Wednesday’s round up

Conservatives are cheering the defeat of gay-marriage in Maine, and gubernatorial victories by conservative Christians in N.J. and Va. An expansion of domestic partnership benefits, though, appears to have passed in Washington state, and Kalamazoo, Mich. (hometown of Derek Jeter. Go Yankees!) voted to include sexual orientation and gender identity in its anti-discrimination law. Ecumenical […]

Conservatives are cheering the defeat of gay-marriage in Maine, and gubernatorial victories by conservative Christians in N.J. and Va. An expansion of domestic partnership benefits, though, appears to have passed in Washington state, and Kalamazoo, Mich. (hometown of Derek Jeter. Go Yankees!) voted to include sexual orientation and gender identity in its anti-discrimination law.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met with President Obama at the White House, where they talked about religious freedom and climate change.

An obscure provision in the health care bill would require insurers to cover Christian Science prayer treatments. Catholic bishops in California tried to reassure the American women religious who are under Vatican investigation, saying Catholic schools, hospitals, and social services would not exist without them (the nuns).


Four Amish bishops in Missouri who shunned an accused child molester rather than report him to secular authorities were charged with failing to report child abuse.

The high court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) issued two extraordinarily complex rulings on gay clergy candidates that skirted the issue of whether non-celibate gays and lesbians can indeed be ordained ministers. The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh cleared 135 priests, many of whom have decamped for more conservative pastures, from its clergy rolls.

Congregations are turning their sanctuaries into doghouses in order to attract people (Fetch!), and Carrie Prejean settled her libel suit with the beauty-pageant people.

The Malaysian government won’t release 10,000 confiscated Bibles that translate “God” as “Allah.” El Salvador is giving its highest honor to six Jesuits murdered by the army in 1989, and the Vatican is not happy that the European court of human rights’ decided that hanging crucifixes in public classrooms is not kosher.

New York Times photo is of gay marriage supporters in Maine last night.

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