There’s a bit of a kerfuffle brewing in Memphis, Mich., where signs at First Baptist Church have ticked off the locals, especially Catholic priests. The newest one: “God calls pastors to have their own wife thus avoiding fornication.” Someone get that church an editor. [Our apologies to the good folks at First Baptist in Memphis, Tenn.; we weren’t sufficiently clear which Memphis we were talking about earlier today.]
I never knew Texas had its own Pledge of Allegiance, but if you’ve ever met a Texan, it makes perfect sense. A federal court OK’d the words “under God,” which were inserted in 2007. The Dalai Lama says he’d make a lousy American president (that’s him at 1600, left)
The AP says Democrats are going after tea party favorites for their more rigid social stands (see “Paladino, Carl” and “O’Donnell, Christine“); WaPo says O’Donnell is mostly staying mum on social issues, even saying “what I believe is irrelevant.” Anti-abortion Ohio Democrat Steve Driehaus won a key ruling that he can go after anti-abortion groups who say his vote for health care reform was a vote for government-funded abortion.
Florida pastor Terry Jones — remember him and his aborted Quran BBQ? — wants to make good on a promise from a New Jersey car salesman who offered him a 2011 Hyundai Accent if Jones called off the Quran burn. “They said unless I was doing false advertising, they would like to arrange to pick up the car,” dealer Brad Benson said.
CNN asks whether the newfound faith of the 33 rescued miners in Chile will stick, and discovers why the miners where wearing T-shirts for the Jesus film. And no, it wasn’t to absorb sweat on their ascent as some rescue officials claimed.
A Catholic bishop in Chicago had his identity stolen, and is now offering to transfer you millions from a Nigerian bank account if you’ll be kind enough to send him your banking details. Just as long as he’s not out hawking Viagra.
All eyes will be on Rome this weekend, when B16 canonizes Australia’s first native-born saint, Mother Mary MacKillop, and the new unofficial patron saint of whistle-blowers. B16 has also reportedly told French President Nicolas Sarkozy to leave wife (and former model) Carla Bruni at home.
Perhaps Bruni can sell some of her photos to help pay the deficit in the UK from B16’s September visit — church officials say they came up about 3.5 million pounds (about $5.6 million) short when all expenses were tallied. And the Vatican says the pope’s new tiara on his coat of arms is not a permanent addition.l
German authorities say former members of a radical mosque that was closed in August are now popping up in other German mosques, looking for a fundamentalist foothold. Meanwhile, Berlin says it will fund imams’ education at three state universities to counter independent foreign-born imams. Denmark’s foreign minister denied that she apologized for the Muhammad cartoons during a tour of the Middle East.
