Yet another set of parents from that Oregon faith-healing church is in trouble with the law — this time for not seeking medical attention for a massive growth on the eye of their seven-month-old daughter (photo, left). State officials assumed custody; the parents want her back. They’re from the same church as two other families who faced court trials in the faith-healing deaths of their children.
Facebook is investigating why Sarah Palin‘s message against the Ground Zero mosque in New York got deleted; a repost has Palin saying it would be “an intolerable and tragic mistake to allow such a project sponsored by such an individual to go forward on such hallowed ground.” Across the harbor on Staten Island, Catholic officials say they won’t sell a shuttered Catholic church to a group of Muslims who wanted to turn it into a mosque.
A Florida man was charged with burglary after using a crucifix to pry open the poor box at a Catholic Church in Fort Lauderdale. Comic book nerds greeted Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps‘ merry band of protesters with a few signs of their own.
Israel has shelved that controversial bill to give Orthodox rabbis total jurisdiction over Jewish conversions; officials say they need six months to try to iron out a compromise. In its ongoing series about religion in China, NPR probes Beijing’s embrace of Buddhism as a possible counterweight to Christianity.
Two Muslim women were ordered out of a pool in France for wearing full-body “burkinis.” Catholic officials in Rome are shaking their heads after an undercover TV expose found a trio of gay priests frequenting — surprise — a gay bar. Turkish officials are offering Turkish citizenship to overseas Orthodox archbishops so they can be eligible to be elected the next patriarch of Constantinople (the titular head of Orthodoxy must be a Turkish citizen, according to the law).
Former British PM Tony Blair is honoring films about religious understanding, and also says faith is “what gets you up in the morning.” Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt say they’ll let their international brood of six kids to pick their own religion.
