Image of two brides via Shutterstock
New Mexico’s Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Christian photographer did not have the right to turn down a lesbian couple who wanted pix of their commitment ceremony. Said Justice Richard Bosson: “there is a price, one that we all have to pay somewhere in our civic life” for religious belief.
The case was already a cause celebre for conservatives, and you can bet that the “there is a price” line will become a standard battle cry for conservatives. CT broke down the case earlier this summer.
Today’s the last installment of our #memoriesofthemarch online series, and we end it with civil rights widow Myrlie Evers, who couldn’t quite make her way to the stage 50 years ago. We’ll have coverage of this weekend’s festivities early next week.
Kudos to our pals over at National Catholic Reporter, who scored a $2.25 million grant to cover Catholic sisters from the Conrad Hilton Foundation. Turns out the hotel magnate wanted to “give aid to the Sisters, who devote their love and life’s work for the good of mankind.” Who knew?
The rampant and random “hook-up culture” on college campuses? It doesn’t really exist, says our own Jonathan Merritt.
A Tennessee church has kicked out a mother who refused to condemn her lesbian daughter.
Cast members of “Duck Dynasty” with the newest member, Alan Robertson (far left), who made his debut on the hit A&E show that garnered 11.8 million viewers during the premiere. Photo courtesy Duck Commander
In more welcoming family values, our own SPB explores the runaway popularity of “Duck Dynasty” and its understated but visible Christian message. And this, from family member Alan Robertson: “We don’t want to make it like `The 700 Club for Rednecks.’” He said it, not me.
A federal judge upheld a Missouri county law that seeks to keep Fred Phelps and his “God Hates Fags” protesters away from funerals.
Scholar T.M. Luhrmann went to Ghana to learn why people speak in tongues. One answer: it was the one language the devil could not understand. Also this: “It can also be easily faked. (If you say “I should have bought a Hyundai” 10 times fast, you’ll have done just that, a pastor taught me.)”
This week’s Moozweek is out, including an item about an elementary school in Wichita that teaches Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism but had to remove a poster of Islam’s five pillars when a Fox commentator called it a “giant wall display” for Islam.
There’s a new social media phenomenon — perhaps you’re part of it — of snapping pictures of sunsets and tweeting or Instagraming them as part of “God’s artistry.” Even Carrie Underwood is in on it.
Circumcision rates are falling for U.S. baby boys, down to 58.3 percent (although that figure does not count circumcisions performed outside hospitals like at a Jewish bris).
Not a religion story per se, but proof of reincarnation: Newt Gingrich is getting his Second Coming at CNN’s revived “Crossfire” shouting match.
Rabbi Rudin bemoans the persistence of the stained-glass ceiling for women clergy.
Newly inaugurated President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, that paragon of virtue, wants his countrymen to “damn” homosexuality as a “filthy, filthy diseases” that “destroys nations.”
Speaking of, Thailand may become the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage, or civil unions. Unless you count New Zealand as part of Asia; they already did it.
An Italian student got a personal phone call from Pope Francis, in which the low-key pontiff told the 19-year-old to address him informally. “He said to me, ‘Do you think the Apostles would have used the polite form with Christ? Would they have called him your excellency? They were friends, just as you and I are now,'” Francis reportedly said.
An Islamic TV station in the U.K. will have to cough up 85,000 pounds for inciting violence after a host said Muslims are duty-bound to murder anyone who insults the Prophet Muhammad.
Remember Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned just before the papal conclave because of abuse allegations (well, more than just accusations)? Turns out he put the kabosh on a nationwide audit of sex abuse policies when he was still in office.
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