Religion Dispatches wonders whether Sen. Orrin “Anything I can do for the Jewish people, I will do” Hatch will support Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, who’s Jewish. A Baptist church outside Washington, D.C., will host a memorial service for Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., who died as a lifelong Baptist at age 92.
Wisconsin‘s Supreme Court today unanimously upheld a 2006 referendum that banned gay marriage. Opponents of California’s Proposition 8 that ended same-sex marriage say the SCOTUS decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (which said a Christian group can’t deny membership to gays and atheists if it wants public funding) recognized gays as a “protected class” and could help their case, currently awaiting a decision by federal Judge Vaughn Walker.
The lead lawyer in efforts to sue the Vatican for priestly sex abuse called the SCOTUS decision not to block the suit the “biggest breakthrough in the movement’s history.” Two-thirds of Austrian Catholic priests — long a thorn in the side of Rome — want married clergy, and just over half support ordaining women.
The 50th — and for now, the last — Catholic parish in Cleveland is scheduled for closure today. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan wants “dialogue” with Jewish groups over the “damage” that Jews have done to blacks. A Virginia survey has identified 48 Rastafarian inmates who are being held in isolation because they refuse to cut their hair (an article of faith for Rastas).
An Orthodox Jewish singer will spend one to three years in the slammer for misdirecting (to his pocket) $36,000 intended to buy Torah scrolls, and a Pentecostal church in Louisiana is selling 4th of July fireworks to help pay down the debt on its building.
Italy goes to bat today for the right to display crucifixes in classrooms, and European atheists who met recently in Cophenhagen have issued their “Declaration on Religion in Public Life,” saying (among other things), “We submit that public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma.” Speaking of atheists, new Australian PM Julia Gillard says her government has no plans to legalize gay marriage.
Efforts to ban face veils and burqas across Europe are suddenly en vogue. One in 10 historic English churches is in dire need of repair, according to a new survey. China has found some success in “re-educating” Buddhist monks who once criticized China, and now criticize the Dalai Lama. A rare white elephant has been captured in Myanmar, considered a symbol of good luck in the mostly Buddhist country.
