Rich Cizik, the former DC lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals who lost his job after telling NPR that he supports same-sex civil unions, returned to the same NPR show to reflect on the fall-out. The change, he says, has been good for him. And he still supports civil unions: “While I haven’t come to a conclusion on [gay marriage,] I am convinced that you can’t deny rights to people based on their sexual orientation. It’s wrong,” he says. “It’s even wrong, I think, as Christians to take that position. Because we should support human rights for all people even when they don’t agree with us.”
Boston University’s Stephen Prothero goes after Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey for suggesting that Islam may not be a religion after all; the Telegraph’s Damian Thompson says Islam may not be a cult, but cult-like Islam is all the rage. Newsweek profiles the Rev. Al Sharpton and what his career says about race relations in the Obama era.
FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the agency’s domestic surveillance program, saying there is no religious or ethnic profiling, as Muslims allege. Community leaders in New York recommended against a historic landmark for the proposed “Ground Zero mosque,” thereby eliminating a potential major hurdle for the center. NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is probing the case of a con-artist (supposedly Episcopal) “nun” who’s been soliciting funds for a charity that doesn’t exist. (photo, left, via NY Post)
The Anti-Defamation League says the number of anti-Jewish incidents remained as a “sustained and troubling” level in 2009. New York’s finest will step-up patrols around NYC mosques during Ramadan.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Christian counseling student against Eastern Michigan University after the school booted the student from the program when she refused to counsel same-sex couples. A federal court ruled that a Baptist preacher from a predominantly Muslim area of Ghana is eligible for asylum.
Israel says it may have to close the Jordan River to baptisms because of high levels of pollution. Twelve Muslims in Malaysia were fined for protesting a Hindu temple under construction by parading around a severed cow’s head (a definite no-no in Hinduism).
Human rights groups are horrified that an estimated 2,000 young girls — in the United Kingdom, of all places — will be forced to under female circumcision (genital mutilation) this summer. India, meanwhile, is struggling with a rash of “honor killings” involving couples who defy caste culture and family wishes and elope.
