President Obama called for “reforming our creaky system of legal immigration” at a speech in Washington attended by a number of religious leaders, including some top evangelicals. Illinois megachurch pastor Bill Hybels introduced the president; United Methodist Bishop John Schol delivered the invocation. The White House, it’s clear, sees evangelicals as important allies in the push for new immigration laws.
The Episcopal Bishop of Washington doesn’t like how Thurgood Marshall, an Episcopal saint, was “attacked” during Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s hearings. Seeing little on Kagan’s own record, some GOP senators trashed Marshall, for whom Kagan clerked. American Indians watched the Kagan hearings with interest and a sense of frustration that no members of their community sit on the high court, the AP reports.
July 4 falls on a Sunday this year, which means houses of worship may blend a little civil religion into their services. One hot topic among United Methodists has been the use of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which Southerners still don’t particularly care for.
It was a dramatic week for the Vatican, National Catholic Reporter says, what with the Belgian tomb raids, the public chastisement of a cardinal, a negative Supreme Court ruling, new appointments to powerful positions, and a new evangelization office. A New York Times story questioning Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of sex abuse cases may further roil the waters. Also, a rare survey of 500 Austrian priests showed a majority in favor of allowing priests to marry and women to be ordained.
A senior Communist Party official in China says they must approve the next Dalai Lama. Two suicide bombers attacked a popular Muslim shrine in Pakistan, killing 42 people and wounding 180 more. A Swedish prosecutor charged two men with arson for trying to burn down the house of an artist who drew the Prophet Muhammad.
England’s Methodist Church voted to boycott products from Israeli settlements. Oral Roberts University says it’s selling the presidential compound where the late evangelist lived. If there were any doubts, Seventh-day Adventists “clarified” that when they talk about marriage as a “heterosexual relationship,” they mean between “one male and one female.”
Cleveland Catholics ended their vigil protesting the closing of some 50 parishes. The new U.S. Poet Laureate is a devout Buddhist. Nepal has given its living goddess a raise to keep pace with the rate of inflation. A federal judge says a Pennsylvania law that bans blasphemous business names is unconstitutional. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn don’t want billboards with scantily clad women hanging in their ‘hoods.
That is all.
