Lots of folks asking what Jesus would do about the oil gushing in the gulf.
The AP leads with “Where would Jesus drill?” in an article about environmentally minded religious leaders making the spill a rallying cry. United Methodists are hoping to use their shares in BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to push the companies to clean up their act.
“If Jesus were here, Jesus would not say, `I’m not going to own any shares. He would want to own the shares so he could get in there and call them to accountability,” says Byrd Bonner, executive director of the UMC Foundation. About a dozen high-profile religious leaders (an armada, says CNN) took a look-see around the gulf on Wednesday.
Priests who sexually abuse mentally impaired adults will now be sanctioned by the Vatican under soon-to-be released rules, according to the AP. Pope Benedict XVI absconded to Castel Gandolfo for his summer vacation until September. Must be nice. Belgian Cardinal Godfried Daneels could probably use a rest after being interrogated by police for 10 hours about the sexual abuse of children. Venezuela’s President Chavez called his country’s papal ambassador a “troglodyte.”
A Church of England committee has decided not to nominate a gay priest to become a bishop, British rags report. Cuba has promised the Roman Catholic Church that it will free 52 political prisoners. American nuns‘ support for the health-care bill cannot be defended, says the Cardinal investigating them. Ten Catholic bishops have pulled out of the church’s poverty campaign, some citing concerns that grant recipients do not follow Catholic teaching.
A committee at the Presbyterian Church USA’s General Assembly endorsed, with some amendments, a Middle East report that some call “anti-Israel,” which will now go before the full assembly. A separate committee recommended that the church change its definition of marriage to include gay and lesbian couples. That measure will also now be considered by the 712 “commissioners” at the GA.
The state of Washington has brokered a deal that allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions that violate their religious beliefs. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a law in Orlando, Fla. banning religious groups from feeding more than 25 people in downtown parks without a permit. Westboro Baptist Church filed their brief with the Supreme Court, arguing that the First Amendment protects their right to protest at military funerals. The case will be argued by Margie Jean Phelps, the church’s founder’s daughter. Presumably, she’s not the daughter who made this video.
New York’s Republican gubernatorial candidate has made the proposed Ground Zero mosque a campaign issue. A New Jersey town with a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews has elected a Muslim mayor. A Catholic priest cusses like a sailor to reach Mexican gangsters. Malaysia’s Islamic courts appointed their first female judges. CNN fired an editor who tweeted her admiration for a recently deceased Islamic cleric who inspired Hezbollah.
