Friday’s Religion News Roundup: Spitzer’s redemption * Priestly paycuts * Miracle kangaroos

(RNS) Black voters seem reluctant to cast the first stone in New York City's tawdry election campaign. A Greek Orthodox archbishop defends his priests from paycuts and Mike Huckabee has choice words for Muslims at the end of Ramadan.

Black voters are more forgiving of the sins of Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner in Gotham’s high-stakes elections, this year. Says Pastor Johnny Ray Youngblood, introducing Spitzer to his flock: “We have all sinned and come short before the glory of God.”

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File this under Convoluted but Interesting: A Greek Orthodox archbishop has suspended all services in Salt Lake City after parishioners cut the priests’ pay by 40% to balance the books. The message from Denver-based Metropolitan Isaiah seems to be: No Payment. No Priests. No Services.


A “mystery priest” who appeared at an accident scene in Missouri (but can’t be seen in any of the crash photos) is being heralded as an angel, while a kangaroo that kept a missing boy warm in the Australian bush is dubbed a “miracle.”

A Catholic priest in Rhode Island may or may not have told lawmakers who voted for gay marriage that he’ll be actively campaigning against them from the pulpit.

Our own Jonathan Merritt talks with author Brett McCracken about how believers can navigate the tricky terrain between “legalism and liberty” in the larger culture.

A story that only gets more bizarre: Actress Leah Remini left Scientology and then filed a missing person report for Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige. Police closed the case after an in-person interview assured them that Mrs. Miscavige was alive and well.

It’s the end of Ramadan, which means many imams are delivering a sort of Muslim State of the Union speech to their flocks.

This week’s Moozweek is out, with this gem from presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee: “It never occurs to us (Christians) that on the days in which we are supposed to be humbled by the presence of God that somehow we would rise up and kill innocent people including children.” To which Omar Sacirbey retorts: “Actually, it never occurs to most Muslims either.”

The late Trappist monk Thomas Merton, the prolific author and “perhaps most influential American Catholic of the 20th century,” is on his way to the big screen with the not-so-secret romance with a nursing student half his age.


President Obama will hand out the Medal of Freedom awards to 16 celebs, including Bill Clinton, Oprah, Gloria Steinem and civil rights leader Rev. C.T. Vivian.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley dissects the trial of Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter who wants “the bodies left in his wake to serve as some murderous montage of faith.”

Residents of Albuquerque are laying to rest the remains of dozens of homeless and poor people who couldn’t afford a burial or whose bodies went unclaimed by relatives.

Coptic Pope Tawadros has canceled public meetings at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo out of concern his flock may be attacked by militants. The AP has more on the embattled Christian minority.

Church leaders in the U.K. are not amused by a government-funded ad campaign that tells illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest.”

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