Today’s big story
Another day, another court ruling on gay marriage. Right?
Wrong.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld same-sex marriage bans in four states Thursday.
So?
Well, it creates a split among the nation’s appeals courts. Over the last few months other federal appeals courts have struck down similar bans across the US.
Why did this court rule differently?
The panel said that democratic processes —state legislatures — rather than the courts should determine the issue.
What does it mean?
The Supreme Court will have to settle whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry. This, after they passed on the subject last month.
Does it never stop?
Yesterday it was the midterms. Today, the race for the White House. First in the ring? Dr. Ben Carson, the famous pediatric neurosurgeon and conservative political star who paid for a 40 minute-long ad introducing himself to the American people. It will air this weekend. He’d be the first Adventist president if he wins.
Pedestrian crosswalk.
Run-over intifada
In Jerusalem, more violence has created a new trend in which Palestinians plow cars into pedestrians, mostly Jews.
The upshot? Some worry a new uprising against Israeli occupation may signal the third intifada, or uprising.
But analysts agree that the most dangerous accelerant is the tension around the holy site known as the Temple Mount. It’s revered by Jews as the place where ancient Jewish temples once stood, and by Muslims as the site of Al Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. Israel’s chief rabbi now said Jews are forbidden from going to the Temple Mount.
Document dump
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has released more than 15,000 pages from the secret archives of the Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review relating to hundreds of lurid sexual-abuse crimes by 36 perverted priests dating back to the 1950s. All of this comes on the eve of Cardinal Francis George’s retirement.
Fights over religious discrimination
The Oxford-educated man who unsuccessfully sought to be the Navy’s first humanist chaplain is suing the Pentagon, claiming unconstitutional discrimination. (Aside: Check out England’s most-tattooed college chaplain.)
And a Sikh accountant who worked at the IRS won a settlement from the government after she argued that the policy barring her from wearing a kirpan, a small ceremonial knife, was discriminatory. Her settlement may help counter the discrimination Sikhs often face.
Keeping the union safe for religion
Jonathan Greenblatt, a special assistant to President Obama, will succeed Abraham Foxman as head of the Anti-Defamation League, the world’s best-known organization founded to combat the hatred of Jews and Judaism.
And in Columbia, Mo. (home to the RNS business office, also known as the mother ship), — the ichthus, or Jesus fish — was removed from a Courthouse Plaza war memorial after Americans United For Separation of Church and State sent a threatening letter saying the religious symbol violates the First Amendment.
More dissections of Brittany Maynard
Lisa Miller, in an insightful piece for New York Magazine, argues that the nation adored the 29-year-old who took her own life because she resisted the grosser realities of death itself, aka, the puking, dribbling, starving, whining…
“…in the secular West, dignity has come to mean a kind of existential modesty, a wish not to be seen at one’s worst, at a moment when one might not have the wherewithal to retrieve an appropriate fig leaf for the indecent business that is death.”
Religion’s wild side
Kimberly Winston writes about an exhibit of transgender Catholic saints at the Pacific School of Religion. Yup, women saints who were not exactly feminine in the traditional sense.
Halloween may be a distant memory, but in England a number of 17th century “witchmarks” intended to keep evil spirits away from a member of royalty have been discovered under the floorboards and surrounding the fireplace of a room built for King James I.
Happy birthday
Today is Billy Graham’s 96th. He will celebrate at home in the North Carolina mountains with family and friends.
Comic relief
And finally, On Faith has a terrific list of the 20 most essential comic books on religion. They’re good.
We hope the weekend brings you some comic relief. Be sure to check in with us on Monday. Make it easier and sign up below. We’ll do the rest.
