New York tabloid covers, including The New York Daily News’ “God help NY if he’s mayor.”
A passenger train crash in northwest Spain has left 78 people dead near a beloved Catholic pilgrimage site, Santiago de Compostela, made famous (to American audiences) by the Emilio Estevez movie, The Way.
About 40 nuns lost their composure when they greeted Pope Francis after he celebrated a Mass in the Brazilian town of Aparecida on Wednesday. They mobbed him with their cameras.
Today, the pope will visit a slum and address upward of 1 million young Roman Catholics in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach. Stay tuned to this channel for full coverage.
Anthony Weiner is not a punch line; he is an addict, says Craig Gross who works with sex addicts.
This is not a religious story so much, though some are making hay of Weiner’s interfaith marriage. We point it out because the tabloids did. Thank God for the tabloids.
N.C. lawmakers have given final approval to a Shariah bill. It doesn’t use the term “Shariah” because a federal appeals court ruled in 2012 that a Sharia Law ban passed in Oklahoma was unconstitutional and discriminatory against Islam. So the bill prohibits courts from recognizing “foreign law.” Opponents call it a ban in search of a problem.
Also in my home state: A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction ordering a North Carolina county government to cease conducting Christian prayers at the beginning of its meetings.
Not so surprising: Nearly three-fourths of U.S. Mormons live in the West, and four in 10 live in Utah.
The beard-cutting leader of a group of 16 Amish men and women found guilty hate crimes lost his bid to be released from prison pending an appeal of his conviction.
“A wholesome horror film.” A contradiction in terms? Not according to filmmaker brothers Chad and Carey Hayes who made “The Conjuring.” The Hayes are Christians, and they think the genre is ripe for expansion. The horror flick took in a surprising $41 million in its opening weekend, says Kevin Eckstrom. So maybe they’re right.
Another kind of horror? The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says the legal recognition of same-sex marriage is leading humanity to its doomsday.
Continuing the hyperbole, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants churches to challenge the IRS, and is urging religious leaders to put their tax-exempt statuses on the line with bold political speech from the pulpit.
Islamophobe Brigitte Gabriel is scheduled to speak Monday at Little Falls Community High School at a Central Minnesota Tea Party event. The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations asked the school district to consider the negative impact Gabriel will have on the students.
From the good news department: Lauren Markoe reports that the Anti-Defamation League’s study of anti-Semitism in the U.S. shows a 14 percent decrease in incidents during 2012, the second consecutive year of a downward trend.
A song about going up to heaven remains a huge hit on YouTube, even after its author, a talented 18-year-old, died of cancer in May.
House lawmakers nixed the appointment of nonreligious military chaplains, such as humanists.
When it comes to donating to charity, Britain’s small but fast-growing Muslim community comes out ahead of other religious groups.
Two ultra-Orthodox rabbis were elected as Israel’s chief rabbis. Nothing earth-shattering there.
Nor in this: Many converts turn on their former faith. And actor and Christian convert Kirk Cameron is one. Or so it appears on a video for his latest flick, “Unstoppable,” in which he takes aim at atheists.
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