President Obama sent a Rosh Hashanah greeting to Jews, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says the Constitution requires government neutrality between denominations but not for atheists, 58 civil rights groups want the Obama administration to bar groups that hire only co-religionists from receiving federal dollars, and a candidate for mayor of St. Petersburg, Fla., believes the earth was created in six days.
Islamic groups hope an accreditation program will ease donors’ concerns about charities’ overseas ties, conservatives are waiting to see what kind of message Obama, “who essentially spurned Christians on the National Day of Prayer,” will send to a meeting of Muslims on the Hill next week, and the EEOC is suing Abercrombie & Fitch because it didn’t hire a 17-year-old girl who wears a hijab. The EEOC is also suing an ambulance company on behalf of a Jehovah’s Witness who refused to attend a Halloween carnival.
Jewish leaders are calling for a renewal of ethics, two former Catholic bishops are being sued over an alleged molestation in Massachusetts, and a Florida principal was acquitted of praying at a school event. A California court says a Reformed Church can’t change its documents to secede from the national denomination and a Texas judge said the Episcopal Church has a right to sue a breakaway diocese. A Catholic diocese in Connecticut is preparing for the worst if sex abuse documents are forced into the open. A battlefield Sabbath service from WWII has become an unlikely YouTube hit, the Time magazine editor who asked “Is God Dead?” died, and an Episcopal bishop plans to jump off a bridge.
Tensions have thawed between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, a Mennonite patriarch in Bolivia accused of rape was hung by a pole for nine hours, and Italian priests put nearly as much mileage on their cars as corporate executives. A Jedi was thrown out of a grocery store in England for wearing his robe and a Thai Buddhist monk is celebrating his 115 birthday today; he claims to be the world’s oldest man.
