Get ready for some dueling protests next week in NYC, as supporters and opponents of the Park51 project both plan to take to the streets on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
NYC Archbishop Timothy Dolan and several other religious leaders are planning regular meetings to try to reduce some of the tension over Park 51, the Islamic center planned for two blocks north of Ground Zero.
On Tuesday, the Islamic Society of North America has planned an interfaith conference to combat Islamophobia. Scheduled participants include: Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, National Council of Churches Gen. Sec. Michael Kinnamon, and Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Louis Farrakhan, who probably won’t be at the ISNA meeting, said he supports the Park51 project.
Muslims who lost friends and family members on 9/11 are feeling doubly victimized by the recent wave of anti-Islamic sentiment in the U.S., USA Today reports.
Reporters asked White House spokesman Robert Gibbs about all the noise Glenn Beck’s making about President Obama’s religion. Gibbs, who seemed less than interested in the topic, called the president a “committed, mainstream Christian.” Fellow Mormons are a little leery of Beck’s God talk, WaPo reports.
A chaplain killed in Afghanistan on Monday is the first Army clergyman to be killed in action since the Vietnam War. Four members of an Orthodox Jewish volunteer patrol were shot Thursday night after they confronted a man driving a car, the NYT reports.
A California court refused to order the Governator to defend Prop 8 in court. A federal judge overturned Nebraska’s ban on flag mutilation, clearing the way for Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church to continue torching Old Glory at military funerals. Muslims in Kansas are considering opening a private cemetery after government officials refused to create a separate burial area at public cemetery.
The President of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies said the Bishop of Pennsylvania should resign. Bishop Charles Bennison was found guilty of conduct unbecoming of clergy for failing to report 35 years ago that his brother was sexually abusing a minor. A church court acquitted Bennison on a technicality last month.
Suicide bombings targeting religious minorities killed at least 44 people in Pakistan on Friday; Reuters has a Q&A on the sectarian violence.
The dean of students at a Massachusetts Catholic school says she was fired because she married her female partner last month. Poughkeepsie, N.Y. said Jews can erect an 18-foot-tall menorah on public property but damn if city officials are going to pay to put it up or light it. Muslims in Turkey tried to set the world record for the largest number of people breaking the Ramadan fast together.
Teens in China are being trained with a sex ed curriculum created by Focus on the Family. Pat Robertson’s Regent University is struggling, financially. Mother Teresa is getting a U.S. stamp.
