WednesdayâÂ?Â?s Religion News Roundup: Batman in Aurora, Dolan-Colbert comedy slam, Muppets v. Chick-fil-A

Mitt Romney preaches American exceptionalism, a Philly priest gets jail time, and the Catholic Church gave Obama his start: unintended consequences?

Mitt Romney preached the gospel of American exceptionalism as he kicked off his foreign policy tour with a speech to the VFW. Jon McNaughton is the artist who can put those concepts on canvas, as David Morgan writes.

Msgr. William Lynn, the Philly priest who is the first church official convicted for covering up for clergy child abusers, will do time.

Revealed! How the Catholic Church in America sowed the seeds of its own destruction – when the Archdiocese of Chicago reimbursed a young Barack Obama for plane fare to a seminar on learning how to become a community organizer.


“In the 1980s, the Catholic archdiocese of Chicago contributed to the training of Obama in the very Alinskyite radicalism that would culminate in such anti-religious measures as the HHS mandate,” write Phyllis Schlafly and George Neumayr.

Not to worry – the Catholic Church can’t lose when you have Cardinal Dolan and Stephen Colbert teaming up for a panel on faith and funniness.

The Chick-fil-A gay marriage battle is heating up, with the Muppets getting grouchy and Mike Huckabee pushing people to eat the fast food he used to shun. Go figure.

A group of 46 Christian leaders from the U.S. issued an open letter expressing solidarity with homosexuals in Uganda who face “increased bigotry and hatred,” some of it fueled by religious groups, critics say.

Cuba’s famous dissident, Oswaldo Payá, has died in a car crash and some say it was no accident. Payá’s faith was an inspiration and driving force behind his human rights activism.

Christian Bale, a.k.a. “Batman,” made an unannounced personal visit the shrine to those killed in Aurora and some of those wounded in last week’s rampage at the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Is this what real heroism looks like?


A federal appeals court upholds Georgia’s ban on bringing guns into places of worship.

Still generating lots of debate: “Is gun control a religious issue?”

Scientologists win a round in court, as judges rule that those who enter the church’s controversial Sea Org knew what they were getting into and could have left if they wanted, so the practices were not violations of labor law.

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David Gibson

Photo credits: Jon McNaughton's “One Nation Under God” and Christian Bale by Getty Images via the WaPo.

 

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