Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Here's how it's looking out there as we slide into the long holiday weekend ...
There's a lot of talk here in D.C. about Thursday's House and Senate committee vote to repeal the Don't Ask/Don't Tell policy about gays in the military. Conservatives, led by the Family Research Council, obviously don't like it. President Obama's Twitter feed says this: "I have long advocated for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, & am pleased that the House & the Senate have taken steps to do just that."
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams wants to sideline the U.S. Episcopal Church from much of the internal life of the Anglican Communion (but does not propose banishing the U.S. church into utter darkness) for its decision to ordain a lesbian bishop in Los Angeles.
Speaking of sidelining, News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch is apparently taking bids for Beliefnet --- here's hoping our friends over there get to keep their jobs. A Baptist church in Tennessee thinks its secretary of 47 years (picture, above left) embezzled $1.5 million --- looks like she was using it on hairspray.
Meanwhile, some 40 Italian women who claim they were had affairs with Catholic priests have petitioned the pope to allow clergy to get it on: "Don't be shocked, Your Holiness! In order to become effective witnesses to the need for love, they need to embody it and experience it fully, in the way their nature demands it." A church-related news agency says 37 priests, missionaries or seminarians were killed in the line of duty around the world in 2009, the highest number in 10 years.
There's another cross controversy -- this one in Illinois, where supporters of the 11-story Bald Knob Cross of Peace got a $20,000 state grant to rehab the 47-year-old cross; a Chicago-area atheist has threatened suit unless supporters return the $20,000 state grant. In neighboring Iowa, a math teacher at a Catholic school got canned after voting in a Facebook poll that she didn't believe in God. Two Florida teachers who allegedly sprinkled holy water on an atheist colleague might be the next ones to to get canned.
In North Dakota, state officials have agreed to issue a license plate to a man who wanted ISNOGOD after the man pointed out the state had approved plates like ILOVGOD. Those "Fatwa on Your Head?" bus ads that caused such a stir in Miami and then New York are now the subject of a lawsuit in Detroit, where transportation officials declined to run the ads by a group offering to help Muslims who want to leave the faith.
A Jewish men's group in Florida has offered to help repair a Florida mosque that was the target of a pipe bomb, and President Obama toasted the political, cultural and other achievements of American Jews at the first-ever White House reception for Jewish Heritage month.
New Hampshire officials are looking into whether leaders of a Baptist church knew about the rape of a 15-year-old girl and then sent the alleged rapist out of state to cover it up; the girl was forced to apologize to the church for getting pregnant out of wedlock, and was told by the pastor that if she lived in "Old Testament times" she would have been stoned to death.
South Korea's constitutional court says excess frozen embryos (mostly in storage at infertility clinics) are not "life forms."
Militants attacked two Ahmadi mosques in Afghanistan, with reports of 60+ deaths; Ahmadis are a minority sect in Islam who (according to the LAT) "believe their late 19th century founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a prophet of God, a belief condemned by many Pakistani Muslims who regard Muhammad as Islam's final prophet." The Spanish city of Lleida has banned Muslim women from wearing face-covering veils at municipal buildings.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:44 am
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
The Obama administration will unveil a new national security strategy that downplays the idea that the U.S. is at war with Islam, dropping phrases like "Islamic extremism" and "global war on terror."
Speaking of war, faith groups are lining up on both sides of the debate as Congress prepares to repeal Don't Ask/Don't Tell. The religious divisions should not be surprising, according to a new Gallup Poll, which found "gay and lesbian relations" to be among the most divisive moral issues -- 52 percent say gay relations are "morally acceptable," according to the poll; 43 percent say they aren't.
Tea Party fav Michele Bachman, R-Minn., has proposed an amendment to a defense appropriation bill that would allow military chaplains to close public prayers however they want. Read: in Jesus' name. The Montana ACLU is taking the case of Montana State University professors upset over the benediction delivered at this year's mandatory graduation ceremony.
Legal loopholes mean the pensions of employees at religious organizations often aren't protected by federal laws, NPR reports. Two Texas men were indicted on the string of church arsons in January. The Department of Veterans Affairs approved the use of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's trademark logo on government headstones and grave-markers.
A special investigator in Germany found at least 205 former students at Jesuit schools claim to have been sexually abused. The Minnesota attorney who's made a career out of suing the Roman Catholic Church over sexual abuse now wants to go after clergy who download child pornography. Sex abuse victims are upset that an accused former Massachusetts bishop is living in a Maryland retirement home. A Polish priest had a sexual dungeon which he used to abuse teens, according to Brazilian prosecutors.
Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit Ukraine in 2012 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of a local diocese, but a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church says the anniversary "is not the best occasion" for the pope's visit. The cardinal in charge of ecumenism says the Vatican's WWII archives will soon be open for scholarly research. Cuba's Raul Castro is talking with the Catholic Church about political prisoners, in a breakthrough for the communist country.
Morocco has expelled about 100 foreign Christians for disturbing "order and calm" by proselytizing. Elton John performed in Morocco last night without a hitch. Saudi Arabian Muslims are studying U.S. rehab centers to find an Islamic 12-step program. A film about French monks murdered in Algeria won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
The "Leaving Islam?" bus adds have chugged up to New York City. Authorities in an Islamic district of Indonesia are handing out 20,000 long skirts after banning tight pants and dresses. A South African paper is in trouble for printing a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad on a psychiatrist's couch saying "Other prophets' followers have a sense of humour.'''
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:18 am
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
Jewish leaders are gathering in Washington to meet with Congress ahead of a rumored summit between President Obama and Israeli PM Netanyahu. Wonder if Bibi will make it to the White House Jewish American Heritage party on Thursday? Rahm Emanuel won't be there, he'll be in Israel to celebrate his son's bar mitzvah and to kibitz with Israeli leaders.
The WaPo asks what's become of Dems much ballyhooed faith outreach.
A NYC community board backed plans to build a Muslim cultural center near the WTC. The Times Square attempted bombing suspect is eating halal in prison, and the Red Cross is getting slammed for giving first aid lessons to Taliban fighters.
Italian bishops say 100 sex abuse accusations have been made against Catholic clergy during the last ten years, and everyone seems to think that's a serious understatement. A small Catholic sect in Cyprus is really excited about Pope Benedict XVI's upcoming visit; some Orthodox Christian bishops are less enthused. Orthodox Christians in the former Soviet states are glastnosting.
A Swedish University invited back a cartoonist who drew Prophet Muhammad as a dog after his previous talk was interrupted by Muslim protesters. North Dakota won't let an atheist get "ISNOGOD" on his license plate. Church-state separationists are asking states not to send criminals to a planned all-Christian prison in Oklahoma.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America welcomed two gay pastors to its official roster of ordained clergy. Elton John will rock the kasbah in Morocco, despite protests that the Rocket Man should be banned because he's gay. Hindus in India don't like plans to build a Buddha park. A bus poster that proclaims "There definitely is a God," drew more complaints than any other ad in England last year.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 11:32 am
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
The Obama administration has sided with the Vatican in a lawsuit over abuse claims, saying that the law that protects foreign governments from liability lawsuits trumps abuse claims. The head of the Italian bishops conference is asking Catholic families to "trust" the church to do the right thing in handling the abuse scandal. Victims' advocates don't like that a former Massachusetts bishop has moved from a treatment center for troubled priests into a retirement facility in Washington. Catholic officials in Vermont will sell church headquarters and 32 lakefront acres in Burlington to help funds a massive sex abuse settlement.
The Vatican wrapped up talks with a Michigan-based order of progressive nuns as part of its wide-ranging probe of American religious communities. Harlem churches are struggling to hold on to their congregations as the historically black neighborhood gentrifies, but the new residents aren't finding spots in the pews. "Kosher Sex" Rabbi Shmuley Boteach takes a dim view of President Obama's newly revived Jewish outreach over Israel, saying "charm offensives can never take the place of moral policy."
A Nebraska man will spend a year in the federal slammer after he was convicted of hacking the Church of Scientology's website. An Indiana high school will not review graduation speeches by four students -- including if they pray -- after a federal judge ruled that a student vote to decide whether or not to have prayers is unconstitutional. A New York student is at odds with his high school over whether he can wear rosary beads to school; school officials say the beads are often a gang symbol.
Albert Snyder, the Pennsylvania man who's going to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue that "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" pastor Fred Phelps shouldn't be able to demonstrate outside military funerals (like the one for Snyder's son) has filed his arguments with the high court. SCOTUS agreed to hear a case involving an Arizona law that provides dollar-for-dollar tax breaks for donations to school tuition, including religious schools.
Kenya's highest court has said a proposed new constitution that includes the creation of Shariah courts that will incorporate Islamic law is unconstitutional because it favors one religion (Islam) over others. Tensions remain high between India and Pakistan after Pakistan's top court prevented the arrest of a hard-line Muslim cleric suspected of orchestrating the devastating terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Czech government and church officials have signed an agreement that ends an 18-year dispute over who actually owns Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral; the two sides with share management duties. And speaking of long-running disputes, Polish church officials finally gave Copernicus a proper burial, 500 years after he was buried in an unmarked grave as a heretic.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:05 am
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday’s religion roundup
An Australian Catholic bishop blamed the sex abuse scandal on the Catholic Church's focus on "sin and forgiveness rather than crime and punishment." A Polish priest has turned himself into police in Brazil after authorities said transformed his rectory into an "erotic dungeon." The AP says Maronite Christians in Cyprus (AP photo, left) see the pope's upcoming visit as a shot in the arm to rejuvenate their beleaguered clan.
WaPo asks what became of the Democrats' faith-based outreach: "These days, the Democratic National Committee's faith staff of more than a half-dozen has dwindled to one part-time slot. Its faith issues Web site led this week with greetings for Passover (which was in March) and Rosh Hashanah (which was in September)." Ouch. WaPo also discovers the nation's first Christian ballet company in, of all places, Mississippi.
In a sign you can never quite leave the office behind, protesters plan to picket the bar mitzvah in Jerusalem for WH Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's son. At least one South Dakota church has taken up gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie's challenge to go ahead and endorse his Tea Party campaign; we'll see what the IRS says about that. California, meanwhile, wants nothing to do with the conservative rewrite of textbooks used in Texas.
The Dalai Lama, wrapping up a five-day visit to the Big Apple, said the U.S. could have avoided the war in Iraq by negotiating with Saddam Hussein. The LAT probes the church and gospel roots of American Idol contestants. That itinerant Alabama evangelist charged with killing his wife and stuffing her body in a freezer was sentenced to life in prison.
Muslims in Toronto are trying to marry Arabic, Islam, the Quran and American Sign Language (there's no ASL sign for "Mecca," for example.) Across greater Washington DC, equality-minded Muslim women are taking their place alongside men at prayer, and it's not always a pretty scene.
Two interesting polls from Gallup: one, showing the number of nonreligious Americans holding fairly steady at 16 percent, and the other showing opposition to same-sex marriage decreasing slightly, while support inches up (no seismic shifts in either poll).
Archaeologists in Egypt got a glimpse at the country's religious history when 57 ancient tombs were discovered, most of them with mummies inside and decorated with religious iconography to help the dead cross through the underworld.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:11 am
Friday, May 21, 2010
Friday morning roundup
First Tinky Winky was made a foot soldier in the culture war over gay rights --- now Dora the Explorer is bloodied and bruised (quite literally) in the tussle over Arizona's get-tough immigration law. Also in the desert, the controversial cross in the Mojave National Preserve that disappeared is back -- or at least a replica of it.
Moishe Rosen, the founder of the controversial group Jews for Jesus, has died in San Francisco at age 78. Speaking of controversy, conservatives on the Texas Board of Education are expected to approve sweeping changes to text books today, ones that will have influence far beyond the Lone Star State.
Sandwich joint Panera has unveiled its first "Take What You Need, Leave Your Fair Share" restaurant outside St. Louis, based on pay-what-you-can community cafes across the country. The Dalai Lama might like it -- he says he's a Marxist. The founder of a Christian bike club won't face time in the slammer after a brawl with Hell's Angels resulted in two stabbings.
The scheduled death-by-firing-squad of a Utah man is reviving talk about Mormon's "blood atonement," which states that a murderer's blood must be shed -- literally -- in order to gain forgiveness. Speaking of Mormons, they're on the defensive because the lead author of that Arizona immigration law is a Mormon, and as one potential convert told the Arizona Republic: "I decided I did not want to expose my kids to a religion that has members that hate other people because they are different."
Vatican officials seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach to the news that U.S. researchers had created a synthetic cell with man-made DNA. Russia is making it easier for religious groups to gain access to building or properties intended for religious use. Cuba's top Catholic cardinal is seeking the release of some 200 political prisoners, and was encouraged after a sit-down with Cuban President Raul Castro.
After banning minarets at mosques, Switzerland may next move toward banning full-face veils. Pakistan says it will consider restoring access to Facebook, but only if the hugely popular social networking site takes down a fan group for "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day."
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:11 am
Thursday, May 20, 2010
M*A*S*H* Ups
Multi-faith families have officially hit the mainstream this week, in the form of a Doonesbury comic strip.
At the center of cartoonist Gary Trudeau's strip this week is "Chap," a white-haired woman and Protestant military chaplain who's visiting wounded soldiers. One soldier, who wonders if a woman is allowed to give last rites, is the son of a Mormon father and Catholic mother who converted to Hinduism, "mostly for the Yoga."
Asked if she does "mash-ups" for last rites, the chaplain answers, "It's not pretty, but yeah."
Here's the strip. The rest of storyline is here. Should be interesting to see where it goes.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 1:28 pm
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, left, says the pastor who turned away a boy from a Catholic school because he has two mothers "has my full confidence and support." A nun who allowed an abortion at a Catholic hospital in Arizona -- supposedly to save the life of the mother -- suffered automatic excommunication and may be kicked out of her order. Two conservative Catholic authors are defending the pope's handling of sexual abuse cases, saying it will (positively) shape his legacy.
An old friend and former pupil of Benedict, Vienna Cardinal Chrisoph Schonborn, is causing some headaches for his boss by seeming to advocate for optional celibacy for priests, or at least a study of it. The outgoing president of Catholic University says Catholic colleges need a little more direction from the top, noting that Notre Dame never "suffered" for its disputed invite and honorary degree for President Obama last year.
The DC church that hosted the funerals for both Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks was named on the "most endangered" historic sites list published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. There's a minor dispute brewing within the extended Graham family over whether or not ailing evangelist Billy Graham has it in him to deliver one last big sermon.
Two women were arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle crystal meth inside a Bible to an inmate in Louisiana. The New York Review of Magazines profiles the Jehovah's Witnesses' Watchtower magazine, the "most widely read magazine in the world." The Church of England is warning the BBC not to cut its religious programming, and Muslims want an apology from a Tea Party leader who said Muslims worship a "monkey god." The NYT profiles the Dalai Lama's point man who's handling logistics for the DL's four-day visit to the Big Apple.
Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber, who's about as right (as in, opposite of left) as they come when it comes to vocalizing his disgust of homosexuality, wants Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to answer, once and for all, the question of her sexual orientation. "Can a sitting justice, potentially engaged in the homosexual lifestyle, be trusted to rule on cases that might well grant special preferred government status to some ... while, at the same time, eliminating certain free-speech and religious-liberties rights enjoyed by others?"
A judge in Malawi, as expected, sentenced two gay men to the maximum of 14 years in prison after they held an engagement party. Pakistan, which had already blocked online access to Facebook b/c of an "Everyone Draw Muhammad" campaign, has extended the ban to YouTube (some cartoonists take a dim view of the cartoon campaign). French President Nicolas Sarkozy says French Muslims shouldn't feel singled out by a veil ban that, well, singles out Muslims.
And finally, in the category of What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding, rocker Elvis Costello has cancelled two upcoming shows in Tel Aviv to protest Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:24 am
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
Happy Shavuot, Jewish friends. May the Torah continue to guide and inspire you.
Speaking of inspiration, the man accused of planning the Time Square bomb scare told authorities he was urged to act by two imams, including the Yemeni-American cleric with ties to the accused Undewear Bomber and Fort Hood shooter, according to NPR.
Jewish members of Congress told President Obama to get thyself to Israel to demonstrate his support. Excavators rushing to clear space in Jerusalem for a museum dedicated to tolerance have exhumed 1,000 skeletons from a Muslim cemetery. Disgraced Rep. Mark Souder, who resigned after admitting to an affair with a staffer, taped a video recently with said staffer praising abstinence.
FEMA says an agency photographer was "absolutely wrong" to ask Mississippi church volunteers to change out of their religiously themed shirts. The French government has decided to impose a $185 fine for women who wear the full-face Islamic veil in public. A Pakistani court ordered the government to block Facebook because one page encourages users to post images of Prophet Muhammad.
A judge in Malawi convicted a gay couple of gross indecency, a charge that could send them to jail for more than a decade. A group that split from the Episcopal Church years ago says it has to split from the new, conservative Anglican Church in North America, too, because technically it's part of the Church of Rwanda. Got that? The Church of England continued its slow walk towards female bishops.
Disgraced evangelical pastor Ted Haggard says a new corporation he founded called "St. James Church" is not a church. The Baptist missionary jailed in Haiti for three months now faces a new heap of problems at home in Idaho. A Michigan judge released four members of the Christianist militia accused of conspiring to overthrow the government.
The IRS is offering a reprieve to some 200,000 small charities that missed a deadline to fill in their latest form. A couple in Japan was married by a robot. Ipods run funerals in Singapore. The machines are coming, people.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:42 am
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
The Vatican filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit in Kentucky that
blamed the pope for allowing bishops to cover up clergy sexual abuse.
Bishops are not Vatican employees, the church argued, therefore Rome is
not responsible for their actions. A second motion to dismiss argues
that the statute of limitations has passed.
An Australian cardinal rumored to be named head of the Vatican's powerful Congregation for Bishops says the church needs to take tougher action against pedophile priests after two were caught working despite being told to retire. The Vatican rejected appeals by parishes closed by the Archdiocese of Boston in the wake of the sex abuse scandal, and extended Vesakh Day salutations to its Theravadan Buddhist friends.
President Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, said in a letter obtained by the AP that the president "threw me under the bus" because the preacher was "toxic." Obama is meeting with Jewish Dems in Congress today to discuss U.S.-Israeli relations. On Monday, Obama signed a bill passed in honor of slain journalist Daniel Pearl that requires the State Department to compile a public list of governments that violate press freedoms. That's Pearl at top left.
The last of the 10 American missionaries was released from a Haitian jail on Monday after a judge convicted her of arranging illegal travel but sentenced her to time already served.
Arab-Americans are pretty psyched (some are, at least) that one of their own won Miss USA. (More on her in yesterday's roundup.) But nothing has been done about complaints that Muslim soldiers are harassed at Fort Hood, according to WaPo. Churches are laying off clergy, according to the WSJ. A D.C. Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against the National Baptist Convention USA by its former president.
British authorities dropped the charges against a street preacher who condemned homosexuality, drunkeness, and adultery. And if you are a gay, drunk adulterer, oh boy are you in trouble.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 10:14 am
Monday, May 17, 2010
Monday’s roundup
The Vatican will make its most detailed defense yet on Monday against claims that it is liable for bishops who allowed priests to molest children, the AP reports. The setting: a courtroom in Louisville, Ky., where the Vatican's American lawyer is trying to get a lawsuit tossed out.
More than 100,000 thronged to St. Peter's Square on Sunday in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI, who said he was moved by the "beautiful and spontaneous show of faith and solidarity." On Saturday, the beleaguered pontiff lamented that the sex abuse scandal had obscured the Catholic Church's message of hope, but said a few bad-seed priests can't ruin the whole harvest.
The AP looked into the spotty sex abuse record of Cardinal William Levada, Benedict's hand-picked successor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the former archbishop of Portland, Ore., and San Francisco. The NYT does the same with Big Apple Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
Seven years after the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay priest as a bishop, it did the same with an openly lesbian one.
Abortion rights opponents are using the new health-care bill to urge private plans to curtail abortion coverage, going beyond current federal restrictions. The Bishop of Phoenix has remonstrated and removed a nun and a hospital administrator who allowed a severely ill woman to have an abortion.
More than 200,000 non-profits are in danger of losing their tax exemptions because they didn't complete the latest IRS form. Attorney General Holder was asked about the Obama administration's policy towards religious charities using faith as a criteria in hiring, and didn't say much of anything, but sounded like he was leaning toward not allowing it. (Thanks to Religion Clause for digging that up.)
Texas' Board of Education is at it again, this time trying to amend the social studies curriculum to argue that the Founding Fathers intended no wall between church and state.
The U.S. and China reported no breakthroughs in their human rights talks. Muslims attended a conference in Vienna during which Europe's veil bans were criticized as counterproductive. The Swedish artist who drew Prophet Muhammad as a dog has gone into hiding after several attempted attacks. An Indonesian filmmaker says his forthcoming movie demonstrates how the country's diversity influenced Barack Obama.
The Dalai Lama continued his tour through the Midwest, meeting with Buddhist leaders, speaking at sold-out engagements, and opening a research center at the University of Wisconsin that will study the neuroscience behind meditation and compassion. Husband- and-wife pastors in Michigan have commutes that seem even worse than mine and my wife's.
Militants in Afghanistan killed a peace-promoting cleric. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel are angry that officials are relocating graves to make way for a hospital emergency room. The new Miss USA (pic top left) continues the trend of dual religious belonging, saying that her Lebanese family celebrates Islam and Christianity, and the pageant continued the trend of soliciting soundbite opinions on complex culture-war questions.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:09 am
Friday, May 14, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Pope Benedict XVI wrapped up his four-day pilgrimage to Portugal this morning, leaving the heavily Catholic country without making much news on his way out. Brazilian bishops vowed to get tough on abusive priests and not cover up what they called a "criminal" act; prosecutors have dropped plans to investigate newly resigned Bishop Walter Mixa, citing a lack of evidence. Catholic officials in Vermont have agreed to a $17.6 million settlement involving abuse allegations by 26 former altar boys.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center added its voice to the chorus of Jewish groups who say it's time to end the Nazi analogies when decrying Arizona's new get-tough immigration law. Arizona religious leaders, including the first Hispanic woman bishop in the United Methodist Church and the VP of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, took their plea for reform to Capitol Hill on Thursday.
The head of Boston's Catholic schools offered to help find a new school for an 8-year-old boy after he was turned away from one school because he has two moms. The coach of a Catholic sports team in Pennsylvania is accused of trying to bribe referees into letting his team win. A seminary rector in rural Maryland worries as he sends his flock of 24 newly minted priests out into the world.
Doug Coe, the rather elusive founder of The Fellowship (which sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast, and has links to DC's infamous C Street House), explains his original intentions in a rare interview with CT. Inside HigherEd looks at the challenges facing gay employees on Catholic college campuses.
New York's City Council upheld the landmarking of a crumbling Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side; the pastor says it's a direct violation of church-state separation. (I wrote an extensive piece about this church, seen at left, back in 2006, when the condo market was still sizzling). Mormons have their eye on Philadelphia as the spot for the state's first temple. In North Dakota, 5 Lutheran, Methodist and UCC churches have merged into one, but no one is quite sure how to label them.
An appeals court in Saskatchewan is hearing a case on whether marriage commissioners must preside at same-sex weddings if the rites violate their personal religious beliefs. Meanwhile, over in Toronto, they're fighting over stores should be allowed to be open 365 days a year, including Sundays, Easter and Christmas. (Personal note: I've been in Toronto on Easter and there's NOTHING open).
Attorney General Eric Holder got into it with GOP lawmakers over whether "radical Islam" is to blame for a spat of recent (failed) attempted terrorist attacks. "I don't know why the administration has such difficulty acknowledging the obvious, which is that radical Islam might have incited these individuals," responded Texas Republican Lamar Smith. "If you can't name the enemy, then you're going to have a hard time trying to respond to them."
Officials in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, say they've foiled a plot to assassinate the president and install a government under Islamic law. Nearby, in Malaysia, the founder of a banned Islamic sect died, leaving behind 3 wives, 38 kids and 200+ grandkids, and hard-line Muslims don't like plans to allow gambling on sports. Two years after their arrest, seven Baha'i leaders remain imprisoned in Iran.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:31 am
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
Speaking at an outdoor Mass in Portugal, Pope Benedict XVI told some 400,000 pilgrims that human suffering is not in vain, but can assist in "the salvation of your brethren." Yesterday, as the pontiff visited the Marian shrine at Fatima, he prayed before a statue holding the bullet that gravely wounded his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
A Belgian committee probing allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests has received 270 new complaints since April 23. A Spanish court is investigating allegations that members of a religious order sexually abused disabled residents of a facility run by the order. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the Vatican's College of Cardinals, is "an ongoing embarrassment" and must resign, says the editor of the influential New York-based conservative Catholic journal First Things.
Milwaukee's archbishop and a top priest pressured Marquette University not to hire a lesbian as dean of Arts and Sciences, according to the Journal Sentinel. A Catholic school in Massachusetts has withdrawn its acceptance of an 8-year-old boy with lesbian parents because their relationship is "in discord" with church teachings, according to one of the boy's mothers. A former altar boy who says he was removed from his position because he's gay reached a confidential agreement with a Canadian diocese.
A California paper has published an anonymous letter from a writer claiming to have stolen the Mojave cross. The writer, who claims to be a war veteran, says the Supreme Court, and particularly Justice Anthony Kennedy, who declared last month that the cross honors all war dead, not just Christians, "desecrated and marginalized the memory and sacrifice'' of non-Christians who died in World War I.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan tested the boundaries of her Jewish faith as a 12-year-old, reports the NYT, pressing her rabbi to allow the first formal Bat Miztvah at her Orthodox synagogue, which had til then only celebrated Bar Mitzvahs for boys.
The Obama administration has joined an international advisory group as part of its outreach to the Muslim world. The Dalai Lama is in Indiana, where he is visiting a cultural center founded by his late brother and giving public talks.
A surprising cohort of conservative evangelicals has called for immigration reform, including a path to citizenship. An evangelical who spent years in a gay relationship wants gays and evangelicals to kiss and make up. A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by drawing Prophet Muhammad as a dog was assaulted on Tuesday during a lecture on artistic freedom.
The Louisiana House reversed last week's vote and approved a bill that would allow guns in houses of worship. The Archdiocese of New Orleans is taking up a collection for fishing families affected by the BP oil spill. Malaysia will allow non-Muslims to bet on sporting events. A cover story in Reform Judaism's magazine makes a case that a Jewish countess wrote Shakespeare's plays. Let every eye negotiate for itself.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:13 am
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Institutional bias
Bill Donohue over at the Catholic League (and more than a few bishops) has been on a tear for several years, accusing the media (specifically the NYT) of an anti-Catholic bias that obsesses over abuse in the Catholic Church while ignoring it in other institutions.
It's not a new charge. Here's how I reported remarks by Archbishop Wilton Gregory, then the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to the Religion Newswriters Association in 2003:
Gregory ... faulted reporters for only "minimal attempts" to investigate sexual abuse in other institutions and "linking sexual abuse solely to Catholic clerics." "The way the story was so obsessively covered resulted in unnecessary damage to the bishops and the entire Catholic community," Gregory told members of the Religion Newswriters Association meeting here.
...
Gregory, who has enjoyed mostly smooth relations with the media despite intense scrutiny over the scandal, said, "If society has any hope of eliminating this terrible exploitation of our youth, then we also have to face up to this scourge as it exists in the family, in school systems, and in all forms of professional and volunteer work with young people."
Those of us in the 4th Estate have argued that we're not after the Catholic Church for its own sake, but rather that the Catholic Church has a unique hierarchical structure (as opposed to public schools, or even Southern Baptists) that enables abusers to be shuffled around, reassigned or protected from prosecution. Jim Martin over at America magazine finally sums up the argument that we've often tried to make:
Despite the fact that Scout masters, school teachers, youth minister and the like--not to mention ministers, rabbis and imams--have all been connected with sexual abuse, the institutions of which they are members simply have not demonstrated (so far) the obtuseness, stonewalling, defensiveness, instransigence and sinfulness that the Catholic church has on this matter. The institution of the church--and here I mean the hierarchy--particularly in its historic desire to shield itself from any and all critique by "outsiders," and its desire to avoid "scandal," made the problem of sexual abuse, which is probably just as rampant in other groups, infinitely worse.
I'm glad someone (in a collar) finally said it.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 4:32 pm
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
Lord Jesus Christ is back in the news, this time telling our colleagues up at The Republican in Springfield, Mass., that his run-in with a car a few days back was all "part of God's plan." Yes, that's him, at left, with a collage he's making in his apartment.
Recalling the missionary glory of Portugal's past, Pope Benedict XVI urged his Portuguese flock to rediscover their Christian roots. At the same time, an Austrian bishop is urging the church to rediscover its own history of married clergy. Following India's lead, Catholic bishops in Brazil say they're drafting a binding policy manual on how to handle sexual abuse cases.
Officials at Liberty University have agreed to look into the background of Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, to see if he really comes from the radical Muslim background that he's been claiming for years in speeches around the country.
The U.S. Justice Department is joining the search for whoever stole the disputed Mojave Desert cross over the weekend. Here's hoping the guilty party is not a Rastafarian who lands in a Virginia jail, where the AP reports Rastas spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement because they refuse to cut their hair to confine with grooming rules. A Seventh-day Adventist church in Brooklyn wants an apology from the NYPD after officers pursued a suspect inside a church during Bible study.
City officials in Miami, Okla., taking a page from divine meteorologist Pat Robertson, have activated a clergy-led prayer team to ward off devastating tornadoes. A pair of gospel musicians in Georgia have been charged with theft after they alleged stole music equipment from churches.
Art conservators in Haiti are rushing to try to preserve murals from quake-damaged churches, including Episcopal Holy Trinity Cathedral.
British police now have their own official Pagan Police Association -- the Times of London says the recognition will give pagan officers "the right to take days off to dance naked on the solstices, celebrate fertility rituals and burn Yule logs..." France has taken an initial (although nonbinding) step toward banning the burqa or other face-covering veils. Swedish Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks was assualted, but uninjured, during a lecture about the limits of free speech.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:16 am
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
Traveling in Portugal, Pope Benedict XVI blamed "sins within the church" for the sex abuse scandal and urged the church to "profoundly relearn penitence."
The pontiff also said the financial crisis wracking Europe demonstrates the need for moral responsibility in the economic sector. Benedict has finished writing the second installment in his life of Jesus, which will hit bookstores in several months.
The A.P. notes that European bishops are stepping down during this latest phase of Catholic sex abuse crisis, in contrast to American bishops, who largely survived 2002 chapter of the scandal with their jobs.
President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court has sparked some discussion, and a few yawns, about her faith (Judaism) and the future hole in the court (Protestantism), with some saying it's no big deal, and other bemoaning Protestants' fall from judicial grace. Religious groups weighed in on Kagan's scant record and raised issues they hope will be explored during the Senate confirmation hearings. Wonder if Kagan will turn up at the White House for a reception celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month -- the first reception of its kind, says the administration.
Speaking of SCOTUS, somebody apparently didn't like its decision to allow the Mojave cross; it's been stolen. A breakaway Episcopal church in California is appealing to SCOTUS for a third time, after state courts awarded property to the denomination.
WaPo digs into the health care bill passed in March and says "little-noticed provisions" have reawakened a debate on how to balance doctors' and patients' religious rights. A growing number of evangelicals support immigration reform, says CNN. Two undocumented immigrants testified Monday about their 12-hour, six-days-a-week shifts at a kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa.
The Church of England paved the way for ordination of its first women bishops. French lawmakers will vote on whether Muslim veils are contrary to gender equality. Islam is only one of many religions (cr: Mormons, Amish, Orthodox Jews) that promote (one might say "enforce," in many circumstances) modest appearances, says NPR. Quick query: Do any faiths promote immodest dress?
Teachers in Ontario are converting to Catholicism in order to land jobs. The First Freedom Center has a new president. The consolidation of Catholic parishes in Syracuse has burned candle-makers in the area. NPR catches up with a Buddhist monk in Japan who walked 26 miles a day for 1,000 days. Interest in the Passion plays at Oberammergau have faded after Europe's financial crisis, Catholic sex abuse scandal, and o'erhanging cloud of volcanic ash.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 10:02 am
Monday, May 10, 2010
Monday’s roundup
President Obama has nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan (pic at top left) to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. If the Senate confirms Kagan, the high court will have no Protestants and three Jews for the first time in its history, leading some to ponder whether a justice's faith matters.
There may be some grumbling about her lack of bench experience, too; she would be the first justice since Rehnquist with no previous judicial experience.
Kagan's church-state stance came under fire during her confirmation as Solicitor General, as senators questioned a 23-year-old memo in which she suggested that religious charities inevitably impart religious teachings and thus shouldn't receive government grants. She has since called that memo, written when she was a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, "deeply mistaken."
Changing course, the White House says new evidence suggests that the Pakistani Taliban was involved in the Times Square bomb scare.
A leading Roman Catholic bishop in Germany has resigned after admitting slapping children and amid investigations into potential sexual abuse. A leading Austrian cardinal close to Pope Benedict XVI says the Vatican's former Secretary of State has caused "massive harm" by dismissing allegations of abuse as "petty gossip" and blocking a probe into sexual abuse 15 years ago.
Catholic bishops in Belgium declined to install tough U.S. norms for dealing with clergy sex abuse. An AP story about an abusive priest in Sierra Leone suggests that Africa may be the next site of the burgeoning scandal.
A federal appeals court rejected an atheist's suit againt American presidents saying "so help me God" while taking the oath of office. Arizona lifted restrictions on Sunday alcohol sales. A Pittsburgh court sided with a family that wanted to move an ancestor from a Jewish cemetery, overruling Jewish objections that forbid disinterment.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:06 am
Friday, May 07, 2010
Friday’s roundup
The suspect in the Time Square bomb scare was radicalized slowly over several years, and authorities are looking for links between the Pakistani American and a mosque linked to militants in Pakistan.
A senior Islamic cleric in Iran boasted that his country has entered the "nuclear club" and warned potential enemies that Iran could "endanger your entire world."
Two Muslim organizations have plans to open a mosque near 9/11's ground zero in NYC.
Franklin Graham gave no ground in his criticism of Islam yesterday, as he prayed in front of the Pentagon after being disinvited from its National Prayer Day event.
Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignations of two Irish bishops. Both had reached 75, the retirement age, but the NYT ties the resignation to Ireland's clergy sex abuse crisis. Speaking of the scandal, the NYT also reports that Cardinal William Levada, who runs the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the powerful Vatican office once headed by Benedict, failed to notify parishioners and the police of allegations against priests while he was an archbishop in America.
The new bishop of Springfield (Ill.) explained his 2007 remarks about the devil driving the sex abuse scandal. A victims' support group says a Wisconsin legislator voted against a bill that would have made it easier for victims of clergy sex abuse to file lawsuits because he was afraid the Catholic Church would deny him Communion. The lawmaker denied the charge. A North Carolina diocese settled an abuse case with a former altar boy, agreeing to pay the victim $1 million.
The Catholic cardinal in charge of dialogue with Christians and other faiths says talking to the schismatic Society of Saint Pius X "is not easy." The pope will have 30 new Swiss guards.
Priests, rabbis, imams and Protestant ministers dedicated a new school for military chaplains in South Carolina. There's a 2-in-3 chance that the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention will be from Alabama. Yoga devotees in Washington are fighting to stop a "Yoga tax."
The Greek Orthodox Church says its ready to provide supplies and counseling to people upset by Greece's financial crisis. The Dalai Lama said dialogue with China has failed so far, but talks must continue. Nigeria's new president, Goodluck Jonathan, may be unfortunate for Muslim-Christian relations. Jesus Christ was hit by a car in Massachusetts. Christ suffered only minor injuries, thank God.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:37 am
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
Happy National Prayer Day, everyone. Whether you're praying from the rooftops, in front of the Pentagon, or in a closet, may the God of your choice hear your orisons, to paraphrase Kinky Friedman (that's the Kinkster at left).
But, of course, almost nothing religious skates by these days without being conscripted into the Culture Wars, and the NPD is no different, NPR reports, noting that a federal judge recently struck down the 1952 statute that called for a national day of prayer. NPD has even grown contentious in Utah.
Undeterred by that, nor by his disinvite from the Pentagon's NPD ceremony, Franklin Graham prayed in front of the five-sided building and didn't back down from his criticism of Islam. Later today, the evangelist will pray outside the Capitol, where our own Adelle Banks will be covering the story.
In a related note, people are beginning to notice that when President Obama issued a proclamation on April 30 declaring May Jewish American Heritage Month, he tweaked the usual proclamation language to omit "in the year of our Lord." It remains to be seen whether this will endear Obama to American Jews, who are sharply divided over his Middle East policies, according to the NYT.
A Connecticut bill that would have extended the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases has been withdrawn after lobbying from the Catholic Church, who called the bill "horrendous." Italian victims of sexual abuse want bishops held responsible for not reporting an abusive priest. Pope Benedict XVI will likely address the sex abuse crisis when he visits Portugal next week, says our Francis X. Rocca. A Brazilian archbishop said adolescents are "spontaneously homosexual" and society is a bunch of pedophiles.
The nation's two largest Lutheran denominations met to talk about the theological implications of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's decision last summer to permit non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy. Sunnis and Shias in Iraq are debating an agreement that would decide which of them gets to be the final arbiter of disputes.
The ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop two Connecticut high schools from holding graduation ceremonies at a megachurch.
Egyptian cops are looking into a complaint filed by Copts about a 2008 novel that they say violates the country's laws by insulting Christianity. So, I guess they won't be publishing Philip Pullman's new novel over there any time soon? A Methodist pastor in Virginia want to build small, temporary back-yard shelters to house relatives. I think they call those things dog houses.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:46 am
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
WaPo profiles the drift toward militancy for Faisal Shahzad, the man (left) accused of trying but failing to set off a car bomb in Times Square. This year's blessing of the fleet along the Golf Coast seems more like a funeral as the giant BP oil spill destroys the region's fishing industry.
As President Obama mulls his choice to replace Justice John Paul Stevens (the last remaining Protestant) on the Supreme Court, USC's Marc Cooper has a suggestion: forget religious affiliation and pick an atheist. Speaking of suggestions, evangelist Franklin Graham has one for Obama: throw your weight around to let me pray at the Pentagon for the National Day of Prayer. South Carolina, meanwhile, may start its own state Day of Prayer.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has reinstated an openly gay Atlanta pastor and his partner to active clergy status after voting last summer to allow gay clergy; the Rev. Bradley Schmeling and his partner, the Rev. Darin Easler, had been at the center of a standoff between their congregations (which supported them) and the national denomination.
Three years after the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a $660 million abuse-related settlement, a key part of the agreement -- releasing accused priests' personnel files -- remains in limbo. A New York Times poll of U.S. Catholics finds them alienated from the hierarchy in Rome, but an overwhelming majority say the abuse scandal hasn't prompted them to stop attending Mass, pull their contributions or consider leaving.
As he awaits sentencing on federal fraud charges, former kosher slaughterhouse chief Sholom Rubashkin hasn't eaten all week in his new digs at the Black Hawk County Jail (where he's facing state child labor charges) because the food's not kosher.
WaPo looks at "Golden Compass" author Phillip Pullman's rewrite of the Gospels, "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ," and finds it "kind of inspiring." Even the Catholic League's Bill Donohue seems rather ho-hum about the book.
The founder of the lefty Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi David Forman, has died at age 65, and Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, who led an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that rejected the idea of Israel as a Jewish state, died at 86. Also in Israel, environmental activists are warning that the famed Jordan River could dry up by next year.
The Serbian Orthodox Church has dismissed its top leader, Archbishop Artemije, after millions in church funds were allegedly embezzled under his watch. A few weeks after a French Muslim woman was fined for wearing a face-covering veil while driving, a veiled Muslim woman in northern Italy was fined while walking to a mosque. Jean-Francois Cope, the majority leader in the French National Assembly and the mayor of Meaux, explains his support for a veil ban in today's NYT.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:26 am
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Going back into the (prayer) closet
The good folks over at Liberty Counsel are rushing to the defense of teachers and students in Santa Rosa County, Fla., in the midst of an ongoing flap about prayer in public schools. Quick recap: The ACLU and school officials have been at odds over the appropriateness of prayer in school settings. Three school employees were cleared last year of charges that they broke an agreement not to pray at student events. Now the fight has spilled over into the Florida legislature.
Liberty Counsel is now filing suit on behalf of prayer-minded school employees. From the press release:
Students can no longer say “God Bless,” teachers must hide in closets to pray, parents cannot communicate frankly with teachers, volunteers cannot answer any questions regarding religion, Christian groups cannot rent school facilities for private religious functions benefiting students, and pastors are dictated how they can and cannot seat their audiences at private, religious baccalaureate services held inside their own houses of worship.
Wait a minute. "Teachers must hide in closets to pray." But isn't that exactly what Jesus told his followers to do?
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
Someone better get Jesus a lawyer.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 1:18 pm
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
Federal agents arrested a 30-year-old Pakistani-American late Monday night in the Times Square bomb scare. No word yet on the man's faith or motivation for the planned attack, but Ahmadiyya Muslims are holding a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington "to address questions about Islam's stance on peace and extremism in the context of the NYC attempted bombing."
President Obama is having lunch today with the Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel, the second White House confab between the two Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the Boy Scouts, who were challenging a lower court ruling that prevented them from leasing city-owned land in San Diego because they are a religious group. Scout leaders argue that they believe in, and take an oath to do their duty to, God, but are not a religious organization.
More than a decade after it was first introduced, an on-again off-again bill to protect employees' religious expression in the workplace is attracting renewed attention that could lead to action on Capitol Hill in coming weeks.
Belgian bishops, who have been stung by recent revelations of clergy sex abuse, are in Rome for talks this week ahead of a planned meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on Friday.
As the United Nations mulls nuclear non-proliferation, the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches told gatherings in New York that nuclear weapons "are a crime against humanity." Environmental scientists warn that the River Jordan, a site of Christian pilgrimages for centuries, could dry up by 2011. West Virginia's Catholic bishop is concerned about mine safety, and Newark, N.J.'s is upset about a Catholic university teaching a course on gay marriage.
Some American Catholics are wondering whether America's first black priest was "black enough." A pastor convicted for failing to disclose $1.8 million in income called the money "love offerings" from parishioners. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says court house holding cells are not covered by RLIUPA.
A Muslim woman in Italy was fined 400 euros for wearing a burqa. A French judge ordered Facebook to take down an anti-Catholic fan page called "Running naked in a church after a bishop" and said it's creators must pay 200 euros in damages to a French bishop.
Finally, Happy Star Wars Day to all you Jedi knights out there. May the force ("May the 4th, get it?") be with you.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 8:16 am
Monday, May 03, 2010
Wahlberg knew how to quit `Brokeback Mountain’
That paragon of virtuous journalism, the National Enquirer, is reporting that actor Mark Wahlberg was offered a role in Brokeback Mountain but the Boogie Nights star turned it down on the advice of his longtime family priest, Rev. Jim Flavin. From the story:
The 38-year-old reformed bad boy relies on his closest confidante and longtime religious mentor, the Rev. James Flavin, to help him pick and choose his parts.
"Mark is a practicing Catholic, and he never makes a final decision on a starring role until Father Flavin gives his OK," an insider revealed to The ENQUIRER. "Mark says he owes his career to Father Flavin."
It was the outspoken priest who urged a reluctant Mark to take the role in The Departed, which earned him an Oscar nomination.
"Father Flavin pushes Mark to honor his religious roots," said the source. "Even though Mark was offered one of the leads in Brokeback Mountain, he passed because of the gay subject matter, which clashes with Catholic doctrine."
Full disclosure: I know Fr. Flavin -- he married my brother and sister-in-law, presided at my goddaughter's baptism and prayed at my father's wake. He's climbed the ranks within the Archdiocese of Boston and he's now the director of pastoral care of priests for the archdiocese. He's an all-around good guy, and I had no idea he held such sway as a Hollywood casting director. Still not sure what Flav (as he's known) thought about Wahlberg's role as Dirk Diggler, or that Calvin Klein underwear spread.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 4:17 pm
Monday, May 03, 2010
Monday’s roundup
The Pakistani Taliban is taking credit for the NYC Times Square bomb scare, though U.S. officials are playing down the connection.
President Obama issued a National Day of Prayer proclamation, despite a federal district judge's ruling last month that the day is unconstitutional. Obama also declared May Jewish American Heritage month.
It was a busy weekend for the Vatican, as Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday announced that he will name a delegate to run the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ. Three Church of England bishops met with Vatican officials in Rome last week to find out more about Benedict invitation to join his church. Benedict on Sunday all but endorsed the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, saying the cloth is "written with the blood" of Jesus "in full accordance" with the Gospels.
Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson wrote an op-ed to Benedict urging the pontiff not to scapegoat gay priests for the sex scandal. Indian bishops drafted new sex abuse guidelines with a zero-tolerance policy for guilty priests. Boston Globe reporters inked a deal with movie producers to make a film about how they broke the stories that unleashed the sex abuse scandal in 2002. The story would be akin to "All the President's Men," say insiders (photo at top left).
The U.S. Catholic bishops say the Senate's "framework" for an immigration bill needs some work, but is an important first step. Mormons are split on immigration and their church is decidedly neutral. The LDS has a new website for job seekers of all faiths.
More than 3,000 European Jews signed a petition protesting Israel's settlements policy. Conservative European politicians are focusing a lot of legislative energy on the burqa, but polygamy is a lot more widespread, says the AP.
A committee asked to craft a "worldwide vision" for the United Methodist Church decided to leave alone the issue of gay and lesbian ministers. James Dobson is back on the airwaves with his new program today. The Unification Church is putting The Washington Times up for sale and has cut off most of its $35 million subsidy to the paper. An Albany bishop who left the Episcopal Church in 2007 to convert to Catholicism is now an Episcopalian again.
Theological schools are not seeing a rise in enrollments, despite a widespread notion that enrollment often increases when economic times get tough. A British street preacher was arrested for condemning homosexuality. An Irish bookmaker has paid 10,000 pounds to sponsor a new confessional at an Irish church. They call it the "Paddy Power Sin Bin."
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:38 am