Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
Religion Dispatches wonders whether Sen. Orrin
"Anything I can do for the Jewish people, I will do" Hatch will support
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, who's Jewish. A Baptist church outside Washington, D.C.,
will host a memorial
service
for Sen.
Robert Byrd,
D-W.V., who died as a lifelong Baptist at age 92.
Wisconsin's Supreme Court today
unanimously
upheld a
2006 referendum that banned gay marriage. Opponents of California's Proposition 8 that ended same-sex
marriage say the SCOTUS decision
in Christian
Legal Society v. Martinez (which said a Christian group can't deny
membership to gays and atheists if it wants public funding) recognized
gays as a "protected class" and could help their case, currently
awaiting a decision by federal Judge Vaughn Walker.
The lead lawyer in
efforts to sue the Vatican for priestly sex abuse called the SCOTUS decision
not to block the suit the "biggest breakthrough in the movement's
history." Two-thirds of Austrian Catholic priests -- long a thorn in
the side of Rome -- want married
clergy,
and just over half support ordaining women.
The 50th -- and for
now, the last -- Catholic parish in Cleveland is scheduled for
closure
today. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan wants "dialogue" with Jewish groups
over the "damage" that Jews have done to blacks. A Virginia survey has identified 48 Rastafarian inmates who are being
held in isolation because they refuse to cut their hair (an article of
faith for Rastas).
An
Orthodox
Jewish
singer will spend one to
three years in the slammer for misdirecting (to his pocket) $36,000
intended to buy Torah scrolls, and a Pentecostal church in Louisiana is selling 4th of
July fireworks to help pay down the debt on its building.
Italy goes to bat today for the right to
display crucifixes in classrooms, and European atheists who met recently
in Cophenhagen have issued their "Declaration on
Religion in Public Life," saying (among other things), "We submit that
public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma."
Speaking of atheists, new Australian PM Julia Gillard says her government
has no plans to legalize gay
marriage.
Efforts to ban face
veils and burqas across Europe are suddenly en
vogue.
One in 10 historic English churches is in dire need of
repair,
according to a new survey. China has found some
success
in "re-educating" Buddhist monks who once criticized China, and now
criticize the Dalai
Lama. A
rare white elephant has been captured in Myanmar, considered a symbol
of good luck in the mostly Buddhist country.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:45 am
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
Two big decisions from the Supreme Court came down yesterday. In the first, SCOTUS ruled 5-4 that a law school can deny recognition to a Christian student group that won't let gays join.
In the second, SCOTUS refused to hear an appeal from the Holy See (the U.S. government had signed on as amici) dismissing a lawsuit that blames the Vatican for transferring a sexually abusive priest. The Vatican's lawyer noted that the ruling did not comment on the merits of the case.
Senate Republicans blasted SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan for restricting military recruiters at Harvard Law School, where she was dean. Kagan had objected to the military's Don't Ask/Don't Tell policy, calling it "a moral injustice of the first order." Kagan pledged to be a model of impartiality on the bench. Speaking of DADT, a San Diego judge has agreed to hear a case challenging the policy.
Belgium insisted that secular officials, not the Vatican, will investigate clergy sexual abuse, after Roman Catholic officials lambasted a police raid on Thursday that even opened a prelate's crypt to search for documents. The NYT says the unusually aggressive raid was launched because a whistleblower said the church was hiding information. A top canon lawyer for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee says the sex abuse audits conducted annually by U.S. diocese are insufficient.
The Vatican issued an unprecedented rebuke of a former pupil of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, who had accused a former Secretary of State of blocking sex abuse investigations. Abuse victims said the Vatican should be praising Schoenborn, who has criticized church cover ups, not humiliating him. Benedict is also creating a new office to fight secularization in the West. The Vatican received its first Russian ambassador.
Southern Baptist pastor (and ardent attention seeker) Wiley Drake says he prayed the "sinner's prayer" with deceased Sen. Robert Byrd four months ago in Washington and is now "firmly convinced" that Byrd "accepted the Lord and is in heaven now."
The son of one of Hamas' founders says he was an Israeli spy for decades and is applying for asylum in San Diego.
Vandals defaced an atheist billboard on Billy Graham Parkway in N.C., adding the words "under God," to the words "One Nation Indivisible." The billboard intended to show that the words "under God" were not part of the original Pledge of Allegiance. (Photo at top left courtesy of the Charlotte Observer.) Australia's new Prime Minister is an atheist and says she won't pretend she's not for political expediency.
The Presiding Bishop of Tanzania's Evangelical Lutheran Church appears to have changed his mind about accepting money from the ELCA, which approved gay clergy last summer. The United Methodist Church will continue to fund Claremont School of Theology after assurances that it won't train rabbis or imams. The ELCA filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against it, saying it has nothing to do with the liquidation of pension plans by its publishing arm.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:23 am
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday’s roundup
Klansman-turned-Senator-for life Robert Byrd died early Monday at age 92.
SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan begins her Senate hearings today. Not in attendance will be Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, who was scheduled to testify against Kagan's attempts to bar military recruiters from Harvard as dean of the law school. Boykin, you may remember, got into trouble during the Bush administration for saying Muslims pray to an "idol" and framing the pursuit of terrorists as a religious war.
A NYT op-ed says it's a "cause for celebration" that no one cares about Kagan's religion (she's Jewish). Speaking of SCOTUS, you can expect a decision on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez today.
**UPDATE: In a 5-4 decision this morning, SCOTUS ruled that a California law school can require a Christian groups that wants university recognition to remain open to all students, including gays and others who may disagree with the group's beliefs.
***UPDATE: SCOTUS declined Monday to hear an appeal by the Vatican in a landmark case that opens the way for priests in the United States to stand trial for pedophilia
The Vatican has admonished a leading cleric (and friend of Pope Benedict XVI) for criticizing former Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano's handling of clergy sexual abuse. Only the pope can make such accusations, the Vatican said.
Benedict also lashed out at Belgian authorities for raiding a retired archbishop's home and opening another's tomb as part of a sex abuse investigation. A Catholic panel in Belgium investigating abuse claims shut down in protest of the raids. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, however, called the raids "precisely what's needed, not just in Belgium but in other church offices across the globe."
A defense lawyer has appealed the conviction of five Americans on charges of plotting terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Nearly half of the 600 murders reported this year in Karachi have been carried out by religious groups and political goon squads. According to Salon, Pakistan is monitoring seven major websites for sacrilegious content: Yahoo, Google, MSN, Hotmail, YouTube, Amazon and Bing.
Three men were arrested by Indian police this week for "honor killings," in which men murder daughters for marrying below their caste. A Colorado man on a mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden says he wanted to capture him alive and bring him to justice.
The push to take Zionism out of Judaism is "back in style" according to the NYT. Dutch authorities are considering using "decoy Jews" - undercover police officers wearing yarmulkes to combat anit-Semitism. The Archbishop of New York told a parish to leave its name out of banners when it marched in the city's gay pride parade.
Seventh-day Adventists elected a new president. Liberty University demoted Ergun Caner from dean of its seminary after an investigation into reports that he falsified some of his Muslim background. Rep. Joseph Cao, R-La., apologized to New Orleans' Catholic archbishop for strongly implying the church endorsed him in campaign mailers. England may name its first female Vatican ambassador. Malaysia is holding an American-Idol like contest to find a nice, young imam.
Prayer sellers are seeing boom times in Iran. Americans' weekly church attendance inched up to nearly 43 percent, according to Gallup. A Southern Baptist leader says original sin is a good argument for government regulations. Brooklyn wants its first Catholic saint. Latino gangs are using a Christian book to encourage masculinity.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:04 am
Friday, June 25, 2010
Friday’s roundup
The U.S. Supreme Court made it much
tougher
for prosecutors to chase corporate executives accused of fraud; House
and Senate negotiators reached a deal on a bill to increase
regulation of Wall Street. Alaska officials decided a legal defense fund
set up for former Gov. Sarah Palin was illegal; she'll have to return
about $390,000. SCOTUS also ruled that people who sign
petitions
on divisive public issues (see "Marriage, gay") don't have a right to
keep their identities hidden.
Michael Jackson's older brother Jermaine, one
year after the pop icon's death, says Islam would have saved
his brother. NPR looks at a new documentary on
the "Sons of Perdition," the young boys who escape (or are exiled from)
Warren Jeff's polygamous compound. The pastor of a Memphis Baptist
church is defending his
decision
to ban a coach from a softball team because she's a lesbian.
ReligionClause has a roundup of views, pro and
con, on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's religious freedom record.
Thomas Farr, the first director of the State Department's religious
freedom office, blasts the Obama
administration for dragging its feet and sidelining religious freedom
concerns in its international portfolio.
Washington's infamous C
Street House (home to a number of philandering GOP politicians) is now being
linked
to more than $100,000 in free international trips for members of
Congress. The governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas have named Sunday a day of
prayer for the Gulf Coast oil spill.
The NYT assesses the first year of New York City's first Hebrew-language public charter school (an Idaho
Bible-based charter school didn't fare so
well)
and the WSJ assesses the God-and-gowns
controversy of high school graduation ceremonies held inside
churches.Atheists in North Carolina have erected a patriotic billboard
on -- gasp! -- Bily Graham Parkway.
A Florida law firm is trying to bring
52 Buddhist monks and nuns from Vietnam after they claimed they were forced out of their monastery by
government troops. The Vatican filed a motion to dismiss a request
to subpoena Pope Benedict XVI to testify in a Kentucky sex abuse case.
Religion Dispatches celebrates the 50th anniversary
(sort of) of feminist theology.
Pakistani telecomm officials will monitor seven major websites,
including Google, Yahoo and YouTube, for content that is potentially
offensive to Muslims, but stopped short of shutting the sites down.
Indonesian police foiled a plot to bomb the Danish
embassy, apparently fueled by anger over the Muhammad cartoons made
infamous by a Copenhagen newspaper. A new study says Muslim women who
fast during Ramadan put their babies'
health at risk.
And
this, because its Friday: England's top Catholic bishop, Archbishop
Vincent Nichols, doesn't want to see -- or hear -- any vuvuzelas during
the pope's scheduled trip to Britain in September. "I have had enough of
them already," says the
Archbishop of Westminster. "I hope they stay in South Africa."
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:19 am
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
A Pakistani court sentenced five American Muslims to ten years of hard labor for conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks. The Illinois State Police revoked the appointment of its first Muslim chaplain, citing links to a Muslim charity with ties to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group. Muslims are criticizing the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday that upheld a ban on providing "material support" including advice, to terrorist groups.
Spain's Senate voted to ban the burqa. Kyrgyzstan's security agency claims that the Taliban and other Islamic militants provoked the ethnic violence that has wracked the Central Asian nation. China said it has crushed a gang of Muslim terrorists, presumably after holding the country's first "Religious Games," which saw Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, etc., battle it out at ping-pong, badminton, chess, and other games.
Conservatives have stepped up their criticism of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, and church-state watchdogs want to know whether she thinks religious liberty claims outweigh civil rights. Hmmm, gay marriage anyone? Alabama's governor has turned to God to stop the BP oil spill.
Police in Brussels raided the home and office of a retired Roman Catholic bishop as part of a sex-abuse investigation. A California man is suing the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for fraud after he discovered that a priest who he claims abused him is still in ministry in Mexico. The head of the U.S. bishops' child-protection office wants dioceses in Kansas to release the names of accused priests.
The president of the U.S. bishops conference is in Cuba consulting with local priests. The Catholic Health Association says it still backs the health-care bill, no matter what the bishops say. USA Today says the Vatican's secret archives are kinda boring - less Dan Brown than diplomatic dispatches. Washington's former archbishop, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, celebrated his 80th birthday in style. Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff is working at a kosher pizza joint near Baltimore. I hear the schadenfreude special is excellent.
A Minneapolis-based gay magazine outed a Lutheran pastor who is ardently against allowing gay pastors to serve in the ELCA. Church officials say he'll likely keep his job. New York passed an anti-bullying bill that prohibits harassment based on religion, sexual orientation, etc.
Homeowners are weighing the morality of walking out on their mortgages. Adult stem cells can heal blindness. Forty percent of evangelical leaders like the hooch. The Raelians want a World Swastika Rehabilitation Day.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:41 am
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
An 83-year-old nun in Harlem died when a minivan involved in a police chase crashed into a crowd of pedestrians.
Nikki Haley, a Sikh-turned-Christian GOP state senator in South Carolina, won her run-off race last night and is poised to become the state's next governor, despite 11th-hour charges that she's not really a Christian. In Connecticut, New Haven high school diplomas will no longer contain the words "in the year of our Lord."
An Indiana judge cleared the way for a state investigation of a homeschooling group on charges of discrimination after group leaders declined to serve a steak dinner to a girl who was allergic to chicken. Or something like that. Next door, in Illinois, State Police officials yanked the accreditation for a Muslim chaplain who was found to have possible ties to terrorist financing.
Gay groups in Minneapolis are in a tangle with an outspoken Christian evangelist who wants to hand out pamphlets at this weekend's gay-pride festival, and a gay magazine outed an outspoken (anti-gay) closeted gay Lutheran pastor in a journalistic undercover sting. Meanwhile, conservatives (big surprise) didn't like President Obama's nod to gay dads in his fatherhood initiative chat the other day.
A Nebraska judge sided with a state law that keeps Fred Phelps and his Thank-God-for-Dead-Soldiers signs 300 feet from a military funeral. A former Pittsburgh court officer is setting up the first Salvation Army outpost in the United Arab Emirates. Politics Daily says Apple wiz Steve Jobs is the newest hero for the Christian right in his efforts to ban porn from the iPad and other devices (he's apparently never seen Avenue Q).
The on-again, off-again saga of a German bishop who resigned, and then wanted his job back, after admitting to slapping children might be over; Bishop Walter Mixa now says he was right to resign. In neighboring Austria, the sexual abuse scandal is fueling activism by the church's outspoken liberal reformist wing. Art historians think Michelangelo included a human brain on the neck of God in the Sistine Chapel, and archaeologists found the oldest known images of Sts. John and Andrew in the catacombs in Rome.
An Indonesian pop star is being held on charges of violating new anti-pornography laws in the world's most populous Muslim nation after videos circulated of him having sex with his girlfriend and a TV personality. Indians in the western Gujarat state are praying for summer rains to help cut the heat.
Healing evangelist Charles Hunter, the sole surviving member of the "Happy Hunters," has died at age 89, and Nico Smith, a white South African pastor who challenged apartheid, died at 81.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:21 am
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
The Times Square would-be bomber told a federal court in New York he's a "Muslim soldier" and said he wanted to avenge the killing of Muslims by U.S. forces overseas. Faisal Shahzad said he wants to "plead guilty 100 times over" to the attempted bombing. Sentencing is set for Oct. 5.
President Obama, who is meeting with LGBT leaders at the White House today, is checking off his list of promises to gays and lesbians, says the AP. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is making liberals and conservatives alike very nervous.
The National Institutes of Health rejected a request to approve dozens of colonies of human embryonic stem cells for use by federal researchers. The lines had genetic defects and had been donated by couples undergoing fertility treatments, but the consent forms were too broad, the NIH said.
A second man is expected to plead guilty in burning down a black church in Massachusetts to protest Obama's election. The former vice president of a kosher slaughterhouse was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay almost $27 million in restitution for financial fraud. A Texas federal district court upheld a state education board's refusal to certify science degrees from a creationist institute.
A Michigan group has filed a request with a federal court seeking to require Detroit buses to run ads aimed Muslims who want to leave Islam. A Toronto pyschologist says religious believers are less likely to get stressed out about making mistakes.
The Roman Catholic diocese of Harrisburgh (Pa.) has a new bishop, Methodists in Alabama are playing musical pulpits, and bivocational pastors keep the Southern Baptist Convention running.
An Italian priest has developed an iPad ap for the Roman Missal. USA Today wonders how social media is changing churches. Anabaptists marked the 350th anniversary of the Martyrs Mirror.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:39 am
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday’s roundup
Thousands of neo-pagans and New Agers celebrated the Summer Solstice this morning at Stonehenge. For once, they saw the sun rise through the English fog, the AP reports.
Louisiana's State Senate has designated today a day "unified, intercessory" prayer for the BP oil spill. "It is clearly time for a miracle for us," said Sen. Robert Adley. Worth noting, perhaps, that a lot of non-Christians don't believe in intercessory prayer, but, ah well, legislators ain't theologians, are they?
They did, however, pass a religious freedom bill in Louisiana, making it harder for local governments to restrict religious observances, and another bill that allows people to bring concealed weapons to church. Pastors aren't so keen on that, the Times-Picayune reports.
The AP noticed that a veritable UN of religious groups shows up when natural disasters occur. Take that, Hitchens. Police in a Detroit suburb have arrested four Christians for disturbing the peace during an Arab-American festival.
The tarnished legacy of Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel took another blow today, when his own son sued the order, alleging that it helped Maciel abuse him. A cardinal under investigation for misuse of funds says he is bearing "the cross" of the investigation. Cuba and the Catholic Church are continuing their detente. Raul Castro even wore a suit to a meeting with Vatican officials last weekend, the AP reports.
Defense Secretary Gates said President Obama may veto the bill that repeals Don't Ask/Don't Tell if it includes wasteful defense spending. Religious freedom advocates are pushing Obama to bring up their issue when he meets Russia's President Medvedev in the U.S. this week.
WaPo looks at the whisper campaign in South Carolina against Sikh-turned-Christian Nikki Haley - and how it's not working. The U.S. Catholic Bishops expressed "grave concern" to the FDA over a new emergency contraceptive. A New Hampshire sex offender is challenging a probation condition that bars him from going to church because there are children there. Twenty-eight percent of Americans said they haven't attended church in the last six months, according to a Barna poll.
Smith College in Massachusetts is saying good-bye to its chaplains, who were fired to close a budget gap. The plan to convert a convent into a mosque in Staten Island is faltering in the face of community opposition. French conservatives who wanted to host a sausage and wine festival in a Muslim neighbor to antagonize locals instead had their party near the Arc de' Triomphe. Buddhists in Michigan celebrated Buddha's birthday.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:31 am
Friday, June 18, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner, the Utah man who wanted to die by firing squad -- in part to meet the "blood atonement" for sins that's part of Mormon lore -- was shot and killed last night by five trained marksmen.
A top church lawyer in Milwaukee went public and said the standards used to evaluate abuse claims in the neighboring Diocese of La Crosse are too lenient and put children at risk; the diocese responds that it follows both the "letter and the spirit" of the law. President Obama's nominee for Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom is raising some eyebrows.
Amma, the Indian guru widely known as the "Hugging Saint," is in LA and spreading the love. Nunsense is marking its 25th year off Broadway. 8: The Mormon Proposition, about the Mormons' role in killing gay marriage in California, opens in theaters today. The Vatican's newspaper gave Blues Brothers two thumbs up.
Over in Brooklyn, there's a battle of the bands brewing between outdoor summer concerts and a Jewish synagogue; NYC law prohibits loud noise within 500 feet of a house of worship, and the synagogue that's 300 feet away holds services until 10 p.m. every night. Up in White Plains, Jews won a court battle to build a "Shabbos House" that allows them to stay near a hospital and not violate Sabbath rules against driving to visit sick relatives.
A teacher at a Florida Christian school says she was canned when she became pregnant before her wedding. The coach of a woman's softball team in Memphis says she was kicked off the team of a prominent Baptist church because she's a lesbian.
A new poll of 22 countries finds President Obama's popularity slipping abroad, including in predominantly Muslim nations (blame his handling of Israel-Palestine, researchers said). Orthodox Jews rallied in Jerusalem against a court ruling that integrated Ashkenazi and Sephardic girls at a religious school. Cuban Catholic leaders want Pope Benedict XVI to visit in 2012.
The Washington Times reports from the Dalai Lama's Indian exile: what happens after he dies? A South African man was apparently beaten to death by family members for wanting to watch the World Cup instead of a religious program.
Abortion is straining the delicate alliance between secular and faith-based development groups. One of the rabbis at the center of a massive federal anti-corruption sting in New Jersey pleaded guilty to money laundering. Louisiana lawmakers are asking state residents to stop and pray on Sunday for relief from the BP oil spill.
In the category of Take What You Read on Blogs for What They're Worth, the minister who apparently signed Rush Limbaugh's fourth marriage license is a pastor who has said gays and lesbians are the real threat to marriage.
And as we slide in the weekend, I'll let David Gibson's headline over at Politics Daily speak for itself: "Sarah Palin's Breasts Are Real; Not So With Growing Number of Faithful."
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:37 am
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
The leading U.S. Catholic bishop said nuns are "to blame" for the passage of the health care bill in March. Bishops in New York are disappointed that the state is poised to allow no-fault divorces (the other 49 already do). Pope Benedict XVI met with the head of the Legionaries of Christ, the conservative order scarred by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered a child.
The Chabad center in Mumbai, which was been without a rabbi since it was attacked in 2008, has found a new couple to take charge.
Southern Baptists meeting in Orlando passed resolutions decrying the demise of Don't Ask/Don't Tell and expressing dismay over the BP oil spill. Religious leaders in California are praying for the legislature to pass a budget. Lawyers in the state's Prop 8 case wrapped up their arguments on Wednesday. Some experts say execution by firing squad is more humane than other methods.
An anti-abortion protester has the right to demonstrate on a sidewalk near the Liberty Bell, a federal appeals court ruled. The European Court of Human Rights said that Turkey should return a former Greek orphanage back to Orthodox Christians. Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel staged demonstrations against a Supreme Court ruling forcing the integration of a religious girls' school. The Archbishop of Canterbury told Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori not to wear her bishop's mitre when she preached in England.
The Episcopal Church's executive council will meet tomorrow with the General Secretary of the Anglican Communion, the gentleman who told them earlier this month that they have been disinvited from doctrinal and ecumenical discussions. That should be fun.
A professional fundraiser has been accused of stealing $360,000 from a girls school run by nuns. One of the white men who burned down a black church after President Obama's election pleaded guilty to civil rights charges and will spend 9 years in prison. The English Football Association told soccer star Wayne Rooney not to talk about his Catholic faith. A Uganda Muslim couple has been sent to jail on charges of desecration for having sex in a church.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 10:10 am
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
Retiring Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony defended his decision in 1986 not to report a predatory priest to police, saying such decisions were handled "pastorally" at the time, in a deposition that was unsealed yesterday (Mahony had fought to keep the document from public view).
The White House finally filled the vacant Ambassador-at-Large position for international religious freedom, naming New York pastor Suzan Johnson Cook to the post; we'll have more on that later today. Speaking of religious freedom, a Kentucky farmer is under fire for his roadside billboards that carry religious messages but may run afoul of Lady Bird Johnson's Federal Beautification Act.
A Vatican envoy is in Cuba, pressing for religious freedom reforms, and NPR looks at the Catholic Church's growing influence on the island nation. Changing demographics in the U.S. Catholic Church are leading to the emergence of new theological voices, scholars say.
The Southern Baptists are meeting in Orlando, and they're trying to broaden their appeal north of the Mason-Dixon Line and west of Texas. A Baptist pastor in South Dakota (maybe broadening their appeal is working after all) is trying to pick a fight with the IRS by openly endorsing a candidate for governor.
In the category of Analogies That Aren't Helpful, California gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown is under fire for comparing GOP rival Meg Whitman's media saturation to Nazi propaganda. There's a campaign flap in Utah over a flyer that featured two candidates with a photo of a Mormon temple, asking the question: "Which candidate really has Utah values?"
WaPo, fascinated by that giant Jesus statue that went up in flames in Ohio the other day, looks at the history of divinely inspired lightning strikes. Kudos on the lede: "It appears God has sacrificed his only son. Again."
Norwegian judges will be allowed to wear religious garb -- headscarves for Muslims, or native Sami (Lapp) costumes -- in the courtroom, but could be recused from the case if lawyers object. A Muslim couple in Uganda has been sent to jail on charges of having sex inside a church.
A Berlin court said a same-sex marriage performed in Canada is only a civil partnership in Germany, while Iceland approved gay marriage in a 49-0 vote (they also have a lesbian prime minister).
Human Rights Watch wants Iraqi Kurds to end the practice of female circumcision. Somali militants are trying to keep people from watching the World Cup, worried that it might distract them from jihad. French police have cancelled a planned street party in a heavily Muslim neighborhood that was going to serve wine and pork sausages. Oops.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:44 am
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
The federal judge who will decide the constitutionality of
California's ban on gay marriage wants lawyers to discuss the meaning
of "choice" in sexual orientation in closing arguments on Wednesday,
according to the AP.
A Utah parole board refused to commute the sentence of convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, who is scheduled to die on Friday by firing squad, in accordance with his Mormon heritage. A Catholic bishop who lives about a mile from the Royal Bafokeng stadium has been kept awake all night by 44,000 World Cup fans blowing on their vuvuzelas. The BBC is considering blocking out the sound of the high-pitched horns, which resembles a large hive of bees, from its broadcasts after a deluge of complaints.
Spain is poised become the latest European country to ban body-covering Islamic veils. Under pressure from the European Union, Greece is drafting a law that would eliminate required religious oaths for members of Parliament, witnesses at trials, and various public offices.
An influential group of evangelicals says it will sit out Iowa's gubernatorial race. Churches are partnering with cash-strapped public schools to buy supplies and other things. A six-story statue of Jesus in Ohio was struck by lightening and burned to the ground.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist has a new president; Catholic University does, too. The one-year-old Anglican Church in North America created two new (small) diocese in the South and Great Lakes region.
An American who says he's on a mission to kill Osama bin Laden was arrested in Pakistan. Muslim Uighurs in China have still not recovered from battles with the communist government. The new Catholic Mass is coming next November, according to an Illinois bishop. The Tennessean's intrepid Bob Smietana looks at how believers are using iPhone apps for spiritual development.
USA Today looks at the ethics of how we treat animals. Buddhists in Delaware prayed for and rescued horseshoe crabs. Disgraced Christian painter Thomas Kinkade spent a night in the clink on suspicion of drunk driving. A new exhibit looks at Andy Warhol's Catholic roots. The Church of England is telling vicars to love their wedding congregations - for better or worse.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 10:05 am
Monday, June 14, 2010
Monday’s roundup
Newly released papers from the Clinton library show Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan drafted legal language to narrow an abortion ban and took a broad view of religious freedom while White House counsel, according to the AP and the NYT.
Pope Benedict XVI hailed priests on Sunday as gifts to the world and didn't mention the clergy sex abuse scandal. In particular, Benedict mentioned a Polish priest who was beatified June 6 as a martyr during a Communist crackdown in the 1980s. On Monday, Benedict hailed the bishop slain in Turkey this month as a messenger of dialogue and reconciliation. On Saturday, the pope told European bankers that money is not an end, but a means to safeguard "human capital."
Seventy-five percent of Irish adults say the country's top churchman, Cardinal Sean Brady, should resign for his role in covering up the sexual abuse of children. The Catholic Theological Society of America gave its highest honor to a theologian whose work has been questioned and criticized by the U.S. Catholic bishops.
Canadian Anglicans talked a lot about blessings for same-sex unions, but didn't do anything about it. After a 4.5-month hiatus, the California gay marriage trial is back in business and scheduled to wrap up on Wednesday. Hawaii's governor, a Jewish Republican, met with two rabbis while she considers vetoing a bill that allows civil unions for gay couples. Documentarians rounded up a gay man willing to be counseled by disgraced evangelical Ted Haggard, which went swell, according to the man.
Ethnic enclaves are losing their historic Catholic parishes in Cleveland, as the diocese shutters parishes due to a lack of funds, priests, and suburban flight. A flagship Catholic school in Philadelphia is closing, too. A thread of grief ties America's small Ahmadi Muslim population together after an attack on their co-believers in Pakistan. Cuba freed a political prisoner and began to transfer six others as part of a deal with the Roman Catholic Church. Anti-abortion Kenyan churches are blaming the government for two explosions that ripped through a rally protesting the country's proposed constitution.
Young Indians are playing with their gods, a kosher food vendor is suing the New York Mets over Sabbath sales at the ballpark, and the family behind the Hobby Lobby chain is scooping up historic Bibles.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:50 am
Friday, June 11, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Pope Benedict XVI begged forgiveness for clergy sex abuse on Friday and said he would do "everything possible" to stop such crimes in the future. The pope's comments came at a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica concelebrated with about 15,000 clergy who were in Rome to mark the end of the Vatican's "Year for Priests." Clergy sex abuse victims said, Enough with the apologies already, how about some action?
On Thursday, Benedict defended "the beauty of celibacy" for priests, saying it's a sign of faith in an increasingly secular world. Celibacy is a hard sell in Europe though, particularly in France, NPR reports, where there is a shortage of priests. A new global survey shows that trust in priests has markedly declined worldwide.
Since the Empire State Building won't light up for Mother Teresa, NYC officials, including Mayor Bloomberg, are planning a day of service in her honor. Staten Islanders are ticked off about plans to open a mosque in an empty convent. England's Prince Charles says Western environmentalists can learn a lot from Muslims.
Scientists say a 13th-century Italian saint (that's Santa Rosa de Viterbo at left) reported to have miraculous powers died of a broken heart. Newsweek will publish a look next week at the enduring appeal of St. Sarah of Wasilla.
Investigators are going to release a report on 1972's "Bloody Sunday" in Ireland - when Protestant police gunned down 13 Catholic protesters - that was 12 years and $290 million in the making. Most young Americans, if they know about the incident at all, probably heard about it through U2's song "Sunday Bloody Sunday."
The wife of a Lebanese TV psychic is begging Saudi Arabia to release him from prison, where he is being held on charges of witchcraft.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:13 am
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
Thousands of Catholic clergy are in Rome to mark the end of the Vatican's "Year for Priests," but the event is being overshadowed by the clergy sex abuse scandal, reports NPR. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the scandal shows the need for spiritual renewal in the church.
Maybe Pope Benedict XVI will get a boost from Scottish belter Susan Boyle, who is likely to perform for the pontiff on his tour of Britain later this year. Or, he could ask Newt Gingrich for a peek at the documentary the former House Speaker co-produced on the late Pope John Paul II.
The WaPo takes an in-depth look Islamic charity at the center of the Gaza flotilla raid and finds a dual message: aid and confrontation. The United Nations war crimes tribunal convicted two Bosnian Serbs of genocide and sentenced them to life in prison for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica. A New Yorker was sentenced to 15 years in prison for helping supply al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan.
Virginia's Supreme Court sided with the Episcopal Church, ruling that breakaway parishes do not neccessarily have the right to keep church property; California's Supreme Court agreed to review a similar case.
Prosecuting polygamist FLDS leader Warren Jeffs would be "impractical," Arizona officials said, dismissing charges of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor. Jeffs has already served more time in Arizona then he would receive upon conviction and more serious charges are pending in Texas. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agreed to pay about $5,500 in penalty for not reporting non-monetary contributions used to support California's Prop 8.
The EPA wants Amish farmers to keep cow manure from washing into streams that feed into the Chesapeake Bay. Four Christian lawyers who said they were on a mission from God to defeat local judges lost their elections - badly. Pat Robertson's American Center for Law & Justice filed a federal suit against the health care bill, saying that its mandate violates religious freedom. A Florida teacher says she was fired from her Christian school for fornicating.
Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews share more genes than everybody thought, according to a new study. A pair of gay BFFs were voted prom king and um...queen in a New York high school. The boys said the hardest part was deciding who would be queen. Cher says she's a Buddhist, and no longer worries about turning back time.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:34 am
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
An openly gay Episcopal bishop and a bishop from Uganda were scheduled to meet with top White House foreign policy officials in Washington yesterday to discuss Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill. No read out on the meeting yet; nothing anywhere, actually, accept for a press release from a gay Episcopal group.
A California committee is expected to fine the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for not properly reporting about $37,000 in non-monetary contributions to support Prop 8. An Ohio State University librarian who pushed for entering freshman to read anti-gay literature lost his lawsuit in which he claimed OSU was hostile to Christian beliefs. The world's leading expert on Leviticus died.
The Claremont School of Theology in California, a United Methodist-related school, is believed to be the first in the U.S. to offer clerical training for Muslims and Jews, the LA Times reports. An Apartheid-era creed is finding new life in the Reformed Church in America.
The high-level dispute between the head of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori continues, as Jefferts Schori accused Archbishop of Canterbury of getting Anglican polity wrong and jumping the gun by imposing sanctions on her church. Conservative activists in England say its "discourteous" of an Anglican cathedral to invite Jefferts Schori to preach, given the tension in the AC.
The clergy sex abuse crisis is giving new momentum to Roman Catholics who want to ordain women and lift the celibacy requirement on priests, says the AP. Some of those groups are in Rome now, where the Vatican is hosting about 9,000 priests from around the world as part of the Year for Priests. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to issue another apology for sex abuse in the church sometime this week, but victims' groups say sorry's not enough.
A California bishop is defending his decision to pay a pedophile priest $800 a month, saying it was the only way to get the priest to retire. A scholar takes a look at sex abuse outside the Catholic Church.
Church-state separationists want authorities to take a look at a Christian counseling agency owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann, which has received $27,000 in state funds since 2007. Bill Donohue is still thumping his chest over the refusal of the Empire State building, which has lit up in honor of Mariah Carey, dog shows, and the 60th anniversary of communist China, to do the same for Mother Teresa. "They're bigots," Donohue says. Wonder if he'll climb the building in protest, King-Kong-style.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:09 am
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
As we reported late yesterday, longtime White House scribe Helen Thomas has resigned/retired for saying that Jews in Israel should "go home" to Germany, Poland and elsewhere. As the LAT puts it, it was the answer that ended a lifetime of questions.
The gay press examines the use of exorcists to rid gays and lesbians of their gay "demons." An insurance company is arguing that it has no obligations to cover injuries sustained in an exorcism gone wrong. Evangelical leaders who say they support immigration reform are threatening to pull their support if the bill contains a provision to allow U.S. gays to sponsor their foreign partners for green cards. A gay man in Canada has reconciled -- sort of -- with his church and bishop who told him that his sexual orientation made it impossible for him to be an altar server.
Yesterday we asked whether (and how much) America's problematic cultural exports complicate President Obama's efforts to retool relations with the Islamic world.
Bob Smietana down at the Tennesseean explores the problem of too many clergy and too few available jobs (our take on this story here). A Georgia preacher and his son are in court to face charges they burned down their church to collect insurance money.
NPR looks at that letter to the pope from dozens of Italian women who've had affairs with Catholic priests, pleading for an end to celibacy. Speaking of women and the church, advocates of women's ordination are petitioning the Vatican to allow women clergy as the church ends its Year of the Priest celebrations.
The Philippines has a new president, Benigno Aquino III, son of Beningno and the late President Corazon Aquino. One of Denmark's original Muhammad cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, is retiring, in part in hopes of lowering the terrorist threat against him.
Israeli lawmakers decided to make it legal for women to donate their eggs to couples using IVF; an anonymous database will include the donor's religion for parents who want to know. Archaeologists in Israel have unearthed a treasure trove of 3,500-year-old Pagan artifacts. Israel's former chief Sephardic rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, was buried after his death at 81; he was a strong proponent of the settlement movement and once linked the Holcoaust to the growth of Reform Judaism.
Anglicans in Canada are siding with their Episcopal brethren on this side of the border in the ongoing dispute over gay bishops and gay blessings with the wider Anglican Communion. A Canadian court is scheduled to hear arguments today on whether a Muslim woman must remove her full-face veil when testifying in court; the case centers, in part, on whether a defendent has the right to face his accuser, and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is set to record an album of Rastafarian spirituals.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 7:38 am
Monday, June 07, 2010
Monday’s roundup
Veteran journalist Helen Thomas (left) has apologized for saying Jews should "go home," and by that she meant Germany and Poland -- 'cuz we all know how well that worked out for the Jews last time. Critics now want her White House press credentials revoked, or at least give her front-row seat to someone else; she withdrew as the graduation speaker for a high school in suburban DC.[UPDATE: Hearst News Service announced Thomas' retirement Monday afternoon.]
In California, school officials have put an end to a game called "Beat the Jew."
Two New Jersey men were arrested at JFK trying to board a flight to Egypt on their way to Somalia to train with a group linked to Al-Qaida; the NYT says the movement is recruiting men to fight in a civil war, not necessarily to wage jihad against the West.
The AP says supporters of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary president Ergun Caner might want to speak up before his critics have the last word on his disputed Muslim past.
Remember the case of the divorced parents in Chicago who landed in court over whether the father could bring their daughter to church (the mom's Jewish)? Well, WaPo holds them up as an example why interfaith marriages have trouble making it work. A police department in suburban Detroit will no longer require suspected criminals to remove their religious garb for mug shots.
The group Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and psychologists who monitored waterboarding and other torture techniques for the CIA violated their ethical standards when detainees became research subjects; the National Religious Campaign Against Torture is understandably livid.
The AP says clergy are woefully under-prepared for financial security in retirement: "Clergy are so focused on the hereafter, but we should know more about planning for life after work," says retired Methodist minister Bert White. South Carolina's gubernatorial wannabe Nikki Haley is downplaying her Sikh roots, and up-playing her Christian faith, after critics attacked her as a front for Sikh terrorists.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a bill that says school districts cannot enter agreements that restrict the First Amendment rights of teachers unless the teachers sign a waiver; it all stems a dispute in northern Florida when teachers inked a deal with the ACLU not to pray in public settings, and then tried to take it back. Former evangelical leader Ted Haggard launched his new church yesterday (we'll have more on that later).
Portugal hosted its first legal same-sex wedding Monday when two 30-something divorced women tied the knot. An Egyptian judge says it's time to start enforcing a law that strips Egyptian men of their citizenship if they marry Israeli women. Bangladesh has lifted its week-long ban on Facebook over those Muhammad cartoons that many Muslims find offensive. The LAT finds a bunch of online shopping sites that are catering to fashion-conscious Muslim women who want to stay modest.
A poll of Brits finds that at least half associate Islam with violence, and two-thirds link it with the repression of women -- that might be what prompted a new ad campaign that features a veiled woman with the words, "I believe in women's rights. So did Muhammad." The British diplomat who suggested, tongue-in-cheek, that the pope launch his own brand of condoms during his upcoming U.K. visit has been put on a very tight leash and five years probation. The Church of England has agreed to allow divorced men (so far no women) to become bishops.
Pope Benedict XVI, wrapping up a three-day trip to Cyprus, says the world is ignoring the plight of the Middle East's dwindling Christian population. Catholic officials in Poland beatified Jerzy Popieluszko, a charismatic priest who was killed in 1984 for supporting the anti-communist Solidarity movement.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 7:37 am
Friday, June 04, 2010
Friday’s roundup
Pope Benedict XVI en route to Cyprus, said he was saddened by the murder of a Catholic bishop in Turkey, but that it was "not a political assassination" and that "we must not give responsibility to Turkey or the Turks.'' Bishop Luigi Padovese was killed by his driver, who appears to be mentally ill, Turkish officials told the AP.
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church strongly pushed back against proposals from the Archbishop of Canterbury to sideline her church in the Anglican Communion.
A bill to extend the statute of limitations on lawsuits related to child sex crimes died in New York's State Senate for the fourth time in four years. California and Delaware are the only states to have adopted such legislation. Not coincidentally, Catholic dioceses in those states later paid huge settlements with clergy sex abuse victims, and two dioceses went bankrupt. The Belgian Catholic Church is struggling to regain trust, as a commission investigates child abuse allegations.
The Justice Department says a Texas man plotted with Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American cleric tied to the Fort Hood shooting. And a Muslim store in the D.C. suburbs is getting heat for selling CDs of Awlaki's sermons.
Civil rights groups are asking the Bureau of Prisons to loosen restrictions on units that house a disproportionate number of Muslim inmates. Michigan police are letting Muslim prisoners wear hijabs and other head coverings, and a Muslim woman will be allowed to wear her headscarf in her driver's license photo. American Muslims are asking President Obama to make good on his promise to make it easier for them to give to charity, a religious duty.
Former Catholic University President David O'Connell was named the new bishop of Trenton, N.J.
The Armenian Church is suing California's Getty Museum, demanding the return of seven pages ripped from a sacred Bible that dates to 1256.
A California appellate court invalidated an agreement between local officials and Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions. A North Carolina man still has to pay child support, even though he joined a religious commune that prohibits members from earning income, a North Carolina court ruled.
A Utah court denied the establishment clause claim brought by Summum; last year, the Supreme Court rejected their freedom of expression claim after a local park refused to mount a statue dedicated to their Seven Aphorisms. Connecticut school officials will not challenge a judge's ruling that barred them from holding graduation ceremonies in a church.
A million Brazilian evangelicals marched for Jesus (AP photo at top left). More than 100 Virginia religious leaders pressed the Senate to take up climate and energy legislation. Yet another committee in the United Methodist Church is calling for reconsideration of clergy job guarantees. Seminary costs are keeping good candidates from the pulpit, a UMC bishop says.
Comedy Central is getting more flack for its plans to broadcast "JC". Lapsed Catholic and Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee says she had a crush on Jesus. Fred Phelps' daughter, she of the Westboro Baptist clan, has made a parody of Lady Gaga dedicated to -- what else? -- denouncing gays.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:43 am
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Is that Jesus as in Gee-sus or Jesus as in Hay-soos?
Tom Reese over at Georgetown has a hilarious riff on a 9-1-1 call from Arizona...
"This is 911. What is your emergency?"
"Someone is trying to break into my house."
"What is your address?"
"1234 Palm Street in Phoenix."
"Let me check for an available officer. Let's see, I can have someone come by tomorrow between 9 a.m. and noon."
"What? But this is an emergency."
"I'm sorry, but all of our officers are busy with priority calls."
"What takes priority over a burglary?"
"Illegal immigrants."
Read the entire thing here.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 3:27 pm
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Thursday’s roundup
Retiring Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony may have dodged a bullet with prosecutors saying there's a "possibility of criminal culpability" among church leaders but they don't have enough evidence to bring charges; the LAT says charges against the archbishop seem unlikely.
The head of the German bishops conference, however, may not be so lucky; prosecutors said they want to know whether Archbishop Robert Zollitsch hired a priest with a known history of abuse. A bill to extend the statute of limitations on abuse cases in New York (opposed by the Catholic Church) died its fifth death in Albany.
Conservative media watchdog groups are launching a preemptive strike against "JC," a maybe/maybe not cartoon about Jesus trying to escape his father's long shadow in New York City; Comedy Central hasn't said whether the show will ever air, but conservatives already don't like it. The GOP operative who helped put Richard Nixon's crusade against Jews into motion finds his career is still haunted by the affair more than 35 years later.
One of Christian artist Thomas Kinkade's companies has filed for bankruptcy; former gallery owners who claim they were stiffed call the self-described "painter of light" a "deadbeat." Ouch. Speaking of deadbeats, a California man will spend 12 years in prison for a fraudulent house-buying scheme; he apparently tried to use Voodoo and black magic against the prosecutors, to little avail (at least not yet).
Disgraced evangelical leader and Colorado Springs megachurch pastor Ted Haggard says he's starting a new church with his wife -- after telling us three weeks ago that no plans were in the works. The head of the Catholic Church's (U.S.) Military Archdiocese takes a dim view of repealing Don't Ask/Don't Tell, and a top Southern Baptist official in charge of gender studies says President Obama's declaration of June as Gay Pride Month "marginalizes" Christians. Obama also extended some fairly limited rights to same-sex partners of federal employees.
The Des Moines Register finds newly ordained clergy eager to get started, despite the challenges ahead, while the Sacramento Bee says visa regulations and miles of red tape are causing some bishops to stop looking overseas to import priests to the U.S. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a $12 million seven-year study of clergy health finds that United Methodist clergy in the Tarheel State have an obesity rate of 40 percent -- 10 percent higher than the rest of the state.
Former Episcopalians (now part of the Anglican Church of North America) are setting up shop in New England ahead of ACNA's annual confab in Amesbury, Mass., next week. The Connecticut school district that was told it couldn't hold graduation ceremonies in a megachurch says it will appeal the ruling. Muslim leaders in Detroit released their own autopsy analysis of an imam who was killed in 2009, saying he was attacked by police dogs and denied immediate medical care.
A Catholic bishop is dead in Turkey after allegedly being attacked in his home -- possibly at the hands of his driver. Also in Turkey, mourners buried eight of the nine activists killed in that Israeli raid on the flotilla that was trying to get to Gaza; Israel has rejected calls for an international probe of the incident. Perhaps not surprisingly, former President Jimmy Carter blasted Israel for raiding the flotilla. Russian Orthodox cabbies have set up their own fleet of pious taxis in Moscow.
And finally, a word from our sponsors: Our very own Daniel Burke is taking home the top award from the American Academy of Religion. His wife (some might say better half), Melissa, is also a religion reporter (at the York Daily Record in Pa.) and got 15 minutes of fame over at GetReligion this week.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:26 am
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
A Sorrowful Mystery
The news out of Albany about the 13-year-old student who was suspended, then reinstated, for wearing rosary beads to school, reminds us of a story we ran about the trend in 2008.
Like the Albany case, which has been taken up by Pat Roberton's American Center for Law & Justice, school administrators sought to bar students from wearing the Catholic prayer aids, believing they token gang membership.
"It's become part of the look," said Victor Castro, a detective and school resource officer who leads gang awareness training in Hillsboro, Ore. "They use it as a reminder of protection."
According to the AP, school districts in New York and Texas have also punished students for wearing rosaries.
I'd be interested in hearing more about how rosary bead became gang symbols, and what they are supposed to symbolize if anyone has any theories.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 2:58 pm
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Wednesday’s roundup
Disgraced former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard has called a news conference this morning to announce the next steps in his career, but no one seems to know exactly what's up. Stay tuned.
Every state (plus D.C.) except Maine and Virginia has joined an friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court, arguing that Fred Phelps and his coterie of "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" protesters shouldn't be protected by the First Amendment. The Washington Times says "simmering anger" over Obama policies on gay rights, Israel and health care may send the religious right flocking to the polls this fall.
Speaking of the Washington Times, longtime religion reporter Julia Duin was sacked yesterday after, apparently, speaking out publicly about the paper as a "rudderless ship."
Lawyers in Florida are still wrangling over whether school employees who promised not to pray at public events are bound by the agreement they signed. In New York, a judge said a 13-year-old boy can go back to school with his rosary outside his shirt starting today.
Politics Daily says the new face of the lay Catholic reform movement is none other than singer Sinead O'Connor (above, left). Only one in eight Catholics is considering severing ties with the Catholic Church over the abuse scandal, according to a new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll. A Lutheran pastor in Minnesota won $100,000 on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and plans to give 10% to charity; no word on what he'll do with the other 90%.
There's a new option called "bio-cremation" which, according to the Sacramento Bee, involves dissolving "human remains through a combination of water pressure, heat and alkalinity, a process named alkaline hydrolysis but referred to as bio-cremation. The option is touted as an environmentally friendly way to decompose bodies in hours without air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions."
Israel is taking a defiant tone over its role in the deadly raid on a Palestinian flotilla early Monday morning; don't be waiting for any apologies. The situation also puts President Obama in an awkward spot, especially at the one-year mark since he promised a "new beginning" with the Muslim world. In neighboring Egypt, Coptic Church officials say they will never recognize second marriages, despite a civil court order to do so.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 8:08 am
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
Louisianians are praying for God to "stick his finger in that plug" in the Gulf of Mexico, after the failure of yet another attempt to quell the flow of oil.
Pope Benedict XVI continues to be hit with accusations that he did not move quickly to defrock priests accused of sexually abusing children when he was a cardinal in charge of the CDF. The latest is an AP story about an American priest who served prison time for molesting numerous children. Vatican rules under Pope John Paul II may have limited the future pope's options, however, and the priest was eventually laicized. "Ratzinger was just obeying his boss," says one liberal canon lawyer.
In other sex abuse news, Benedict has appointed nine prelates, including the archbishops of Boston and New York, to investigate child abuse in Ireland, and the Vatican announced the resignation of a Irish-born archbishop in Nigeria who is accused of having a 20-year-long relationship with a woman that started when she was 14. The New York Times explores the barring of gay applicants to the priesthood in the U.S.
Benedict will have to navigate some more minefields when he visits Cyprus this week, the AP says.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's son had his bar mitzvah on Sunday near the Western Wall amid protests from right-wing Israelis who don't like President Obama's policies towards Israel. Al-Qaida says its No. 3 has been killed. Afhgan authorities have suspended two Christian foreign aid groups on suspicion of proselytizing. Saudi Arabia is discouraging Muslims from sending corpses to Mecca and Medina for burial.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is inviting colleagues to join his amicus brief before the Supreme Court supporting the father of a deceased Marine against Westboro Baptist Church, which picketed the soldier's funeral. Conservative lawyers say they are on a mission from God to unseat four California judges. A federal judge has ruled that two Connecticut high schools should not hold graduation ceremonies in a church.
Malawi's president pardoned a gay couple who had been sentenced to 14 years in prison. A Catholic school teacher in Fort Dodge, Iowa was fired for telling Facebook she doesn't believe in God. Salman Rushdie says the fatwa against him doesn't affect his daily life anymore. A Pakistani court has lifted the ban on Facebook; Bangladesh has banned Facebook.
A Massachusetts town is taxing closed Catholic churches because they are not longer being used for religious purposes. Catholics are moving a church brick-by-brick from Buffalo to Atlanta. The AP ponders what will happen when the Dalai Lama dies.
Posted by Daniel Burke at 9:33 am