Friday’s Religion News Roundup

Stay away, folks. I’ve come down with a nasty case of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, I am pleased that RNS, as you may have heard, is going nonprofit, thanks to a generous grant from the Lilly Foundation. On the other hand, a lot of people are saying the world is going to end […]

Stay away, folks. I’ve come down with a nasty case of cognitive dissonance.

On the one hand, I am pleased that RNS, as you may have heard, is going nonprofit, thanks to a generous grant from the Lilly Foundation. On the other hand, a lot of people are saying the world is going to end on Saturday.

So, do I party tonight like it’s 1999, or 2011? Tough call.


HuffPo catches up with a true Rapture-ready believer and finds…they dress like normals! Take, for e.g., John Ramsey, a “soft-spoken 25-year-old with black-rimmed glasses.” John favors bright polo shirts and tapered jeans, “garb not typically associated with doomsayers,” HuffPo reports.

In fact, the Harold Camping crowd is not so different from the rest of us, says ubiquitous religion scholar Stephen Prothero, just a little more willing to let their freak flag fly.

A number of Jewish leaders acted like President Obama’s much-anticipated Arab Spring speech was the end of the world. JTA has a react roundup here. HuffPo has a more interfaith roundup here. Is it wrong that I think of bath soap every time I hear the words “Arab Spring”?

As Religion Clause notes, Obama gave a shout out to religious freedom in his lengthy address. “In a region that was the birthplace of three world religions, intolerance can lead only to suffering and stagnation,” the president said.

In Iran, eleven members of the Church of Iran were acquitted of charges of taking “action against the order of the country” and drinking alcohol. A Tennessee state court dismissed most of a lawsuit seeking to prevent construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro.

House Speaker Boehner and Rep. Paul Ryan, both Catholics, released a letter from Archbishop Timothy Dolan that they say offers an imprimatur of the GOP’s 2012 budget. Politico calls it “a boost” for Ryan. Boehner, if you remember, was blasted by Catholic scholars who said he has “among the worst” records in Congress on helping poor people.

The Vatican’s newspaper panned a new modernist sculpture of John Paul II, saying the bronze work doesn’t even look like the late pontiff. Kentucky’s tourism board approved $40 million in tax incentives to bring a Noah’s Ark theme park to the bluegrass state. Church-state watchdogs say the ark is being launched on a “sea of tax breaks.” Obviously, they hope it sinks.

The forthcoming C.S. Lewis College in Massachusetts tapped a Burger King exec to be its chief administrator. Let’s all offer suggestions for the college mascot. “The Wormwoods” has a nice ring.


The feds have arrested another Virginia Muslim for threatening the “South Park” duo over the Mohammad episode. A New York City woman admitted setting fire to her young daughter during a voodoo ritual.

Mel Gibson, star of “The Beaver,” talked to CNN about his “complicated life story,” including his faith. A pastor can’t be sued for calling a parishioner a whore, a New York judge ruled.

Have a nice Rapture, everyone.

Yr hmbl aggregator,

Daniel Burke

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