Friday’s Religion News Roundup: Silver spire * Anglican church attendance * Psychics in trouble

A new spire tops the One World Trade Center. Anglican church attendance is stabilizing. Psychics' predictions? A history of failure.

Abstract spire, courtesy Shutterstock
A photo of a spire

Detail on the Dublin Spire, on O’Connell street photo courtesy Shutterstock (http://shutr.bz/10A9i8o)

The silver spire topping One World Trade Center in New York City has been fully installed. If spires once crowned buildings with symbols of religious faith, this one will serve as a world-class broadcast antenna. Welcome to the 21st century.

A wide majority of Americans support the Boy Scouts of America’s proposal to admit gay scouts for the first time, and most oppose the organization’s plans to continue to bar gay adults from serving as scout leaders, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.


An Arkansas school district cancelled sixth-grade graduation ceremonies after receiving a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation notifying officials that a parent had complained about prayer at the graduation.

An 82-year-old nun and two other peace activists will be sentenced in September on their convictions of damaging a Tennessee defense facility where enriched uranium for nuclear bombs is stored, a federal judge said.

Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, was killed in Mexico, USA Today is reporting.

The number of people attending Sunday services at Britain’s Anglican churches continues to drop, but church officials say there are signs that the decline is starting to stabilize. (Among the findings: Christmas churchgoing is up; weddings down.)

For nearly two centuries, St. Louis University has been led by the Roman Catholic order, the Jesuits. But with only about 2,500 American Jesuits left, it’s next president may well come from outside the order.

France’s Muslim leaders have agreed to end almost 1,400 years of Islamic tradition and use modern astronomy to determine the start of the holy month of Ramadan and other Islamic holidays.

As the Irish parliament prepares to vote on legislation that would allow abortion in cases where the mother is deemed at risk of suicide, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said that changing the law would “encourage” and “condone” abortion.


A Pew Research Center poll found that 61 percent of Israelis “express confidence that President Barack Obama will “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” as opposed to 15 percent of Palestinians.

Pakistanis go to the polls tomorrow, but members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will probably sit it out. That’s because Muslim voters must sign a declaration on the reverse side of the ballot form rejecting the founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as a false prophet.

Are psychics in trouble? Celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne is doing damage control over a prediction made nearly 10 years ago claiming Ohio kidnapping victim Amanda Berry was dead. She was, of course, found alive on Monday. (Meanwhile, the Skeptical Inquirer published a survey showing that Browne’s predictions about missing persons and murder cases have been wrong in every single case.)

Going to the movies this weekend? A Catholic Herald review of the new Baz Lurhmann flick “The Great Gatsby” concludes, “It may not tell us anything about religion or the life of the spirit, but it makes one thing clear. The world is an empty place, and we need some spiritual truths to make life bearable.”

Here’s another spiritual truth. I cannot top the boss’s appeal in yesterday’s Roundup. For those who missed it, Editor-in-Chief Kevin Eckstrom posted a photo of his cherubic boy, Gus, in a plea to get you to donate to our Roundup campaign. (My geriatric black cat doesn’t quite make the cut.)

I will say this. Our campaign will end sometime next week and you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in RNS’s first-ever online fundraiser. Make history. Contribute to something you care about: the sharing of information and the surprising, infuriating, ridiculous, awesome, inspiring and just plain funny ways religion news unfolds.


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