An openly gay Episcopal bishop and a bishop from Uganda were scheduled to meet with top White House foreign policy officials in Washington yesterday to discuss Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill. No read out on the meeting yet; nothing anywhere, actually, accept for a press release from a gay Episcopal group.
A California committee is expected to fine the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for not properly reporting about $37,000 in non-monetary contributions to support Prop 8. An Ohio State University librarian who pushed for entering freshman to read anti-gay literature lost his lawsuit in which he claimed OSU was hostile to Christian beliefs. The world’s leading expert on Leviticus died.
The Claremont School of Theology in California, a United Methodist-related school, is believed to be the first in the U.S. to offer clerical training for Muslims and Jews, the LA Times reports. An Apartheid-era creed is finding new life in the Reformed Church in America.
The high-level dispute between the head of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori continues, as Jefferts Schori accused Archbishop of Canterbury of getting Anglican polity wrong and jumping the gun by imposing sanctions on her church. Conservative activists in England say its “discourteous” of an Anglican cathedral to invite Jefferts Schori to preach, given the tension in the AC.
The clergy sex abuse crisis is giving new momentum to Roman Catholics who want to ordain women and lift the celibacy requirement on priests, says the AP. Some of those groups are in Rome now, where the Vatican is hosting about 9,000 priests from around the world as part of the Year for Priests. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to issue another apology for sex abuse in the church sometime this week, but victims’ groups say sorry’s not enough.
A California bishop is defending his decision to pay a pedophile priest $800 a month, saying it was the only way to get the priest to retire. A scholar takes a look at sex abuse outside the Catholic Church.
Church-state separationists want authorities to take a look at a Christian counseling agency owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann, which has received $27,000 in state funds since 2007. Bill Donohue is still thumping his chest over the refusal of the Empire State building, which has lit up in honor of Mariah Carey, dog shows, and the 60th anniversary of communist China, to do the same for Mother Teresa. “They’re bigots,” Donohue says. Wonder if he’ll climb the building in protest, King-Kong-style.
