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.
