Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup: Aslan’s Islam * Masonic Mafia? * Evangelical Hoaxsters *

The wrath of God debate is dividing some Protestants, and you can preach at night on the streets of New Orleans. AMDG to the Jesuits!

Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits. 

Photo via Wikipedia. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola
Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits.  Photo via Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola

Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits.
Photo via Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola

The Vatican Bank has a website as of today! Yes, that counts as an innovation for them.

The Jesuit pope, Francis, and his many brothers in the Society of Jesus are marking the Feast of Saint Ignatius today; the founder of the order, Ignatius Loyola, died on this day in 1556.


Francis is still basking in the glow of his successful Brazil trip, but the Masons maybe aren’t too happy with the pontiff singling them out for criticism. Father Alexander Lucie-Smith looks at the possibility of a Masonic lobby in the Vatican. Really.

Debate over the pope’s kindly remarks on gays continues, but the Vatican still isn’t as gay-friendly as Georgetown, the oldest Catholic university in the U.S. – and Jesuit to boot. Those guys.

Reuters has a story on how Northern Ireland is still trying to heal its sectarian divisions between Catholics and Protestants.

Protestants still have their own issues: a new Presbyterian hymnal that drops a song about the wrath of God has stirred up an intense debate.

Jayson Bradley says evangelicals seem prone to passing around Internet hoaxes, and he gives four reasons why they shouldn’t.

(The Daily Religion News Roundup is the real deal, by the way, and you can sign up below for free.)

Pranks and summer camp go together, but some mischief at a Baptist camp in Maryland went seriously awry – and introduced me to a product whose name I won’t reproduce here. Bob Allen at ABP has the details


Atheists wonder why Christians should have all the fun anyway: they’ve got their own summer camps now, as our own Corrie Mitchell reports.

The New Orleans city council has ended a ban on nighttime preaching. That should clean up Bourbon Street.

A Saudi website editor gets 600 lashes and seven years in prison for starting a site deemed too liberal.

A Kenyan lawyer wants the World Court to overturn Pontius Pilate’s conviction of Jesus. There’s a lot of theology at stake.

Patton Dodd discusses what he says is the most overlooked movie of the summer: “The East.” It has a serious religious theme, and it’s pretty good, he says. Which puts it way ahead of the new Lone Ranger stinker and all those all blockbuster flops.

The viral debate over the, ahem, awkward Fox News interview with author Reza Aslan about his book on Jesus continues. But Steve Thorngate wants to cut through it and find out how exactly Aslan’s Muslim faith does inform his views:


I’m puzzled by what both Aslan’s on-air defense and many subsequent commentators imply: that academic/professional credentials inform a person’s writing to the exclusion of personal convictions. Do we really think this is true, or should be? Yes, honest research and fair analysis are different in kind from ideological hackery, and it’s quite clear that Aslan’s doing the former. But that doesn’t mean it makes no difference whatsoever that he’s a Muslim. If postmodernism has taught us anything, it’s that we all speak and write and do whatever from a particular location. That location doesn’t mean you’re biased, but nor does it mean nothing.

Israel’s new chief rabbi makes some ugly remarks about blacks as he disses basketball.

And that’s it for this morning – stay tuned to Religion News Service on our website and on Facebook and Twitter for updates throughout the day.

David Gibson

 

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