So, the Obama White House threw its first Hanukkah party Wednesday night. Despite some kvetching about the guest list, the party seemed to be a nice farbrengen. Politics Daily has the scoop on l’affaire kosher.
As the Senate continues to strip, I mean, debate the health-care reform bill, the Catholic bishops’ chief pro-life guy says Sen. Casey’s compromise anti-abortion amendment doesn’t cut it. The Louisville Courier-Journal has a long profile of Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, the church’s point man on marriage.
Meanwhile, America’s charities are dancing a dour two-step: demand for their services is up; funding is down. “You hear a lot of tough stories out there,” one foodbank head told the AP. In Kalamazoo, Mich. (hometown of Derek Jeter) disagreements over homosexuality have led three churches to pull out of a joint ministry to the homeless.
Homeland security officials improperly gathered intelligence on the Nation of Islam, according to newly disclosed documents. They didn’t find much except for “highly volatile and extreme rhetoric.”
The Air Force Academy says religious tolerance has improved dramatically since reports five years ago that non-Christians were harassed by fellow cadets. Except for Maverick, he got a pass. And Goose.
The Catholic Church in Indianapolis will convert two of its inner-city elementary schools into tax-payer funded charter schools, following the Archdiocese of Washington’s lead. In Idaho, a charter school faces scrutiny for plans to study the Bible and other religious texts for their literary and historical qualities.
Rod Parsley says the devil has stolen $3 million from him and his ministries are now in jeopardy. Perhaps coincidentally church settled a $3-million claim with angry parents this year who claim their boy was spanked silly at Parsley’s day-care center.
Confessions made to a Mormon bishop are covered under clergy-penitent privilege, an Arizona court ruled; and an Arizona county will once again play Christmas tunes all day long at its jails. “People everywhere deserve a little Christmas cheer,” the sheriff said.
A Pew report found that religious freedom is curtailed in a third of all countries in the world, from burning down mosques to beating monks. That’s 70 percent of the globe’s population, Pew reports. As if to underscore the point, Vietnamese Buddhists are seeking asylum from the country’s communist government in France, France’s foreign minister said Muslims who wear full-face veils should be denied citizenship, and a British court ruled that a Jewish school discriminated against a child because he mother is not Jewish enough for the Orthodox.
The Vatican has defrocked African Archbishop Milingo because he is married and continues to ordain his own bishops. The bishop of Limerick, who has been heavily criticized reportedly covering up abuse against children, has resigned.
A billboard at an Anglican church in New Zealand depicting the Virgin Mary and a forlorn Joseph in bed with the heading “Poor Joseph, God is a hard act to follow,” is rubbing some Christians the wrong way. “The billboard is trying to lampoon and ridicule the very literal idea that God is a male and somehow this male God impregnated Mary,” said the church’s vicar. (The billboard is top left).
