Monday’s Religion News Roundup: @Pontifex; Nevada’s gay marriage ban; the Bay Psalm Book

The Pope joins the Twitters. Nevada court upholds the state's same-sex marriage ban. The Old South Church in Boston is selling a prayer book from 1640. 

Happy Advent, Christian friends. 

The onset of Advent means that it's been a year since the introduction of the new Roman Missal. Most Catholics seem to like it, CARA reports

Pope Benedict XVI is officially joining the Twitters Dec. 12, the Vatican announced this morning. His handle will be @Pontifex, which means both “pope” and “bridge builder.” 


As of this writing, he's got 100,000 followers already. Best question from the morning's news conference: Should the pope's tweets be considered infallible?

A federal court in LA refused to grant a preliminary injunction an actress who appears in the film “Innocence of Muslims” and wants it removed from YouTube.

A Nevada federal district court upheld Nevada's same-sex marriage ban despite an Equal Protection clause challenge. 

Oregon's Supreme Court held that the property of a break-away Presbyterian congregation belongs to the national denomination, the PC(USA).

An Indiana federal district court rejected constitutional challenges to Indiana's marriage solemnization statute, which allows clergy to solemnize marriages, but not “Secular Celebrants.” 

Suspected Islamist fighters in Nigeria killed 10 Christians with guns and machetes and burned down their houses, Reuters reports.

Islamists chanting “bread, freedom, Shariah!” rallied in Cairo on Saturday to support President Mohamed Morsi. 


Egypt's proposed constitution is now available in English, and Religion Clause has a helpful guide to its religion-related provisions

Turkey's PM wants to build a mosque that will fit 30,000 worshippers and stand taller than the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.  

New Jersey's Attorney General visited a Newark mosque Friday that had been listed in a secret report by the NYPD and tried to reassure local Muslims that they're not considered lesser citizens. 

The former rector of the nation's largest Episcopal church has become a Roman Catholic.

An organization of student nonbelievers is likely to receive $69,000 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the largest such grant ever awarded to a nontheistic, student-led organization.

For the first time, the University of Louisville's prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion will go to a female Muslim scholar.

Members of the Old South Church in Boston authorized the sale of one of its two copies of the Bay Psalm Book, which was published in 1640. They're also selling some colonial silver: 19 pieces, not 30.


Speaking of books, evangelicals may not be reading “Fifty Shades of Grey,” but that hasn't stopped them from talking about it. 

How many are secretly reading it, too? 

Yr hmbl aggrgtr,

Daniel Burke 

 

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