ThursdayâÂ?Â?s Religion Roundup: Mainstream Mormons, Benedict’s crocs, compassionate conservatives

Mitt Romney is getting hammered by his Republican rivals in South Carolina, and Mormons overall still worry about being accepted. But a new Pew survey of Mormons also indicates they are generally feeling pretty good about their place in American society. Social conservatives are feeling good about Rick Santorum, even if they don’t always realize […]

Mitt Romney is getting hammered by his Republican rivals in South Carolina, and Mormons overall still worry about being accepted.

But a new Pew survey of Mormons also indicates they are generally feeling pretty good about their place in American society.


Social conservatives are feeling good about Rick Santorum, even if they don’t always realize he’s, uh, Catholic not evangelical.

Santorum’s wife isn’t concerned: she says the Holy Spirit’s got his back.

If you have trouble figuring out what kind of Lutheran you are – and it’s not easy – there’s finally a handy flow chart.

A Rhode Island high school student won a lawsuit to have a prayer mural removed from her school, though she likely won’t win the “Most Popular” label in the yearbook.

The Supremes made a rare and resounding unanimous decision that religious groups can hire and fire without having to worry too much about backlash from bias or anti-discrimination laws.

But some religious officials who argued on behalf of the “ministerial exception” caution faith-based organizations from doing a happy dance, and that churches should sill try to treat people well:

“Support for a broad definition of the ministerial exception should not imply support for a broad license to discriminate with impunity,” said an employee of a Christian university, according to the NYT.

“Compassion” is supposedly making a come back among conservatives, but not all conservatives are on board.

There’s an argument to be made that former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour got a little too merciful with his last-minute pardons, that included some convicted murderers.


A video that purportedly shows U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters is prompting outrage, but peace talks seem to be moving forward between the U.S-backed Afghan government and the Taliban.

There’s been a fourth Molotov cocktail attack on a Jewish target in New Jersey, this time a synagogue in Rutherford.

The Amish in Kentucky really don’t want to use those ugly orange safety triangles on their buggies.

Somewhere in Brooklyn, hipsters are taking notes.

Put away the track suit: What you wear to church really does matter, argues a Christianity Today essayist.

And yes, that’s Pope Benedict XVI meeting a rare Cuban crocodile at his general audience on Wednesday. The croc is a young one, and is being raised by the Rome zoo, which will send it back to Cuba when the pope visits there in March. Contending with crocodiles may actually be a good warm-up for Benedict’s visit to the communist redoubt.

— David Gibson

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