Prayer politics * Faith v. Fact * Tea Party Jesus : Friday’s Roundup

(RNS) Everything's political now, folks, from the National Day of Prayer to scientific facts to even Tea Party Jesus. Get caught up in today's Religion News Roundup.

Gretchen Tveitmoe, right, from Grandview, Mo. prays alonside Alice Wong, left, during a prayer service at Lake Lotawana City Hall in Lake Lotawana, Mo., on National Day of Prayer, May 1, 2014. Religion News Service file photo by Sally Morrow

We’re always flirting with new formats and ideas for the daily Roundup. Here’s another one. Let us know what you think:

Gretchen Tveitmoe, right, from Grandview, Mo. prays alonside Alice Wong, left, during a prayer service at Lake Lotawana City Hall in Lake Lotawana, Mo. on National Day of Prayer, May 1, 2014. Religion News Service file photo by Sally Morrow

Gretchen Tveitmoe, right, from Grandview, Mo. prays alonside Alice Wong, left, during a prayer service at Lake Lotawana City Hall in Lake Lotawana, Mo. on National Day of Prayer, May 1, 2014. Religion News Service file photo by Sally Morrow

Janice Hahn walks out of event after James Dobson calls Obama the ‘Abortion President’ (HuffPo)

“President Obama, before he was elected, made it very clear that he wanted to be the abortion president. He didn’t make any bones about it,” Focus on the Family founder James Dobson said on Thursday. “This is something that he really was going to promote and support, and he has done that, and in a sense he is the abortion president.”

Timeline describes frantic scene at Oklahoma execution (NYT)

McALESTER, Okla. — Early on the morning of Clayton D. Lockett’s scheduled execution, he defied prison officers seeking to shackle him for the required walk to get X-rays. So they shocked him with a Taser, Oklahoma’s chief of corrections stated in an account released Thursday of Mr. Lockett’s final day, before his execution went awry.

Survey: When science and faith collide, faith usually wins (RNS)

A new survey by The Associated Press found that religious identity — particularly evangelical Protestant — was one of the sharpest indicators of skepticism toward key issues in science.

Rick Jacobs threatens to pull URJ out of Presidents Conference after J Street fiasco (The Forward)

Reform leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs says the Union of Reform Judaism will consider dropping out of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations after it voted to reject membership to the dovish group J Street.

Or, as our senior editor David Anderson summed it up: “Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations rejects the membership application of the J Street Lobby (Not major enough? Not Jewish enough? Not organized enough?)”


Megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton’s scandalous take on Scripture (Jonathan Merritt)

The pastor of the largest United Methodist congregation in America is sparking intense debate with his provocative new take on the Bible.

Church organist Martha Godwin sets Guinness World Record for longest career (Huff Po)

Martha Godwin has been playing the organ and piano at the Macedonia United Methodist Church in Southmont, N.C., since she was 13 years old. Seventy-three years later, she’s been recognized by Guinness World Records as the person who has had the longest career as a church pianist or organist.

Pope Francis: Bishops, lay people ‘all on the same level’ (NCR)

VATICAN CITY — Making remarks to a new Vatican council to review the central church’s economic and administrative structures Friday, Pope Francis stressed that the council’s eight cardinals and seven lay members should work together as equals.

Cliven Bundy is Mormon? Nooooooo (Jana Riess)

This unwelcome revelation is more than enough to make a good Mormon swear.

Brunei’s new Shariah penal code is awful—and about to get even worse (RNS)

A second phase of the law, set to be introduced this year or next, aims to punish sodomy and adultery with death by stoning. Theft and robbery will literally cost you an arm and a leg. Or at least a hand.

Asian Buddhism’s growing fundamentalist streak (RNS)

BANGKOK (RNS) To many Americans, Buddhism is about attaining enlightenment, maybe even nirvana, through such peaceful methods as meditation and yoga. But in some parts of Asia, a more assertive, strident and militant Buddhism is emerging.

And finally this, since it’s Friday. We present to you Tea Party Jesus, billed as “the words of Christians in the mouth of Jesus.”

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