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.