James von Brunn (left), the 89-year-old white supremacist who went on a shooting rampage at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last year, killing a security guard, died in a North Carolina hospital while awaiting trial. The Holocaust Museum put out a brief statement, only mentioning his victim’s family, not von Brunn.
The Irish are perplexed — and the atheists downright annoyed — by a new anti-blasphemy law that took efffect on Jan. 1. Speaking of perplexed and annoyed, Buddhists are perplexed and annoyed at Fox’s Brit Hume for suggesting that Tiger Woods can find the forgiveness in Christianity that he thinks isn’t available in Buddhism. David Gibson over at Politics Daily weighs in with his thoughts.
Riots erupted in Cairo during the funeral for seven Coptic Christians who were killed in a Christmas Eve attack.The American Jewish Committee put out a solidarity statement with the Copts. In Portugal, lawmakers are expected to vote Friday to legalize same-sex marriage. Pope Benedict XVI thanked Italian security officials for keeping him safe when a woman toppled him inside St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve, even though she still hopped the security barriers.
The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences earlier this week banned head coverings that obscure the face (i.e., the niqab, potentially also the hijab). Now the Council of American-Islamic Relations, not surprisingly, is crying foul and wants a federal investigation. The EEOC reported the claims based on religious discrimination in the workplace rose in 2009.
In one of those only-in-Alabama kinds of stories, Republican candidates for governor are squaring off over whether every word of the Bible is true — and they’re doing it inside a Piggly Wiggly. Or something like that. And in an only-in-California story, Hare Krishnas and LAX are still fighting over soliciting donations inside the airport; a final resolution looks to be coming soon.
In a sign that the 2010 elections are well underway, Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore., says publicly scolding wayward Catholic politicians isn’t just good for their souls, but also to keep the wider church from becoming “discouraged.” He may want to convey that to Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, who’s new president is a former top aide to Sen. Bob Casey, a pro-life Pennsylvania Democrat, who was on the receiving end of warnings from the former bishop of Scranton.
A New Jersey woman accused of starving her children — and invoking God as her lawyer — has been ruled competent to stand trial. Also from the Dept. of People Who Should Stand Trial, Salvation Army officials in South Carolina fear they’ll have to cut-back on low-income help after someone wrote a $25,000 bad check on the closed bank account of a local company.
It’s the season of lists — looking back, looking ahead. Open Doors, a Christian persecution watchdog group, has it’s annual list of the top 50 countries where persecution is most severe. North Korea tops the list. Then there’s the group Film Snobbery (?), which has issued its list of the 50 most religious films of all time. We’re now accepting guesses on the No. 1 slot (clue: it’s not Mel Gibson’s orgy of violence). You can see the whole list here.
