Friday’s Religion News Roundup: Goy George * The T in LGBT * Nuns on Lockdown

(RNS) No, wee Prince George is not Jewish (altho a few Jews and the Iranians would like him to be). Egyptian Christians are suffering for their support of the military crackdown. And Rowan Williams finally says what's needed saying.

Photo of Boy George, via Eva Rinaldi/Flickr.

That 2010 Oklahoma constitutional amendment that tried to ban Shariah and other “international laws”? The federal judge who struck it down issued a final ruling, striking it down again.

Photo of Boy George, via Eva Rinaldi/Flickr.

Photo of Boy George, via Eva Rinaldi/Flickr.

Our own Lauren Markoe debunks the rumor that wee Prince George (heir to the British throne) is actually Jewish. I guess that’d make him Goy George, not Boy George.


Outspoken Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to place white crosses in the spots where migrants die while trying to cross the border into the U.S.

Sarah Pulliam Bailey caught up with the new presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Elizabeth Eaton, who said she’s still trying to take it all in. “Do I have a killer app or program that’s going to change turnaround in six years? No, I don’t,” she says.

American nuns met Thursday under lock and key with Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain, who’s been tasked by the Vatican with bringing the independent-minded sisters back in line.

Southern Baptist policy guru Russell Moore tackles the complicated and sensitive debate over transgender sexual identity, and concludes that “we can no more surgically alter our gospel than we can surgically alter our gender.”

Omar Sacirbey has all the week’s Muslim news in the new edition of Moozweek, including a wrap-up of the carnage unfolding across Egypt.

Speaking of, Egyptian Christians’ support of the crackdown against pro-Morsi supporters isn’t working out too well for them; there are reports of churches burned across Egypt as the situation goes south.

Coming soon to a PBS station near you: a nuanced mostly sympathetic biography of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (and no, they don’t show his face).


Dartmouth College nixed the appointment of a former Anglican bishop from Malawi after the bishop’s comments about homosexuality came to light.

The Mormons have a record 75,000 missionaries out there knocking on doors, a growth fueled by the decision last year to lower the age for wannabe missionaries.

RNS alum Alfredo Garcia writes about churches’ response to “the new Jim Crow,” mass incarceration.

About time someone said it: former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said Christians in the West need to “grow up” and get a real handle on what Christian persecution really looks like.

And with that, we’re off to the weekend. But before you go, make sure we have your email address so you can get the Roundup for free each day in your in-box.

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