardinals from the United States will convene in the Sistine Chapel in mid-March to elect the next pope. We have their bios.
Tim Townsend reports that Matthew Harrison’s mishandling of the Newtown interfaith service is almost certain to be a factor as he seeks re-election as leader of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
The mayor of a French farming village conducts civil marriage ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples, though he is a retired Catholic priest. A bill that would legalize gay marriage in France appears likely to pass. Seems like a letter from the Vatican is forthcoming.
Pretty predictable: Mississippi is the most religious U.S. state; Vermont the least, according to a new Gallup poll. The poll is based on the percentage of people who say they are “very religious.”
An Ohio school district decided Tuesday night to keep a portrait of Jesus hanging in the school where it’s been 65 years, denying a federal lawsuit’s claim the portrait’s display unconstitutionally promotes religion in a public school.
A Tibetan man set himself on fire in front of a famous Buddhist shrine in Nepal on Wednesday, becoming the latest Tibetan to adopt this harrowing form of protest over Chinese rule.
Pope Benedict may have shocked the world by announcing his resignation on Monday, but some cardinals apparently started maneuvering for the succession as long as two years ago when the pope told a German interviewer that he would consider resigning if he felt physically unable to continue, reports Tom Heneghan of Reuters
Is the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel — known as BDS —anti-Semitic hate speech? The Forward deliberates.
Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio talks to David Brody about the breakdown of the American family.
Jewish cantorial music will die unless it accommodates to the digital era, which is why one Baltimore cantor is creating apps for the iPhone and iPad.
NPR interviews Yale Professor John J. Collins, author of the new book, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography.”
And finally, not celebrating Valentine’s Day? USA Today has you covered with 14 other options. Whether you are, or aren’t, our short survey will give you a chance to win an iPad mini, make new friends, and influence people. Click on the box to the right.
6 Comments
Daniel Hoffman
Religious observance is much higher among older people than younger. This is why people are trying so hard to convert other people’s children. The tobacco industry and the gun lobby do the same.
Rev. Albert W. Kovacs
Why the big fuss about a picture in the school?
While presidents photos have often been displayed in classrooms, I recollect seeing pictures of others who have influenced our civilization, as Shakespeare, Socrates, Ben Franklin, etc.
Why not a representation of Jesus, whose teachings have had tremendous effect upon our nation’s moral fiber? Doesn’t the Supreme Court have artist’s renderings of Moses with the Law? I’m sure we would object to views of Hitler, the killer. But isn’t Jesus life worth imitating by our youth?
Kevan Scott
Firstly, let me say that Daniel’s comment is right on point and exceptionally an observant one. Secondly, to the Rev. if you want to hang Christ’s portrait in schools then to be fair you would have to hang portrait’s of at least the 5 main religion’s leaders or prophets as wel, and to be really fair you would also need to hang a portrait of a famous atheist to the wall. This is why the amendment reads ‘freedom from religion” because long ago the founding fathers had just escaped perscution for not wanting to worship as was required at the time in England. Yu can hang portraits all day long of Jesus in your church, but to hang one in a public school would mean tacit approval by the gov’t of the Christian religion and would also greatly offend others who do not believe as you do. The writers of that amendment knew what they were doing and I don’t want to have the U. S. gov’t telling me or anyone else which religion is acceptable in their eyes to worship. Gov’t has many more important things to do right now than telling me and others which religion or religions are acceptable in their eyes.
Rev. Albert W. Kovacs
No one insists that schools hang up every president’s picture, nor every great in literature, science, etc., nor every religious leader, leaving it to the locals to determine who for that day in that place might be worthy of emulating. In that school it appears that Jesus is a good choice. I’m sure a rabbinical school would opt for Moses, perhaps Golda Meier, or a Holacaust victim – perhaps an Anna Sendler, who saved so many Jewish infants. I don’t like a government telling locals what and how they must teach – like the Nazi or Communists. Our school system was built on the federal principle of home/local control.
Brit
It’s not a Holy day,it’s a bunch of pagan satan to man made tradition. so i understand why unreligious people would want to be engaging in licentious behavior. simple people. very simple.
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[...] Thursday Religion News Roundup: Valentine's Day sex * 11 US Cardinals … The religiously unaffiliated have high expectations they will have sex today, Valentine's Day. Older, mainline Protestants, less so. Onto more serious news: Eleven Roman Catholic cardinals from the United States will convene in the Sistine Chapel in … Read more on Religion News Service [...]