Tuesday’s roundup

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. […]

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.

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