Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tuesday’s roundup
A judge sentenced a Tennessee mother of three to 42 months in the clink for taking money and services for five years to battle breast cancer -- which she never had. Filmmaker Oliver Stone angered Jewish groups by seeming to defend Hitler, and also digging up the old Jews-control-the-media trope (he later says he's sorry). Robert Duvall discusses faith on film with NPR.
Actor Will Smith wants to play original bad-boy Cain (Adam and Eve's wayward murderous son) in "The Legend of Cain" where Cain, it turns out, is a vampire. Speaking of brought back from the dead, former President Jimmy Carter said the endorsement of Texas pastor Jimmy Allen in 1976 helped him win the White House and no longer be a "a forlorn, woeful, forgotten, hopeless candidate."
Notorious polygamous leader Warren Jeffs will get a new trial on charges that he was an accomplice to rape surrounding the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old girl, the Utah Supreme Court ruled today.
Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey is wondering whether the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom should also apply to Muslims: "Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult whatever you want to call it," Ramsey said.
In neighboring Georgia, a counseling student at Augusta State University has filed suit (with a religious conservative law firm) after she was allegedly told to undergo sensitivity training toward gays if she wanted to complete her degree. An unemployed Colorado Springs woman apparently has enough money to buy bus ads telling people to "Save the Date" for Jesus' return on May 21, 2011.
The IRS has given a reprieve to small charities (less than $25,000 in receipts; excluding churches) to file their returns without losing tax-exempt status.
Megachurch guru Rick Warren is on the mend after that unfortunate run-in between his eyes and some burning tree sap. Kay Warren tells Christianity Today: ""The amount of agony was so extreme that I could not believe his eyes were not destroyed," Kay said on the phone. "He's definitely better and almost completely back to normal."
A Virginia-born Muslim man details the three months he spent stranded in Cairo after a trip to Yemen to find a Muslim bride; FBI agents asked him to become an undercover mole as part of his release back to the U.S.: "I listen to rap. I play basketball. I watch football. I wasn't brought up the way these crazy people [terrorists] are brought up. I just want to live on with my life. I don't want to be an informant. I want to work for an IT company. I want to be a normal person."
And so it has come to this: a British minister has decided to tweet his way through Communion. Careful not to spill the wine on your keyboard. And careful with your Bible, too: a British hospital wants to ban bedside Bibles because they could carry germs.
Posted by Kevin Eckstrom at 10:38 am
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