Charitable giving fell 12 percent in 2008 and there’s little evidence that it has picked up this year, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a close friend of MLK, is praying that his children cease their legal wrangling, and a South Dakota panel voted to allow booze to be sold on Christmas. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of a cross on public land next week.

Christian doctors have reached a settlement with a California lesbian whom they refused impregnate, new signs at a Mormon-owned plaza in Salt Lake City warn that the LDS church has the right to kick people out, and a former military official has warned council-members in Lodi, Calif. that if they don’t open sessions with Christian prayers he will buy highway billboards saying they are “against Jesus.”

Prosecutors in Utah are asking a judge to permit testimony about religious beliefs to prove that Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper is religious, not crazy, and a Catholic sister says the Vatican investigator of American women religious proves “the male hierarchy is truly impotent.” Newt Gingrich is making a documentary about Pope John Paul II.

A Muslim and an agnostic contributed music to Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming album, the bishop of Medjugorje said visions there are “not worthy of faith,” and a church dormitory in Nepal collapsed, killing at least 24 people. The Catholic Church in Vietnam has provided sanctuary for followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, who are being harassed by the government.