All eyes are on the Supreme Court today, as it hears oral arguments in one of the most significant church-state cases in years.
As NPR reports, Hosanna-Tabor Church v. EEOC concerns two questions: Who is a minister? And when, if ever, should an organization be exempted from civil rights laws?
SCOTUS declined on Monday to hear a similar case involving three fired World Vision employees, allowing the Christian aid group to maintain its mandatory statement of faith for workers.
An interesting case is shaping up in Delaware, where county commissioners are arguing that the Lord’s Prayer is “all inclusive,” and thus suitable for recitation at their meetings.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased for the first time since 2004, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center bought one of Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic letters for $150,000.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom technically went out of business last week, as the Senate stalls on a House bill for reauthorization. The bill calls for the number of commissioners to drop from nine to five; one Hindu leader said USCIRF has been too focused on the plight of Christian minorities.
Prominent Jewish Democrats have mounted a pro-Israel blitz to blunt criticism that President Obama’s support for Israel is soft.
The nation’s Catholic bishops warned their flock not to cherry-pick from church teachings to justify their own political preferences, as they reissued their 30-page voter guide.
Fresh Air’s Terri Gross scored an interview with C. Peter Wagner, the godfather of the New Apostolic Reformation – part of the “Dominionist” movement that is scaring some liberals.
Crystal Cathedral’s creditors are suing church insiders, alleging that family members borrowed money from an endowment fund and continued to receive generous salaries and perks even as the church struggled financially.
The Washington National Cathedral will reopen Nov. 12, but repairing damage caused by an August earthquake will require at least $25 million.
The Vatican newspaper said it is “historically senseless hypocrisy” to drop the dating abbreviations BC and AD. The BBC had suggested BCE/CE as a religiously neutral alternative.
The Rev. Jane Spahr, a Presbyterian pastor who has several times faced church charges for marrying same-sex couples, again married a lesbian couple in New York on Sunday.
Two recent books argue that explorers Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama were more Christian crusaders than greedy mercenaries.
The LA Times profiles a lonely Catholic priest on a large Native American reservation.
A Louisiana preacher has been charged with 473 counts of sex crimes against a young female relative.
Newt and Callista Gingrich have watched “The Hangover” seven times.
An online auction house is selling a 1967 letter that John Lennon wrote to a fan who had inquired about transcendental meditation.
South Park co-creator Matt Stone said Mormons react better to satirical jabs than Scientologists. “Prop 8 aside, I wish more religions acted like the Mormon church,” saith Stone.
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Daniel Burke
