As a federal judge struck down major portions of Arizona‘s “papers, please” immigration law, a majority of Americans thinks the waves of immigration a century ago are no longer helpful. Religious groups, who claimed a major victory in the ruling, vow to press on. “Left Behind” co-author Tim Lahaye says President Obama is bringing us “closer to the apocalypse.”
Remember that Ohio science teacher who taught religion in his public school classroom and burned a cross into a student’s arm? He and the student’s family have reached a settlement; terms were not disclosed. Meanwhile, in Maryland, the “Indiana Jones of Torah Scrolls” has reached an agreement with investigators that he can regale audiences with his tales of rescued Torah scrolls only if he can prove they are true.
The AP reports that independent egalitarian Jews (think Orthodox women prayer leaders) are changing the face of American Judaism. A coalition of black churches aims to raise $50 million over the next five years to help fund Haitian reconstruction projects. Benny Hinn, the white-suited apostle of the prosperity gospel, is in need of a little prosperity himself; he’s asked supporters for $2 million to help cover expenses.
Senate Democrats put out an SOS to religious groups to help pass their agenda. Baptist leaders say some 1,000 foreigners were denied visas for their summit in Honolulu, and a new study of the Amish finds them growing and moving west in search of cheap farmland. Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs will be back in court on Aug. 18 for a hearing on his lawyer’s request for a “speedy trial before a jury of his peers.”
British church officials, overwhelmed by the costs of hosting Pope Benedict XVI in September, plan to ask pilgrims to pay about $40 to attend some papal events; Vatican officials say it’s a “contribution,” not an entry fee. Meanwhile, Britain‘s Education Ministry says it’s open to the idea of establishing a “free-thinking” school based on secularism and humanism.
The NYT reports that South Africa‘s four-year-old gay marriage law has been good for gays and good for business, but hasn’t spread to the desperately poor black African population, where “gay men and lesbians often face unabashed discrimination and violence.”
Indonesian Muslims have been told not to washy trasy tabloid shows, or get sex-change operations, or presumably watch trashy TV shows about people who get sex-change operations. Meanwhile, in neighboring Malaysia, a reality show contest to pick the country’s next up-and-coming Muslim leader has a huge following.
A (female) lecturer at a small Islamic university in eastern India has been told she can teach only if she dons a burqa; so far, she’s refused. Al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, told French Muslim women to be “holy warriors” (suicide bombers?) to protest France‘s proposed ban on Islamic veils. Muslim soccer players on a German team will be able to break their Ramadan fast (i.e., drink water) without running afoul of Islamic law, officials said.
Over in New Zealand, Jews are upset about a new animal-welfare law that requires slaughtered animals to be stunned with a taser before they are executed; Jews say it violates kosher standards for killing animals. And in Australia, new (atheist) PM Julia Gillard tried to reassure Christians that her unbelief will not affect government funding of church-run schools.
The world’s third-most-wanted Nazi has been charged with the deaths of some 430,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Gays are marching for equal rights today in Jerusalem, and some grocery stores in Lebanon are refusing to stock coffee filters that contain Hebrew lettering on the box. Some folks in Israel are trying to expand/update the list of kosher foods, including locusts. Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman has accepted filmmaker Oliver Stone‘s apology for blaming Israel for U.S. foreign policy woes, and saying Jews control the media.
