Cool lists * Cover-up cleric * Duck Dynasty Chick-fil-A mashup: Friday’s Religion News Roundup

The first Catholic official to be convicted for covering up for clergy sex abuse has seen his conviction overturned. Everyone is making lists to wrap up the year. And your daily dose of Duck Dynasty updates is in today's roundup.

The average American family owns three Bibles and rarely reads them. But if your 2014 resolution is to read it through in a year, one reading plan says you can do it in 10 minutes a day. RNS Photo by Kevin Eckstrom

(RNS) You can’t get through the last days of the year without lists, lists, lists everywhere you look. 

We’re still in holiday mode here.  President and Michelle Obama have issued their best wishes to all who are celebrating the seven days of Kwanzaa. The holiday began Thursday, a day devoted to unity. Today’s Kwanzaa theme is Kujichagulia, self-determination.  

Rev. James Martin is not surprised that Pope Francis went off script with his Christmas Day message, ad libbing an invite to unbelievers to join the prayerful in desiring peace.


But we’re home free from the War on Christmas – until Thanksgiving 2014.  If you’re tired of that, take comfort: Google statistics show the “war”  peaked in 2006, says Tobin Grant, blogging At the Corner of Church and State.

Some news and issues don’t wrap up when you flip a calendar page flip:

A Pennsylvania appeals court has overturned the conviction of Monsignor William J. Lynn, the first U.S. Catholic cleric convicted on charges of covering up the sexual abuse of children. What happens next for Lynn? That’s unclear in church or state. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said the state “most likely will be appealing.” His attorneys expect him to be released Friday.  Survivors are outraged. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s statement late Thursday cites their child protection efforts, and concludes: “We recognize that today’s news is especially difficult for survivors and their families. We profoundly regret their pain.”

A human rights expert tells Brian Pellot that Iran’s Charter of Citizens’ Rights could worsen religious freedom in the country.

The Israeli Knesset torpedoed a bill to separate of religion and state in the Jewish state. The proposed constitutional law that would have allowed civil marriage regardless of race, citizenship or religion, sank on preliminary reading, says The Times of Israel. 

Canada faces a different church-state test. Forty families from a reclusive Orthodox Jewish sect that has settled in 200 miles southwest of Toronto, Ontario face a court hearing on whether 14 of the group’s children are neglected and abused and should be placed in foster care. Their lawyer says the children are in good health and that group is under attack for its anti-Zionist views.

Lastly, the Duck Dynasty wrap-up:  

Facebook page is promoting Jan. 21 as a Phil Robertson support day, when folks should don their camo and eat at Chick-fil-A. The chicken chain, which is not connected to this effort, had its own headline flap in 2012 after its evangelical owner spoke out for “traditional marriage.”


Hollis Phelps, an Assistant Professor of Religion at Mount Olive College, has a provocative question at “Religion Dispatches.” He looks at Robertson and Frank Schaefer, the pastor stripped of his Methodist clergy credentials last week for officiating at his son’s same-sex wedding, and wonders, “are ‘liberal Christians’ and ‘conservative Christians’ worshipping the same God?”  He’s not so sure.

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