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• 

  Friday’s roundup

  Posted: March 5th, 2010, 2:10pm EST

  The former COO of Catholic Charities in Washington said the decision to end spousal benefits for employees is "devastating" and will hurt the agency's ability to recruit quality employees. The Iowa teacher who refused to let a student build a Wiccan altar in shop class has been suspended; he's not happy about it. A federal judge in Arizona has said two churches can keep ringing their bells, at least for now, because Phoenix's noise ordinance is too vague.

  On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders trying to round up the troops are wooing a dozen anti-abortion Democrats whose support may be crucial for passing health care reform; the group, led by Michigan's Bart Stupak, don't like the Senate's abortion language and would prefer their own, tighter restrictions put back in.

  The president of a Wyoming college says he's sorry for promoting his school to exclusively Mormon high school students. The Chicago Sun-Times has a peek at the new star-studded Word of Promise Audio Bible. Focus on the Family is claiming credit in cutting in half the number of Colorado children in foster care.

  After telling a United Methodist church it couldn't sponsor church services for the elderly at a public housing complex, housing officials in Dallas have changed their mind.

  Conservative Catholics are apparently all atwitter over the decision to have Lake Wobegon's Garrison Keillor address next month's National Catholic Educational Association meeting. Others are trying to read the tea leaves after Cardinal William Levada -- the highest-ranking American at the Vatican -- flew to the most conservative diocese in the country to dedicate a chapel at a seminary that only practices the old Latin Mass.

  There's a slight case of agita developing in Rome over the brewing sex scandal at the Vatican, although the folks involved seem to be pretty C-list names.  However, in a case that's a bit too close for comfort, a former member of the boys choir in Regensburg, Germany -- whose director for 30 years was the current pope's brother -- is claiming abuse. It's not totally clear whether the alleged abuse occurred on Georg Ratzinger's watch.

  Chelsea Clinton's upcoming wedding to a nice Jewish boy is prompting all kinds of questions about interfaith weddings -- and more to the point, whether a rabbi will preside under the chuppa at Clinton's nuptials.

  So much for rolling out the red carpet: Muslim students in Indonesia are denouncing President Obama as an enemy of Islam, and throwing shoes at pictures of Obama's head, ahead of his March 20-22 visit to the world's most populous Muslim country.

  As officials investigate the cause of Thursday's stampede that killed more than 60 people at a Hindu shrine, an (alleged) sex scandal of a Hindu holy man is roiling the waters in India. And, just because it's Friday, the Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip has said men may no longer work in women's hair salons.

• 

  For the Bible tells me so

  Posted: March 4th, 2010, 5:04pm EST

  When the Bible is ignored, SeaWorld trainers die, says the American Family Association.

  You see, the Murderous Orca, named Tillikum, aka "Tilly," that dragged Dawn Bracheau to her death last month had killed twice before, in 1991, and, more recently, in 1999, when a man who snuck into Sea World to swim with the fishes wound up sleeping with them instead. Adding insult to injury, Tilly tore off the man's swim trunks after killing him, AFA says.

  According to AFA, which is famous for boycotting Pepsi and other companies that allow gays to buy their products, the Bible could have prevented Bracheau's death.

  "If the counsel of the Judeo-Christian tradition had been followed, Tillikum would have been put out of everyone's misery back in 1991 and would not have had the opportunity to claim two more human lives," AFA says. 

  For in the Book of Exodus, it clearly says: Kill the killer whales, before they kill you.

  No, it doesn't. But it does say: "When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable." (Exodus 21:28)

  AFA's takeway is, "So, your animal kills somebody, your moral responsibility is to put that animal to death."

  If the animal kills twice, then its owner can be stoned too, the Book of Exodus concludes, according to AFA.

  How do you stone a whale, though? Pretty hard to throw things under water, I've found. And what about all those nice whales in the Bible, like the one that let Jonah hang out in his stomach for three days, and Moby-Dick, and Willy?

  Lucky that our modern legal system offers an alternative solution, AFA says, which is to "sue the pants off SeaWorld for allowing this killer whale to kill again."

  A tip o' the cap to the good folks at Wonkette, for highlighting this important story. 

• 

  Thursday’s roundup

  Posted: March 4th, 2010, 2:30pm EST

  Gay couples emerged from a D.C. courthouse yesterday, marriage licenses in hand. NPR found a few gay Catholic couples who say the decision to suspend spousal benefits for Catholic Charities employees (as a way around the city's gay marriage law) makes them wonder whether the church really wants them at all. WaPo says teh gay marriage fight was never a question of if, but when.

  A stampede at a Hindu temple in northern India has left more than 60 dead; most of the victims were, not surprisingly, women and children. In the midst of the Malaysian dispute over whether non-Muslims can use the term "Allah" for God, a court has decided not to prosecute two Muslim men who took Communion at a Catholic church.

  A Mexican woman is claiming she had two children by disgraced (and now dead) Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel. Germany's Catholic Church is asking for the Vatican's help in probing abuse allegations. The U.S. branch of the small Traditional Anglican Communion says it will take up the pope's offer to cross the Tiber and become Catholics.

  Following on our story yesterday about Muslim concerns over full-body scanners in airports, two Muslim women were not allowed to board a flight to Pakistan after they refused to go through the scanner in Manchester, England. Anti-Muslim Dutch politician Geert Wilders' Freedom Party is making gains in local elections.

  Critics of global warming are jumping into the public school fray, alongside critics of evolution, saying both deserve a skeptical look by the nation's schoolchildren. As we reported yesterday, a new foundation in Georgia is seeking to pass the plate among the nonreligious. A United Methodist church in Dallas will no longer be able to offer Sunday services to elderly residents at a public housing complex, officials say.

  The Supreme Court won't weigh in on a dispute involving U.S. Postal products at a church-run store, and the wrecking ball may be coming soon to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's old PTL hotel in South Carolina. USA Today profiles every reporter's favorite Catholic priest, Jesuit Jim Martin.

  A full 95% of Texas Republican primary voters supported a nonbinding ballot measure (a sort of partisan temperature-taking device) on promoting God in the public square: "Proposition #4: Public Acknowledgment of God, which would allow the use of the word 'God,' prayers and the Ten Commandments at public gatherings and public educational institutions, as well as be permitted on government buildings and property, will appear on the November ballot.  It received 1,368,565 yes votes (95.13 percent)." 

  The Manischewitz factory in Newark, N.J., is churning out pound upon pound of matza, a sign that Passover is right around the corner. The Duggars -- you know, the conservative Christian parents in Arkansas whose brood is now 19 and counting -- are actually members of a fringe cult that wants to overtake the U.S. government ... or so says the National Enquirer.

• 

  Sideshow

  Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:26pm EST

  Italian newspapers are making much of an apparent Vatican connection to an ongoing government corruption-and-sex scandal. If you really must know more, try here.
• 

  The Enemy within

  Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:11pm EST

  "Yes, also in the Vatican there are members of Satanic sects," says the former president of the International Association of Exorcists. "There are priests, monsignors and also cardinals!"
• 

  Wednesday’s roundup

  Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 3:45pm EST

  Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts declined to grant a stay, and gay couples are lining up to apply for marriage licenses, as gay marriage became legal in the District today. Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl defended the decision by Catholic Charities to change its health coverage to avoid offering benefits to same-sex spouses, saying the church teaches to pay a just wage, but employers have the right to "frame" compensation packages. A United Methodist church in Washington announced that it will celebrate same-sex weddings, despite a UMC prohibition against it. 

  Bishops from three historically black Methodist denominations and other African American leaders are in South Carolina for the three-day "Great Gathering," aimed at finding solutions for persistent problems that plague black men. President Obama will address the gathering via video today. The AP says that four months after Martin Luther King's daughter was elected President of  the now-troubled civil rights group he co-founded, she still hasn't taken the helm or talked publicly about it.  

  Kaiser Health News takes a look at the practical applications of the U.S. bishops' new directives for patients in "chronic and presumably irreversibly positions," such as persistent vegetative states.  There are almost 10,000 faith-based charities in Haiti, and, in spite of their best intentions, they are making things worse for Haitians, says the Rev. Tony Campolo.

  It took a Baltimore jury less than three hours to return a guilty verdict against three members of a Baltimore religious sect in the starving death of a 1-year-old boy. A high-school shop teacher in Iowa was put on paid leave after prohibiting a student from making a Wiccan altar.

  Britain's House of Lords voted to allow same-sex partnerships to use religious language and be celebrated in religious buildings. Dutch gay rights groups called off a protest at a Catholic church after it said it would no longer ban gays from Communion. The pope will visit Spain in November. The European Court of Human Rights will review the decision that crucifixes in Italian public schools violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

  A leading Pakistani cleric issued a 600-page fatwa in London rebutting every conceivable justification for religious violence and calling terrorists "disbelievers." Reuters has an interesting reporter's notebook piece on the fatwa here.

  An Irish bishop is asking his flock to pay for the diocese's $14.2-million sex-abuse settlement. The Catholic Church in France doesn't like a new pay telephone line set up to hear confessions. Mullahs in Afghanistan are preaching birth control.  

• 

  Handicapping the red hats

  Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 6:19pm EST

  Italian media outlets are predicting that Pope Benedict will call a consistory to create new cardinals this November, and that among those receiving red hats will be Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Raymond Burke, late of St. Louis and now head of the Vatican’s supreme court.
   
  A consistory in November is very likely, since by that time no more than 101 of the current cardinals will still be younger than 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope.
   
  That would give Benedict 19 vacancies to fill, assuming he chooses to honor the limit of 120 cardinal electors established by Pope Paul VI. At his last consistory, in November 2007, Benedict named 18 cardinal electors.
   
  (Benedict could safely name a few more than 19 cardinal electors this November, since another eight from the current College will hit retirement age over the course of the subsequent year.)
   
  As for who will be on the list, Burke is almost a sure bet, since his position at the Vatican traditionally entails a red hat.
   
  The archbishop of New York is ordinarily a cardinal too. (He is also informally known as the “American Pope,” a nickname that NCR’s John Allen has chosen as the title of his forthcoming Dolan biography, interestingly scheduled for publication in October.)
   
  Some informed observers have predicted that Dolan will have to wait for the retirement of his predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan, who won’t turn 80 till April of 2012.
   
  Popes generally prefer not to have two cardinal electors at a time from the same episcopal see.
   
  That’s assumed to be the reason Washington’s Archbishop Donald Wuerl was passed over at the last consistory, when his predecessor Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was still only 77.
   
  Baltimore’s former archbishop, Cardinal William Keeler, will still be a few months shy of 80 this November, which may or may not keep his successor, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, standing at the threshold of the College of Cardinals.
   
  On the other hand, the pope can do whatever he chooses in this matter. Predictions at this point are either speculation or wishful thinking or both.
  
• 

  Handicapping the red hats

  Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 6:19pm EST

  Italian media outlets are predicting that Pope Benedict will call a consistory to create new cardinals this November, and that among those receiving red hats will be Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Raymond Burke, late of St. Louis and now head of the Vatican’s supreme court.
   
  A consistory in November is very likely, since by that time no more than 101 of the current cardinals will still be younger than 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope.
   
  That would give Benedict 19 vacancies to fill, assuming he chooses to honor the limit of 120 cardinal electors established by Pope Paul VI. At his last consistory, in November 2007, Benedict named 18 cardinal electors.
   
  (Benedict could safely name a few more than 19 cardinal electors this November, since another eight from the current College will hit retirement age over the course of the subsequent year.)
   
  As for who will be on the list, Burke is almost a sure bet, since his position at the Vatican traditionally entails a red hat.
   
  The archbishop of New York is ordinarily a cardinal too. (He is also informally known as the “American Pope,” a nickname that NCR’s John Allen has chosen as the title of his forthcoming Dolan biography, interestingly scheduled for publication in October.)
   
  Some informed observers have predicted that Dolan will have to wait for the retirement of his predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan, who won’t turn 80 till April of 2012.
   
  Popes generally prefer not to have two cardinal electors at a time from the same episcopal see.
   
  That’s assumed to be the reason Washington’s Archbishop Donald Wuerl was passed over at the last consistory, when his predecessor Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was still only 77.
   
  Baltimore’s former archbishop, Cardinal William Keeler, will still be a few months shy of 80 this November, which may or may not keep his successor, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, standing at the threshold of the College of Cardinals.
   
  On the other hand, the pope can do whatever he chooses in this matter. Predictions at this point are either speculation or wishful thinking or both.
  
• 

  Tuesday’s roundup

  Posted: March 2nd, 2010, 3:16pm EST

  The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington will stop offering health coverage to spouses of employees rather than cover gay couples, which might have been required when the district's gay marriage bill goes into effect on Wednesday. Gay marriage proponents say they consciously evoked MLK and the civil rights to win support among Washington's large African-American community.

  Phoenix residents want a church to stop serving the needy because they may pose a danger to the neighborhood. The church says the city is violating its First Amendment rights. "This is what it means to be a church," said the Rev. Dottie Escobedo-Frank of the CrossRoads United Methodist Church.

  The Presbyterian Church (USA) is holding seminars on how to "un-ossify" the denomination. The Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine, is preparing to lift Mass restrictions instituted to prevent the spread of swine flu. A high school student in Iowa was told not to build a Wiccan altar in shop class. The New York Times explores how men who grew up in churches ended up suspected of burning them down.

  The Vatican-ordered investigation of nuns wants the nuns being investigated to pay for its travel expenses. The Supreme Court said it would not hear an appeal from a breakaway Episcopal congregation in California that wants to keep parish property.

  Louisiana lawmakers will consider a bill allowing people to carry concealed weapons in houses or worship as long as the pastor approves. Worshippers at a clothing-optional Virginia church would have no place to conceal such weapons, or anything else for that matter.

  Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic defended himself in the UN war crimes tribunal against charges of genocide, saying he was protecting Serbs from a Muslim plot. The hardline minister who led Protestants in Northern Ireland will retire from parliament.

  A German archbishop said there is no connection between homosexuality and the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. The Catholic clerical sex abuse scandal seems to be spreading across Western Europe, as the Netherlands will now investigate a monastery school where accusations have erupted.

  A Chinese nun discovered a rare flower that only blooms every 3,000 years, according to Buddhist lore (image at top left). Ancient Egyptian priests were killed by rich, ritual food, according to researchers. And here I thought it was the plague.

• 

  Monday’s roundup

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 3:36pm EST

  Religious groups are again rushing to send people and supplies to victims of a natural disaster, this time the magnitude-8.8 quake that hit Chile on Saturday. An estimated 700 people have died already as Chilean officials say they are confronting an unprecedented emergency.

  The Winter Olympics wrapped up yesterday with a kitschy celebration of all things Canada -- on ice, of course. (Maple Leaf Girls in leotards and dancing Mounties, anyone?) It was a good day for Canada's true religion, hockey, though the American youngsters acquitted themselves well in the gold-medal game.

  And at least the Olympics were played, which is more than one can say for the Islamic Solidarity Games, the so-called Muslim Olympics, which were cancelled because Iran, the would-be host, inscribed "Persian Gulf" on the tournament's official logo and medals.

  Much to the chagrin of cultural conservatives, secularists met with White House officials on Friday and discussed religiously based "medical neglect" of children, proselytizing in the military, and government funding of religious charities. Meanwhile, President Obama's faith advisory council voted on policy recommendations, including more consultation of religious groups on foreign policy, clarifying the rules around what government-funded religious charities can do, and expanding the faith-based initiative itself.

  The Archdiocese of Washington says it will be in compliance of the district's gay marriage law when it goes into effect on March 3, but decline to specify what, exactly, it is doing. A New York Times editorial argues that the C Street House made famous by Republican philanderers should not receive tax exemptions as a religious organization, no matter how pious its boarders are.

  The Supreme Court declined to hear yet another Ten Commandments case. (Wonder if they're as sick of these cases as everyone else.) A lower court decision in Oklahoma said the Decalogue must go. President Bush said he couldn't have been president without prayer and that America has enough critics without his own "opining."

  One of the suspects in the Texas church fires attended a Sunday service and Baptist ministry on his college campus, even as suspicious authorities began to close in on him. A USA Today op-ed asks "Where Have all the Protestants Gone?" Long time passing, indeed. A Wisconsin presbytery voted to ordain an openly gay man, setting up yet another no-doubt lengthy legal scrum over homosexuality in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

  Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan says "white right" is conspiring to make Obama a one-term president. A deceased Jesuit accused of sexual abuse is haunting his order. Men who are liberal atheists have higher IQs, according to a study. Satan is following people on Twitter.

  China is raising the profile of its hand-picked Panchen Lama, the No. 2 spiritual figure in Tibetan Buddhism. Anti-Semitism is declining in Poland. A court in Indian struck down the two-year waiting period for Christian newlyweds to get divorced.

• 

  Post-earthquake faith

  Posted: February 26th, 2010, 10:27pm EST

  Since the massive earthquake hit Haiti in January, there has been an outpouring of relief efforts. But Florida Baptist Witness reports that there has also been an unusual number of conversions _ in the tens of thousands.

  The newspaper reports that more than 40,000 Haitians have made professions of Christian faith since the earthquake.

  Dennis Wilbanks, an associate in partnership missions with the Florida Baptist Convention, described a scene in Port-au-Prince in mid-February when the Haitian government called for three days of prayer and fasting.

  "People were in the streets, literally begging God for forgiveness and mercy," he said.

  The total of 40,127 professions of faiths is based on written reports from churches and pastors to the Confraternite Missionaire Baptiste d'Haiti, which is a partnership of almost 900 Haitian Baptist churches funded by the Florida convention.

• 

  Starr: An active churchgoer?

  Posted: February 26th, 2010, 8:48pm EST

  As Baptists continue to comment on the selection of former prosecutor Kenneth Starr as Baylor University's new president, ethicist Robert Parham has questioned university regents' description of him as an "active churchman."

  Parham's EthicsDaily.com confirmed that Starr currently attends University Church of Christ in Malibu, Calif., but is not a member. Other media reports have said the dean of Pepperdine University's law school belongs to McLean Bible Church in the Virginia suburbs of Washington.

  "Why would a 'church leader' not have a local church home where he lives?" asked Parham, who notes Starr has been on the West Coast since 2004. "If Starr represents 'the very best' of what it means to be an 'active churchman,' then Baylor's leaders have redefined churchmanship for Texas Baptists. Call it minimalism or absenteeism. But for honesty's sake, don't call it active church leadership."

  Starr has told the Baptist Standard that he plans to "readily, cheerfully and enthusiastically" join a Baptist church before he begins his post at the university in Waco, Texas, on June 1.

  (Photo credit: http://www.baylor.edu)

• 

  Friday’s roundup

  Posted: February 26th, 2010, 1:38pm EST

  Members of the Secular Coalition for America will get their long-awaited sit-down with members of the Obama administration today; POTUS is not expected to attend.

  Speaking of POTUS, he and FLOTUS honored luminaries in the arts and humanities at 1,600 yesterday; Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel seems to be the only "religious" name on the list (unless some of you consider Bob Dylan in that category).

  Clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces continue in Hebron over Israel's decision to include the Cave of the Patriarchs on a list of historical heritage sites (the site sits in the middle of Palestinian-controlled territory). The death toll from a stampede at a mosque in Timbuktu, where Muslims where observing the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, stands at 24.

  The two remaining U.S. missionaries in Haiti will stay locked up over the weekend, a Haitian judge says.German prosecutors have opened a probe into allegations of sexual abuse at a Jesuit-run school.

  Evangelical chaplains are keeping a wary eye on efforts to repeal Don't Ask/Don't Tell. A study says women at Catholic schools are more likely to "hook up."

  Evangelist Kenneth Copeland gets to keep his $3.3 million private jet off the Texas tax rolls. A rift is erupting between outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins and his godless online admirers. The trial involving a Baltimore cult continues, with one woman saying cult leaders had her institutionalized to keep her from talking.

  A Muslim employee at Hollister (think Abercrombie & Fitch)  is suing after she says she was fired for refusing to take off her headscarf. A Montana court said Butte High School officials were within their rights when they told a valedictorian to strip, or at least modify, religious references in her 2008 speech. A Jewish couple in Finland was fined after the mohel who performed their son's circumcision didn't use an anasthetic.

  Two long-separated pieces of the Hebrew Bible -- a victory dance of sorts after Hebrew slaves crossed the Red Sea -- have been reunited, and it feels so good. A Danish newspaper has reached a settlement with descendants of the Prophet Muhammad after the paper published cartoons that Muslims deemed offensive.

  Just in time for Passover, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she's knee-deep in the middle of a trade dispute over gefilte fish bound for Passover platters. A Jewish school in Washington state forfeited a tournament game rather than violate no-drinking rules related to Purim.

  And this, from Japan (just because it's Friday): A temple is allowing women to flush their troubles away after bowing to the porcelain god.

• 

  Fast for Lent

  Posted: February 26th, 2010, 12:38pm EST

  A Catholic priest in Ireland has boosted daily Mass attendance this Lenten season by pledging to get worshippers out the door in 15 minutes flat.
• 

  Signs from God

  Posted: February 25th, 2010, 9:23pm EST

  The Toronto Star has a cute little piece on church signs; you know, the ones outside churches and other houses of worship that tell you when the services start and sometimes even impart pithy little pieces of theology.

  For example: Feeling a little down in the mouth? Come in for faith lift. 

  or,

  Want to talk to God? Try knee mail.

  or,

  Remember that even Moses was once a basket case.

  "It's another way that churches are letting the community know that if you haven't come in lately, you might want to because we're the same kind of people you are," said Gayle Goodbody, newly appointed message-writer on the sign outside Living Water Community Church in Uxbridge.

  A number of blogs keep track of church signs, from the crummy, to the hi-larious. The First Church of Springfield on "The Simpsons" has had some nice spoofs, such as "No Shoes, no Shirt, no Salvation," and "There's Something About the Virgin Mary."

  You can put your wit to the test at this Web site that lets you create your own church sign. 

  Of course, some signs miss the mark. Like this one that had to be hastily re-written, according to the Star.

  "Lying in bed shouting 'Oh God' doesn't constitute going to church." 

  Got a favorite church sign? E-mail it to us and we'll post it. 
• 

  Thursday’s roundup

  Posted: February 25th, 2010, 3:35pm EST

  The much ballyhooed health-care summit is taking place today at Blair House (I know all of you are watching at your "summit parties"). The U.S. Catholic Bishops urged Congress to set aside partisan divisions and enact "genuine health care reform" that protects "the life, dignity, consciences, and health of all."

  Investigators seized books on demons and atheism from a home linked to one of the men charged with setting a Texas church on fire. 

  The chaplain's office at Andrews Air Force Base has disinvited Family Research Council Prez Tony Perkins from its National Prayer Luncheon after Perkins denounced Obama's call to end don't-ask-don't-tell. NPR interviewed the Pew Forum about its finding that 80 percent of Americans believe in miracles.  The LA Times says genetics was the elephant in the room during the Prop 8 trial in California.

  Several hundred churches are moving toward a split with the ECLA, the AP reports, but only 28 have voted to leave so far, a small portion of the denomination's 10,000 congregations. The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is looking for a new bishop after its last selection failed to gain consent from the wider church. The NCAA dropped ads from Focus on the Family from one of its Web sites. 

  Liberal Christians are organizing to stop a Mennonite college in Indiana from playing the national anthem before sporting events. Nurses in New York City are going Zen (that's Zen with an upper-case "z" ABC News) and a new study says Zen meditation can reduce the brain's sensitivity to pain. Another study says belief in God helps depression sufferers. Wonder if that will help the poor people of Utah, who will still find it hard to get a drink.

  The first female head of Germany's Protestants resigned after she was arrested for drunk driving. ELCA Presiding Bishop Hanson called her resignation "a great loss." The Obama administration and the UN criticized Israel for designating two West Bank shrines as national heritage sites. A Belgian Catholic priest is in trouble for presiding at a gay marriage.German prosecutors are investigating allegations of sexual abuse at two Catholic schools. 

  Uma Thurman's dad said Tibetans are like the Na'vi. Brazil wants Columbia Pictures to pay for using its famous Christ the Redeemer (pic at top left) statue in the movie 2012. Hey, at least he ain't drinkin and smokin.

• 

  The miracle worker

  Posted: February 25th, 2010, 3:03pm EST

  Most barbers are happy with a nice big tip, but the man who used to trim Pope John Paul II says the late pontiff miraculously cured him of a hernia.

  But as the Times of London notes, even if the Vatican were to recognize the cure as miraculous, it would still not count toward John Paul's eventual canonization as a saint. Pope Benedict is expected to recognize another miracle in the cause of John Paul's beatification, the honor just short of sainthood, which will probably be bestowed sometime this year. A second miracle would be required for canonization -- but it would have to have occurred after beatification.

  (All clear now?)

• 

  When journalists attack

  Posted: February 24th, 2010, 6:46pm EST

  Every day, we ink-stained wretches shove our noses all into church's business, reporting frequently on their failures, and occasionally on their successes. Is it only fair, then, when a church hires journalists to investigate a newspaper?

  The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported on Monday that the Church of Scientology has hired three prize-winning journalist to go sleuthing on the St. Petersburg Times after the paper published a scathing multi-part series on the religion's leaders last summer. The Times, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Scientology in 1980, has long feuded with church leaders.

  Neil Brown, the Times' executive editor, said his paper was asked to cooperate with the study but "couldn't take this request very seriously because its a study bought and paid for by the Church of Scientology.''

  Brown also said that he's "surprised and disappointed that journalists who I understand to have an extensive background in investigative reporting would think it's appropriate to ask me or our news organization to talk about that reporting while (a) it's ongoing, and (b) while they're being paid to ask these questions by the very subjects of our reporting."

  One of the journalists, Steve Weinberg, who has taught at the Missouri School of Journalism for 25 years and is a former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, told Kurtz, "For me it's kind of like editing a Columbia Journalism Review piece." He said the Church paid him $5,000 "and I can certainly use the money these days."

  Weinberg used to sing a slightly different tune, commenting on the True/Slant Web site in 2009 that "More than any other existing organization that comes to mind, the Scientologists have been so hostile to outside journalists that I cannot see crossing the line to accept employment there."

  The Columbia Journalism Review, for its part, is none too happy with Weinberg's comparison, saying "we're sorry Steve invoked our name."

  The Review also said, "The quality of this effort is not the point as much as the fact of this effort -- hiring on to help an entity notorious for bringing terrible pressure on any journalist who dares to examine it. While the pay is likely meaningful to the journalists, and we know that times are hard, it is chump change to the Church. The Church can essentially gamble that these veteran journalists will find something of value that it can use as a weapon against the Times."  

  The other reporters hired by the Church, Russell Carollo, who won a 1998 Pulitzer for Dayton, Ohio's Daily News and Christopher Szechenyi, an Emmy-winning former television producer, said in a joint statement:  "We were hesitant. That's why we insisted on being paid in full before we started our work, total editorial independence and having someone with the reputation of Steve Weinberg involved..."

  Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said the 20-page report was commissioned because "we wanted to get an outside view"; the report may, or may not, be published. Davis said the church plans to continue scrutinizing the Times, as it has done for a long time.

  Meanwhile, will the Times' report garner the paper its second Pulitzer for Scientology coverage?  

• 

  Wednesday’s roundup

  Posted: February 24th, 2010, 2:29pm EST

  A report issued Wednesday says the U.S. needs to pay greater attention to religion in foreign affairs.

  WaPo's David Waters boils it down: American foreign policy is handicapped by a narrow, ill-informed and uncompromising Western secularism that feeds religious extremism, threatens traditional cultures and fails to encourage religious groups that promote peace and human rights, according to a two-year study by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

  Speaking of, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has new leadership, while the ambassador-at-large position for international religious freedom remains vacant.

  The nation's top Catholic bishop went to BYU to cement the growing bond between Catholics and Mormons over conservative social issues: "BYU freshman Katie Bates said she felt `kind of like the Catholic Church was hugging the Mormon Church.'"
  

  The lesbian-turned-evangelical mother who's on the run in a nasty custody dispute now has a warrant for her arrest after she failed to make another court hearing in Vermont. In Saudi Arabia, women will now be required to show their faces in court to prove their identities; apparently there's a problem of identity theft with women posing as false heirs in inheritance cases. 

  A federal judge in South Carolina, meanwhile, has told a predominantly black church that, no, it doesn't have the right to blare its services over loudspeakers just because it's a church.

  Oregon lawmakers have agreed to end an 87-year ban on public school teachers wearing religious garb (it was originally intended to keep Catholic nuns out of the classroom). Nebraska and Pennsylvania remain the only states with such laws still on the books.

  Church of England leaders tell the Times of London that they will lift their opposition to civil partnerships (not marriages) being sanctioned inside religious buildings. And the Dalai Lama now has an official Twitter account.

• 

  Divorcees need not apply?

  Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 5:30pm EST

  I'd like to propose a discussion on the merits of the following idea, regardless of whether you agree with the general subject one way or the other. Let me explain:

  Andrew Sullivan raises a provocative point by lambasting the Archdiocese of Washington over its decision to suspend its foster care services rather than comply with the city's new gay marriage law. His point, in essence:

  "A simple parallel: does the Washington diocese's charities employ any people who have been civilly divorced and are now re-married under DC law? If so, how are these individuals less offensive to the teachings of the Church on the institution of marriage than a member of a gay couple provided civil marriage licenses?

  "Catholic doctrine is very clear: a remarried person is not remarried in the eyes of the Church, and for the Church to employ such a person would be to recognize a civil marriage that violates one of its core principles. "

  Obviously, Sullivan is a leading proponent of gay marriage, and has been for years. But he brings up what seems, at least to me, a good question: Is there a double standard when the church would (presumably) include spousal benefits for a divorced employee's spouse, but wouldn't include spousal benefits for a gay or lesbian employee?

  Or, put another way, is the church unfairly singling out gay couples, but not divorced couples? Would the church suspend its foster care program if the city mandated that it provide spousal benefits for divorced employees?

  I'm not interested in rehashing the entire gay marriage debate, but the divorce wrinkle seems to be a new one. Thoughts?

• 

  Monday’s roundup

  Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 3:30pm EST

  The Dalai Lama says he doesn't care that the White House took a low-key approach to his meeting with President Obama last week. He also commented, obliquely, on Tiger Woods, saying that all religions have a negative view of adultery, and that self-discipline with an awareness of consequences can help manage unruly desires.

  Kultilda Woods, Tiger's mom, said: "Since he was young, always Buddhism. Buddhist teach go inside deep to soul and correct bad thing to be a good thing. He got back to practice Buddhism again, that make him much better person." Mrs. Woods, who emigrated from Thailand 40 years ago, speaks broken English at times. 

  None of the 33 Haitian children taken by the American missionaries  are orphans, an Associated Press investigation found. In many cases, parents said they gave up their children because they were promised safekeeping in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

  Government agencies should strictly enforce church/state separation when they fund religious charities, and publicize where the money is going, according to recommendations released Saturday by a White House faith advisory task force.

  The Church of Scientology has hired three journalists, including a  Pulitzer Prize winner, a former "60 Minutes" producer, and the former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, to investigate the St. Pete Times, which last year published a scathing multi-part series detailing a culture of violence, intimidation and fraud among church leaders.

  Investigators in Texas say DNA evidence led them to two suspects in the string of church fires since January. A peak in the Santa Monica mountains has been renamed from Negrohead to Ballard Mountain after a black pioneer and one of the founders of Los Angeles' African Methodist Episcopal Church. U.S. Muslims are debating how much English they should use in worship without violating Islamic law and abandoning their culture.

  A Pew study found that one-quarter of Americans aged 18-29 have no religious preference or affiliation, and fewer than 20 percent attend worship services regularly. A Mississippi man wants a local court to remove church pews from its courtroom. 

  A clash erupted between Palestinians and Israeli police a day after Israel added a disputed shrine in the West Bank to its list of national heritage sites. The Archbishop of Canterbury voiced concern about the eroding Christian presence in the Holy Land. A Buddhist monk in Myanmar was sentenced to seven years in jail during the visit of a UN envoy.

  Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew struck back at critics of ecumenism, saying that  "If Orthodoxy is enclosed within itself and not in dialogue with those outside, it will both fail in its mission and no longer be the 'catholic' and 'ecumenical' Church. Instead, it will become an introverted and self-contained group, a 'ghetto" on the margins of history."

  Officials in India are criticizing an image from a school textbook of Jesus drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette (see pic at top left). The picture was apparently intended to illustrate the world "idol." The Vatican said the percentage of Catholics in the world slightly increased. A baby born on a plane in Bolivia will be baptized on the plane as well - with the chief of the air force presiding as godfather.

• 

  Not out of the Woods yet

  Posted: February 19th, 2010, 8:28pm EST

  Tiger Woods says he's "deeply sorry" for straying from his marriage vows -- "deeply irresponsible and foolish behavior," he says, and the jury's still out on whether or not people believe him. You can read his statement, or watch it, for yourself.

  He spoke openly and honestly about his Buddhist roots (and we all remember Brit Humes' thoughts on that):

  Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught. 

  Cathy Grossman over at USA Today breaks down Woods' mea culpa in light of Buddhist notions of repentance and returning to the right path:

  Buddhism, he said, teaches that "a craving for things outside ourselves" can only lead to "unhappiness and a pointless search for security. Woods said he needed to stop "following every impulse" and "learn restraint."

  Then, with several gulps and a weary, steady sad face, he said he was heading back to continue his therapy.

  While his pledge is to return to Buddhist ways, his point-by-point apology was classically biblical -- it's the same "turning" process that Bill Clinton cited, reading from a Jewish prayer, when he apologized for his Lewinsky affair in 1998:

  Admit your wrongs, take responsibility for them, express your regrets to all who were harmed, and spell out your path to return to integrity and righteousness.

• 

  Friday’s roundup

  Posted: February 19th, 2010, 2:54pm EST

  Just because it's Friday: Throw away those Cheetos and cinnamon buns and grilled-cheese sandwiches. Jesus is now appearing in fireplaces, one British man says. 

  China isn't happy after President Obama met with the Dalai Lama yesterday, but most analysts don't expect long-term damage to ties between Washington and Beijing. As expected, Pope Benedict XVI has approved the sainthood of Australia's first saint, Mother Mary MacKillop. 

  Saudi officials have sentenced a man with six wives to 120 lashes for having too many wives. Islam mandates no more than four, they said. He claimed he wasn't educated enough to know that. Or maybe count.

  Those eight U.S. missionaries who were released from a Haitian jail are now back home (two remained behind for further questioning) in Idaho, Kansas City and Texas.

  Evangelist Benny Hinn's wife of 30 years, Suzanne, has filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences." He says he didn't see it coming.

  A bevvy of Virginia pastors, including Pat Robertson and Jonathan Falwell, are asking new Gov. Bob McDonnell to defund Planned Parenthood. McDonnell, it should be remembered, is a graduate of Robertson's Regent University, where he wrote a volatile Master's thesis.

  Travel nerd/guru Rick Steves has long called the war on drugs a failure; now he's opening up a little bit more on his own drug use.

  Sir Elton John says Jesus was a "super intelligent gay man," David Gibson dissects the Vatican's Top 10 albums list, and WaPo follows a newly ordained Charismatic preacher who's holding services in a local Giant grocery store.

• 

  Tough words for Rick Warren

  Posted: February 18th, 2010, 11:18pm EST

  One of the things I love about Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker is that she always keeps you guessing. Just when you think you know what she's likely to say, she comes at you, out of nowhere, with something unexpected and deliciously surprising. Regardless of what you may or may not think of her (mostly) conservative politics, she's anything but predictable.

  She did it again today, going after Purpose Driven Life pastor Rick Warren for his relative silence on that "odious" anti-gay law in Uganda. Here's what Warren said, in explaining why he couldn't speak out more forecefully against a bill he finds "unjust," "extreme" and "un-Christian." :

  "... it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations."

  Really? Parker isn't buying it:

  In a "Meet the Press" interview last November, Warren said he never takes sides, but one wishes he would. To borrow his own words, it is in certain cases extreme, unjust and un-Christian not to.

  Read the whole thing here.

• 

  Thursday’s roundup

  Posted: February 18th, 2010, 2:45pm EST

  Eight of the 10 U.S. missionaries accused of trying to smuggle orphans out of Haiti have been released and are now in Florida; two others were held for further questioning (Reuters photo, left).

  The San Francisco Chronicle is asking why President Obama says he's against same-sex marriage, even though 14 years ago he seemed to support it. New Hampshire legislators, meanwhile, have defeated back-to-back attempts to repeal the state's gay marriage law.

  The pope's apology to Irish sex abuse victims is ringing hollow with some victims stateside, NPR tell us. A new wrinkle in that "odious" Ugandan law that would imprison gays and lesbians: one Ugandan pastor is showing gay porn at his church in an attempt to rally support for the measure. The NYT says the debate in Malaysia over whether non-Muslims can use the term "Allah" for God may actually be more about politics than religion.

  Chicago Cardinal Francis George reportedly wants to revive the granting of the title "Monsignor" to some priests -- he hasn't done it in his 13 years in the Windy City -- even though some priests say the competition for the title can create a rivalry among priests.

  Some French politicians are blasting a fast-food chain for serving only halal meat at eight franchises that attract a mostly Muslim clientele. In this country, politicians in Buncombe County, N.C., will be giving the opening prayers at commission meetings instead of local clergy, despite a judge's order that similar practices in Forsythe County were unconstitutional.

  A dead New Jersey man (who was born, but didn't live as an Orthodox Jew) will be disinterred so his remains can be cremated; that's what Irving Gottesman had wished, but his Orthodox brother, Bert, had him buried before Irving's love-interest could make the necessary arrangements.

  NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty has a look at the future of the Unification Church now that founder Sun Myung Moon seems to be in the twilight of his ministry. Episcopalians in St. Paul, Minn., are trying to translate the Book of Common Prayer into Hmong for the denomination's only Hmong-speaking congregation.

  Lent finds more people turning to spiritual directors for guidance, Ann Rodgers reports from Pittsburgh. After all their (regular) Mardi Gras partying and (extraordinary) Super Bowl festivities, many in New Orleans say they're ready for the quiet of Lent. We'll see how long that lasts. 

• 

  Wednesday’s roundup

  Posted: February 17th, 2010, 1:49pm EST

  The independent federal panel charged with monitoring religious freedom abroad is rife with charges of religious discrimination at home, according to WaPo. The paper is also reporting that the Archdiocese of Washington, making good on fears of cutting back social services, has ended its foster care program rather than yield to the city's pending gay-marriage (and anti-discrimination) law.

  Pew is out with new numbers on the up-and-coming Millennials (take-away: they're more liberal than their parents). Atheists have filed suit to end the tax-break housing allowances for clergy. In a new wrinkle on the "Choose Life" license plates debate, Virginia drivers may soon have the option of a "Trust Women/Respect Choice" plate. Revenue from the plates that was supposed to go Planned Parenthood will instead go to a government program to assist women with unplanned pregnancies.

  Some students and alumni at Baylor University (the world's largest Baptist university) are grumbling over the choice of former Clinton arch-nemesis Kenneth Starr as the school's new president. One of their complaints: he's not even a Baptist (he was, until recently, a member of the acapella Church of Christ).

  An international ban on cluster bombs will take effect in August after requiring the necessary number of supporters, without the U.S. or Israel as signatories (98 percent of victims are civilians, activists say). The Dominican lawyer who's been advising those U.S. missionaries detained in Haiti is on the run, and confirmed to the AP that he's wanted on an 2003 immigration-smuggling charge out of Vermont. Oops.

  As we reported yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI wrapped up his two-day scolding of Ireland's Catholic bishops over the "heinous" sin of child sexual abuse. (David Gibson says the Emerald Isle is in need of a modern-day St. Patrick). Speaking of "heinous" abuse, three Muslim women in Malaysia were caned -- the first women to receive the punishment, officials say -- for extramarital sex. A debut film by a German Muslim filmmaker that tackles taboos like homosexuality and abortion is making a splash at the Berlin Film Festival.

  WaPo follows a Jehovah's Witness from Peru who's desperately in need of a lung transplant but has refused treatment because the surgery would involve a blood transfusion, which is prohibited for church members. 

• 

  Fat Tuesday’s roundup

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 3:27pm EST

  Happy Fat Tuesday, everybody. May you enjoy your last indulgences before the sullen season begins.

  The National Council of Churches released its annual yearbook of church-membership statistics. The big news seems to be that the Southern Baptist Convention reported a decline, though slight, for the second year in a row. The Catholic Church rebounded with an increase of 1.5 percent and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew by 1.71 percent.

  Authorities are conducting a manhunt for a legal adviser to the American missionaries in Haiti who is wanted in El Salvador for alleged involvement in a human smuggling ring. The NYT has a story on the tensions between missionaries from different faiths in Haiti. 

  President Obama named a White House lawyer (and Quran expert) as his special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as part of his attempts to rebuild ties with Muslims. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appointed a new president, and Baylor University appointed Ken Starr as its president.

  The openly lesbian Episcopal suffragan bishop-elect of Los Angeles has received 36 of the necessary consent votes from diocesan standing committees. She has until May to get 20 more. The (straight) woman elected as Los Angeles other suffragan bishop at the same convention has received 48 consents thus far. The Diocese of Los Angeles did not report the tally from diocesan bishops, from which the candidates also need majority approval.

  A Kentucky judge has ordered the state to take down two billboards with religious messages, saying they violate highway beautification laws, a Washington teen was told to take off his Nietzsche t-shirt, which bore the philosopher's face and famous quote "God is Dead," before sitting for a yearbook photo, and Jewish groups are split on whether universities can refuse to recognize groups that discriminate, an issue which will be taken up by the Supreme Court.

  Two teenage brothers shot in a Northern California church are cooperating with the police. Catholics are torn between the biblical injunction to "be fruitful and multiply" and the church's condemnation of most reproductive technologies, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

  Pope Benedict XVI urged Irish clergy to confront the pedophile priest scandal that has rocked the church, the Vatican said it will post some of its WWII archives online in an apparent attempt to quell controversy over its efforts to canonize Pope Pius XII. Tibetans refused to celebrate the new year on Sunday to protest their lack of religious freedom. 

• 

  Baptist slams `camel method’

  Posted: February 12th, 2010, 9:17pm EST

  Ergun Caner, a former Muslim who is president of Liberty Theological Seminary, has called a method used by fellow Southern Baptists to spread the gospel a form of "heresy."

  Associated Baptist Press reports that Caner, who considers Islam a false religion, rejected the so-called "Camel Method'' in a podcast interview on the SBCToday blog.

  "You can't start an evangelistic enterprise based on deception," Caner said. "I just can't imagine that type of lying, and that's exactly what I call it."

  The "Camel Method" uses the Quran as a bridge for sharing the gospel with Muslims and draws on a familiar legend in Islam. "The story goes that every good Muslim knows 99 names for Allah, but there is a 100th name that was revealed only to the camel," writes ABP. That name is Jesus, or "Isa" in Arabic.

  The method was developed by Kevin Greeson, who has served with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board since 1993, who told ABP he created it after he initially was unsuccessful in converting Muslims.

  Photo credit: imbresources.org

• 

  Clinton’s orphanage story a history lesson

  Posted: February 12th, 2010, 7:32pm EST

  At the recent National Prayer Breakfast, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spent a significant portion of her keynote speech on how Mother Teresa garnered her support for the creation of a D.C. home for orphans in the mid-1990s.

  But World magazine reports there's more to the story: "the Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children in northwest Washington, D.C., is now defunct."

  In her Feb. 4 speech, Clinton recalled how the famous nun "told me that she knew that we had a shared conviction about adoption being vastly better as a choice for unplanned or unwanted babies. And she asked me - or more properly, she directed me - to work with her to create a home for such babies here in Washington."

  Chuck Johnson, chief operating officer of the National Council for Adoption, told World that Clinton's "been consistent" about adoption.

  "This has been a core issue - adoption -whether the home (Clinton) talked about survived or not," he said.

  Religion Dispatches has also delved into the history of Clinton, the orphanage and Mother Teresa.

• 

  Worried pets will be left behind?

  Posted: February 12th, 2010, 5:55pm EST

  If you believe in the Rapture and you're a pet owner, Bart Centre may have the answer to your prayers.

  Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that the retired real estate executive in New Hampshire has started the "Eternal Earth-Bound Pets" business that will pair left-behind pooches and felines with atheists who don't think the Rapture will ever happen.

  "If you love your pets, I can't understand how you could not consider this,'' he said.

  But the magazine notes that everyone isn't crazy about the idea.

  Said Todd Strandberg, founder of the Web site raptureready.com: "A lot of persons are concerned about their pets, but I don't know if they should necessarily trust atheists to take care of them."

  Photo credit: http://www.tumblr.com

• 

  Friday’s roundup

  Posted: February 12th, 2010, 3:13pm EST

  Haitians crowded into churches in Port-au-Prince for a national day of mourning to mark the one-month anniversary of the devastating earthquake. The 10 American missionaries charged with kidnapping will probably spend the weekend in jail, despite the Haitian judge's recommendation that they be freed pending their trial. Meanwhile, the NYT reports that El Salvador is investigating a man who may have ties to the American missionaries and has been linked to child trafficking rings in Central America.

  President Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama on Feb. 18, the White House announced. China is angry.

  The FBI has seized computers and documents from the home the chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Rev. Raleigh Trammell, the chairman of the conference co-founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has been accused of diverting SCLC funds to a private bank account.

  A search is underway for a new archbishop in Los Angeles, the nation's largest diocese. PETA wants all the Catholic bishops to go vegan for Lent. Good luck on that one, guys.

  The Fiqh Council of North America, a body of Islamic scholars, says airport body scanners violate Muslims tenets on modesty. The Baltimore trial of a religious sect charged with starving a young boy to death begins Monday. Brain damage can lead to feelings of transcendence, according to a study.

  British Methodist are looking to heal their two-century-old rift with the Church of England, according to Reuters. The Vatican convened an interfaith conference on helping the sick and finding meaning amid deep suffering. Hindu nationalists stoned movie theaters to protest an actor who dared to praise Pakistani cricket players.

  Thousands of Hindu holy men took a dip in the chilly Ganges River to wash away their sins (see photo at top left). A British court rejected an appeal from an airline employee who was told not to wear her crucifix to work.

• 

  Tuesday’s roundup

  Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 12:40pm EST

  Haiti's prime minister said the 10 Baptists from American who tried to take 30 children out of the country without documentation knew what they were doing was wrong and could be prosecuted in the U.S.

  Christian conservatives had a big hand in defeating Hawaii's same-sex civil union bill, according to Baptist Press. The ELCA's Northeastern Iowa Synod rescinded two measures passed by the denomination last summer that allows gay and lesbian clergy and a social statement that acknowledges difference of opinion on homosexuality. A Pennsylvania county judge said that the former Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, which seceded from the church in 2008, must turn over control of diocesan assets to the Episcopalians who remain with the Episcopal Church.

  An Illinois man is suing the state for putting up sign calling religion "a myth and superstition" as part of its holiday display last December. An Oregon man said police disturbed the mystical qualities of his medicine bag while searching it for drugs.

  Pope Benedict XVI, in announcing his trip to England, criticized the country's pending Equality Bill. The Catholic Church in France rejected the country's proposed ban on full-face veils in public. Two militant Islamist groups in Somalia said they are joining Al-Qaida. China warned President Obama not to meet with the Dalai Lama.

• 

  Monday’s roundup

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 2:47pm EST

  Ten Baptists from the U.S. are being held in Haiti on charges of child trafficking. The group was trying to take 33 children out of Haiti to an orphange it is building in the Dominican Republic. Haitian officials, who have suspended adoptions in the post-quake chaos, say the group did not have proper documentation for taking the children from Haiti.

  An Arkansas trial judge has terminated the parental rights of six members of Tony Alamo's sect. The Catholic bishop of Albany has approved a plan for his diocese to distribute free needles to drug users to stanch the spread of HIV/AIDS.

  The Council on American-Islamic Relations plans to file a complaint against the mayor of Lancaster, Calif. (not to be confused with Lancaster, Pa.) whose plans include "growing a Christian community" and endorsing prayers at city meetings.

  Sister Mary Daniel Turner, a leading voice among American nuns after Vatican II, died Jan. 27 at age 84. The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, John Chane, a prominent proponent of gay rights, announced that he will retired in 2011.

  Pope Benedict XVI confirmed that he will visit Britain, probably in September, and urged British Catholics to welcome disaffected Anglicans. Susan Boyle wants to sing for him.

  A female suicide bomber attacked a group of Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, killing 41 and wounding 100. China stuck to its hard line in weekend talks with Tibetan envoys of the Dalai Lama.

  Catholics and Protestants are close to reaching a power-sharing deal in Northern Ireland. Thousands of Iranian Zoroastrians gathered in the snowy mountains to light huge bonfires to mark the Sadeh festival, which celebrates fire.  (Picture at top left is from Pyvand Iran News.) 

• 

  Friday’s roundup

  Posted: January 29th, 2010, 2:18pm EST

  The man accused of killing Kansas abortionist George Tiller said he did it to save unborn babies. "I did what I thought was needed to be done to protect the children," Scott Roeder said. "I shot him." The judge also ruled out allowing Roeder to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. [UPDATE: Jurors found Roeder guilty after just 37 minutes of deliberation.]

  Brace yourself for a renewed front in the culture wars: Pentagon brass are expected to release a plan on Tuesday for how to integrate gays and lesbians into the military, essentially lifting the 1993 Don't Ask-Don't Tell policy. President Obama also called on Congress to pass a domestic benefits bill, although he largely danced around the gay marriage question (although Mexico City's mayor doesn't).

  A federal judge has ruled against a North Carolina county board that opened its meetings with prayer, saying they were inappropriate and unconstitutional. Some secular groups are rallying opposition to the planned Mother Teresa postage stamp. The landmark chapel at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs plans to add space for earth-centered (Wicca, Druid) worship.

  Malaysian officials have charged three Muslim men with fire-bombing a church in the latest flare-up of violence over whether non-Muslims can use the term "Allah" to describe God. Concern is growing that Haitian orphans are being sold for as little as $50.

  John Travolta says his Scientology faith helped him recover from the death of his son just over a year ago, although he didn't mention Scientology by name, instead just saying "our church." 

  In a development that would give your Jewish bubbe shpilkes in her genecktegessoink, The Forward is reporting that Jewish nursing homes are allowing non-kosher meals, or ditching the kosher menu altogether. 

  From the Dept. of Well, That Didn't Last Very Long, former Bush White House faith-based director Jim Towey is stepping down as president of St. Vincent College outside Pittsburgh and will be replaced by a monk. St. Vincent is staying mum on why Towey's leaving after four years; the Post-Gazette has this blurb: ..."his administration was also marked by complaints from faculty that he lacked collegiality and didn't follow academic protocol. Mr. Towey announced in October that he would leave June 30."

  And finally this: A Polish Catholic priest has installed an electronic fingerprint reader at a Catholic school; students who attend 200 Masses won't have to pass an exam prior to confirmation. No word yet on if there are nuns with rulers to make the kids stay awake.

   

   

• 

  Thursday’s roundup

  Posted: January 28th, 2010, 2:14pm EST

  Friends of Scott Roeder (left), the anti-abortion militant accused of killing abortionist George Tiller last year, say he's eager and anxious to tell his side of the story in court today. In Colorado, a man facing drug charges is eager and anxious to get high again -- all in the name of God, he says. Also in court, the Oregon father accused in his son's faith-healing death says he never sought medical help, in part, because he never thought his son was close to death.

  German officials are apparently embarrassed after U.S. officials granted political asylum to a Christian family who wanted to homeschool their kids, but were told it was against German law. Court officials in Arkansas, meanwhile, will hold hearings to figure the fate of children seized from convicted evangelist Tony Alamo's compound.

  Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson has been ordered to appear in German court on April 16 to face charges of doing what he does best: denying the Holocaust.

  A proposed California law would explicitly protect clergy from being forced to solemnize civil marriages that violate the tenets of their faith -- a bone to opponents of same-sex marriage who feared clergy would be forced to marry Heather's two mommies. The Proposition 8 federal trial wrapped up yesterday in San Francisco (closing arguments aren't expected for several more weeks), with a star witness for the defense seeming to equate traditional marriage with polygamy.

  In suburban Washington, a Catholic church organist claims she was fired after voicing support for women's ordination; the priest insists the organist resigned.

  The LAT looks at life in a Nebraska meat-packing plant after the arrival of dozens of Somali Muslims. Two things of note in WaPo this morning: A Sunday story examines the claims against a rabbi known as "The Indiana Jones of Torah Scribes," who some say is a fake, and formerly Catholic schools (now independent values-based charter schools) try to retain their values with the Catholic name attached.

  Americans have given an estimated half a billion dollars to help Haiti recover from the earthquake and are on pace to beat the $1.92 billion raised in 2005 after the Southeast Asia tsunami. Then there's this Steven King-like lede from Reuters: "The earthquake that shattered Haiti has unleashed fears that child-eating spirits, mythological figures entrenched in Haitian culture, are prowling homeless camps in search of young prey."
  

  Pope Benedict XVI recently advised priests to go forth and blog. NPR collected some blogging tips for His Holiness, starting with actually starting a blog himself.

• 

  Wednesday’s roundup

  Posted: January 27th, 2010, 3:40pm EST

  Fifty-six national faith groups and dozens of regionall religious organizations have signed a letter to Congress asking them to "take heart and move meaningful health care reform forward." The U.S. Catholic Bishops, who did not sign the document, put out their own strongly worded statement, declaring that the "health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority." The bishops said Congress should not "abandon this task," but rather put aside divisions and get'er done.

  The online dating site eHarmony has met a match with a $1.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by gays and lesbians who said the service discriminated against them. The company also said it will make its Web site more "welcoming" to same-sex seekers.

  Women's groups are upset about Focus on the Family's plans to air an anti-abortion ad during the Super Bowl featuring 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. The United Church of Christ is crying foul because networks had refused to air their ads welcoming gays several years ago. The head of a conservative group testified at California's gay marriage trial that the institution of marriage is so weak that same-sex nuptials could kill it.

  A Catholic bishop in Ohio pleaded with his flock not to abandon church after an 80-year-old woman was killed during a robbery while she was leaving Mass. Six prominent Orthodox rabbis pleaded for special treatment for Sholom Rubashkin, the former manager of a kosher meatpacking plant who was convicted last year of bank fraud and other charges. Yoga classes in New York have turned into lusty feasts.

  Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori met with UN head Ban Ki-Moon in New York and discussed the crises in Haiti, Sudan, and the UN's Millennium Development Goals. The Church of England will lose about $78 million in an NYC real estate investment that turned sour.

  As the world marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli President Peres said Germans and other Europeans who participated in the Shoah should be tracked down and brought to justice. Pope Benedict XVI denounced the "horror" of the Holocaust. Pope John Paul II used to whip himself, according to a new book.

  Muslim worshippers at two Malaysian mosques found severed heads of pigs, in another incident over the "Allah" controversy. Neither the Dalai Lama's envoys nor China gave any ground in talks Tuesday. 

• 

  Tuesday’s roundup

  Posted: January 26th, 2010, 4:06pm EST

  With expected government cuts to abstinence education funds, evangelical Christians are picking up the slack. By the way, teenage pregnancy and abortion rates rose from 2005-2006, according to a report released Tuesday.

  Pro-gay religious leaders, including Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson are planning a multi-city event called "The American Prayer Hour" to counter the National Prayer Breakfast, which is run by The Family, a secretive conservative Christian group that has been accused of inspiring Uganda's proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

  In another sign that we're not out of the economic wilderness yet, the Diocese of Rockville Centre, one of Long Island's largest employers, plants to offer buyouts to 25 percent of its 6,000 employees, the AP reports.

  John Travolta flew a private jet carrying supplies and Scientology ministers to Haiti. That's Vinnie Barbarino next to one of his jets in a 2002 AP photo at top left. Federal prosecutors say a Nebraska man will plead guilty to hacking Scientology's Web site. South Carolina's lieutenant governor likened government welfare to feeding stray animals. "My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals," said Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer. "You know why? Because they breed." Bauer later said he wished he'd used a different metaphor.

  In a break with the past, Goshen College in Indiana, a Mennonite school, will play the "Star-Spangled Banner" before athletic events. Historically, Mennonites have looked askance at the national anthem because it places love of country higher than love of God, The Mennonite reports.

  Pope Benedict XVI decried a "growing aversion" to Christianity and said people should amp up the intensity on evangelism. The Russian Orthodox Church is using its muscle and government ties to squeeze out other faiths, human rights activists warned. An Auschwitz survivor has teamed with a hi-hop group to spread an anti-racism message in Germany. 

  A French parliamentary panel recommended that full-face veils be banned in public, including hospitals and mass transit. Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews are boycotting their own Web site. Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland are in talks to save their unity government. Two of the Dalai Lama's envoys are to arrive for talks in China today, but Chinese officials have not softened their hard line on Tibet.

• 

  Monday’s roundup

  Posted: January 25th, 2010, 3:20pm EST

  As intellectuals stroke their chins over God's role (or absence) in the Haitian earthquake, the American people at large have responded by opening their pocket books and donating more than $380 million  _ much of it through the Interwebs _ for Haiti, a record for a foreign disaster, the Baltimore Sun reports. "It's clear that people are rising to sacrifice," said Mark Melia of Catholic Relief Services, which has taken in $23 million. "People are making large gifts that are not easy to make." 

  The screening at the Sundance Film Festival of a movie critical of Mormons' role in Prop 8 drew only a few protesters. "The must be in church today," said one of the movie's producers about the lack of anti-gay-marriage activists.

  The AP got an advance look at the waterfalls that will become a part of the 9/11 memorial in NYC. A mother who starved her children, believing that "God will provide" for the impoverished family, was convicted of child endangerment in New Jersey. The WaPo finds that there are still some Catholic women who want to be priests. NPR profiled Senate Chaplain Barry Black.  

  Pope Benedict XVI told priests to go forth and blog, and the Vatican released an upbeat assessment of its finances. A French parliamentary panel will recommend a ban on face-covering veils in public spaces, but will not press to outlaw them in the streets, according to the AP. Christians in Nigeria have accused the military of committing genocide in the clashes that have left 320 dead. One Muslim intellectual says the way to fight Islamists to get them to go shopping. 

  The New York Times tracked down a Baha'i man whose younger brother is on trial for espionage in Iran. Baha'is and the U.S. State Department say the charges are trumped up and amount to religious persecution. The power-sharing agreement between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland is on shaky ground. The Philippines made Eid al Adha a national holiday.

  More than 100 Russian Orthodox Christians have been hospitalized after drinking holy water on the feast of the Epiphany, the source of which was a stagnant lake. Many Russians consider any water to be holy on Epiphany day. They also jump in freezing cold water, as the AP picture at top left shows. 

• 

  Friday’s roundup

  Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 2:36pm EST

  As we slide into the weekend, here's how it's looking out there:

  As we reported yesterday, the Michigan-based defense contractor says it will no longer inscribe Bible verses on its rifle scopes. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

  Opening arguments are scheduled today in the murder trial of Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist accused of gunning down abortionist George Tiller in the foyer of his Kansas church last year.

  The NYT has more extensive coverage of yesterday's diverted USAirways flight after a flight attendant noticed a passenger retrieving something from his carry-on and wrapping him self in black straps; turns out it was an Orthodox Jewish teenager doing morning prayer. The Gray Lady also has a closer look at the Chinese Christians who have found themselves at the center of a court battle over the Prop 8 measure that banned same-sex marriage; lawyers pushing to overturn Prop 8 are expected to wrap their arguments today.

  A judge in Connecticut has rebuffed preservationists' attempts to force an Episcopal church to keep its quaint (but crumbling) rectory intact, and a spiritual counselor in Virginia is going to court to force a distinction between counselors and fortune tellers. In Springfield, Mass., Catholic leaders are suing the city over attempts to create a landmark historic district around a shuttered church (watch the RNS website for more on this story later today).

  A 10 Commandments monument is back on the courthouse lawn in Leitchfield, Ky., after a federal appeals court said it passed constitutional muster. "We all love Jesus Christ and anything that comes with it," exclaimed Steve Mahurin, a minister who works for the road department.

  WaPo reviews "Creation," the Charles Darwin film that opens today nationwide, and finds it lacking. "Drowning in its own melodrama," to be more precise. (RNS previewed the film on Wednesday.)

  Voodoo is coming out of the closet in Haiti, NPR is reporting, as people try to make sense of the devastation. The AP reports that donations for Haiti are outpacing donations for the South Asia tsunami, but still lag behind Hurricane Katrina. After a Senate vote Thursday, you can write off those donations on your 2009 taxes.

  And this, because Elvis never really leaves the building: a Toronto church is using the King of Rock 'n Roll as an avenue to the King of Kings (above photo by Jim Wilkes/Toronto Star).
  

   

• 

  Thursday’s roundup

  Posted: January 21st, 2010, 2:45pm EST

  A bit of theological navel-gazing this morning over Haiti: Jeff Weiss over at Politics Daily sees a silver lining in Pat Robertson's the devil-made-me-do-it narrative on Haiti. Newsweek's Lisa Miller asks why God seems to hate Haiti, the "Job among nations," and Religion Dispatches ponders why many people search for God's fingerprints in the rubble of a disaster. NYT writes how the Haiti earthquake is leading to another type of seismic shift: a New York village that has a mix of Orthodox Jews, Latinos and blacks has put aside cultural differences to come together to provide aid for Haiti disaster relief.

  Malaysian police have arrested eight Muslim men in connection with a fire-bombing of a church last month; violence has flared over whether non-Muslims can use "Allah" to refer to God. Vandals (Christians? It's unclear) then attacked an Islamic prayer hall.  Meanwhile, in Nigeria, local officials say only 23 -- not the 200+ claimed by human rights groups -- died in recent Christian-Muslim violence (CS Monitor backgrounder here).

  In Indonesia, Muslim clerics are arguing whether straightening women's hair is what the Catholics would call a "near occasion to sin." Egypt's top court ruled that female students should be able to wear the niqab, or full-face veil, during exams, while the coutry's top Muslim cleric frowned on using Quranic verses as your cellphone ringtone.

  A USAirways flight made an emergency landing in Philly this morning after a passenger mistook another passenger's phylacteries -- two small black boxes with black straps attached to them, worn by Orthodox Jews -- for some kind of bomb. Oops.

  In a sign of growing American exports (at least in the category of Made in the USA church-state spats that we're so good at manufacturing) Japan's supreme court said it was wrong for the city of Sunagawa to allow a Shinto shrine to be erected on public property without a fee. In Michigan, a man suing over the government's bailout of insurance giant AIG wants to depose Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; the man says the bailout was illegal because AIG catered to the Islamic financial market. You follow all that?

  Here at home, Muslim groups (and I suspect more than a few Christians) are demanding an end to the military's use of rifle scopes inscribed with Bible verses. But in a move Muslims groups have long pushed for, Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan (banned by the Bush administration from entering the US) will now be allowed to step on American shores.

  Christianity Today has its list of the top religion books of 2009. Gallup, meanwhile, finds a new category of equal-opportunity bigots: People who don't like Muslims also generally don't like Jews.

  Prop 8 update: Yesterday lawyers tried to show how Catholics and Mormons specifically, and religion more generally, fuel homophobia. Next up: a California man who says gay-rights activists ultimately want to legalize sex with children will be called as a hostile witness in the ongoing federal lawsuit. That should be interesting.

  And finally this, just in from the Dept. of Things We've Long Suspected But Never Had Confirmed: former Sen. (and wannabe president) John Edwards finally admits he's the father of a daughter born as the result of an affair with a campaign aide. Must have been her long flowing (straight) tresses.

• 

  Wednesday’s roundup

  Posted: January 20th, 2010, 3:16pm EST

  As Haiti was struck once again by a 6.1 magnitude aftershock,  U.S. religious groups say they are breaking fundraising records for the troubled Caribbean nation. Still, there are widespread problems, including inadequate infrastructure to deliver aid, the deaths of hundreds of civic leaders, fears of looting and violence, and pre-existing poverty and malnutrition, according an AP report. Meanwhile, a pilot who once worked for Kenneth Copeland says the televangelist has not come through on his promise to form an aviation-humanitarian ministry.

  Military officials said they will look into whether a Michigan company that printed references to Bible verses on rifle sights broke the law. Critics say the $15-25 processing fees for Virginia's "Choose Life" license plates might be going to unqualified Christian pregnancy clinics. Gay rights advocates are upset that the University of Notre Dame's student newspaper ran a cartoon that makes light of violence against gays.

  The Ohio teenage runaway who converted to Christianity has reached a court settlement allowing her to stay in a foster home instead of with her Muslim parents. Speaking of Ohio (State motto: With God, all things are possible), an eighth-grade public school science teacher there is accused of burning a cross into the arms of two students and teaching creationism.

  As many as 36 Americans who converted to Islam in prison have traveled to Yemen, according to U.S. officials. Eight Malaysians were arrested in connection with the firebombing of a Pentecostal church there last month. Violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria has claimed 200 lives, according to the AP. Supporters of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders demonstrated outside of his trial for inciting hatred. "He says what we think," said one lady. Indonesia has arrested four women for "sexy dancing" on New Years Eve, a law backed by influential Islamists. 

  Pope Benedict XVI will summon Ireland's bishops to a Vatican summit next month on the sex abuse scandal. The pope is also praying for "visible unity" with Lutherans. British bishop/Holocaust-denier Richard Williamson said the discussions between the Vatican and SSPX are a "dialogue of the deaf."

  The Galilean town where Jesus turned water into wine is trying to become a tourist destination. Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 2,000-year-old temple dedicated to the cat goddess, Whiskers. Kidding, the divine feline is called Bastet. Presumably, the New York City woman who lived with 35 cats in her one-bedroom apartment will not be asking for a religious exemption.

• 

  All in the Family

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 7:59pm EST

  Uganda's Sunday Monitor is reporting that David Bahati (pictured at left), the legislator who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda's parliament, is expected to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington next month (Feb. 4).

  The annual event is run by The Family (aka The Fellowship), the secretive U.S.-based evangelical group that has been linked to the Uganda bill (and to Mark Sanford, and to John Ensign, and on, and on...) There's actually a dispute over how involved American evangelicals have been in promoting the proposed bill, as demonstrated by this discussion at Get Religion.

  As Mark Silk at Spiritual Politics reports, every president since Eisenhower has attended the event. Last year, for example, President Obama unveiled his revamped Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the breakfast, which is generally closed to the media.  

  Bahati's presence would put Obama in quite the bind. Not hard to see that gay rights groups would explode should he decide to attend. Evangelicals, obviously, would be peeved if he didn't. UPDATE: One source says the Family says Bahati is not coming to the NPB.

  As Silk points out, Sec. of State Hillary Clinton is in a jam as well. She's praised the Family, but sharply opposed Uganda's anti-gay bill, which would punish gays and lesbians with long jail sentences or even death in certain circumstances. 

  Here's what she said in December during a lecture and Q&A on "the U.S. Human Rights Agenda for the 21st Century" at Georgetown University; Clinton was asked how the U.S. can help protect the rights of LGBT people around the world; she mentioned the Uganda bill:

  And then the example that I used of a piece of legislation in Uganda which would not only criminalize homosexuality but attach the death penalty to it. We have expressed our concerns directly, indirectly, and we will continue to do so. The bill has not gone through the Ugandan legislature, but it has a lot of public support by various groups, including religious leaders in Uganda. And we view it as a very serious potential violation of human rights.

  Thanks to Spiritual Politics and Box Turtle Bulletin for ferreting out the story. 

• 

  Tuesday’s roundup

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 3:39pm EST

  As Haitians continue to struggle free from the earthquake's destruction, people are turning to God for an explanation of the disaster, and religious differences among the Catholics, Protestants, and followers of Voodoo are breaking down, according to the Washington Post. One quibble about that article: the writer says Haiti is made up of "devout Christians -- Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, evangelicals ..." The latter two fall under the Protestant umbrella, no?

  In other Haiti news, someone is selling the soul of Pat Robertson on eBay in the form of a Voodoo doll (picture is at left).

  President Obama served hot lunches to the needy in Washington on Monday to mark MLK day. In Montgomery, Ala., about 5,000 gathered for a rally where King led protesters in 1965. Cornel West warned congregants at King's church in Atlanta not to "sanitize" his legacy. 

  The AP reports that the judge presiding over the gay marriage case in California had his appointment held up for two years in the late 1980s by gay rights activists. The Kansas judge overseeing the Scott Roeder case has come under scrutiny as well for his Roman Catholic faith and ties to an anti-abortion group. A New York appeals court reversed the trial court and found that the PCUSA should keep the property of a breakaway congregation.

  Shiite leaders are pushing community members to fully embrace American citizenship, the AP finds. The Catholic Diocese of Des Moines fired a transgender housekeeper, prompting the Des Moines Register to take a long look at church doctrine and transgenderism. A Michigan company has added coded reference to the New Testament (e.g.: 2COR4:6) at the end of the serial numbers on the rifle sights it provides to the U.S. military, according to ABC News.

  Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged tensions between Christians and Jews as he visited Rome's Great Synagogue, and said the end of Nazism was a good thing. The Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II was released from prison on Monday and will now be assessed for fitness for military service.

  Violent clashes between Christians and Muslims have erupted again in central Nigeria. Throngs of Orthodox Christians gathered on the banks of the River Jordan to mark the Epiphany. Mauritanian Muslim leaders banned female genital mutilation.

  A Christian airline check-in clerk argued before London's high court that British Airways should let her wear a crucifix to work. A Vietnamese businessman wants to build a 20-ton jade statue of the Buddha.