Friday’s Religion News Roundup

POTUS and FLOTUS lit the National Christmas Tree last night (photo, left), and two word choices stick out: He wasn’t afraid to say “Merry Christmas,” and this line: “It’s a story that’s dear to Michelle and me as Christians…” Two new figures to add to your Christmas creche: Ismeria, identified by researchers as Jesus’ great-grandmother […]

POTUS and FLOTUS lit the National Christmas Tree last night (photo, left), and two word choices stick out: He wasn’t afraid to say “Merry Christmas,” and this line: “It’s a story that’s dear to Michelle and me as Christians…” Two new figures to add to your Christmas creche: Ismeria, identified by researchers as Jesus’ great-grandmother and her husband, Liseo.

Efforts to repeal Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell appear dead in the water for now after the Senate fell three votes short last night; Reuters says an unrelated provision about abortion in military hospitals helped kill the bill. Conservatives, led by the Family Research Council, are understandably ecstatic, while Reform Jews not so much.


The mother of accused Baltimore bomber Antonio Martinez says she argued with her son about his embrace of Islam, and said he called himself Muhammad Hussein but never got around to changing his name. An American Jew-turned-Muslim who is accused of inspiring homegrown radicals now says he regrets how his website, Revolution Muslim, was used by would-be jihadists.

Sarah Palin is headed to Haiti this weekend with none other than evangelist Franklin Graham; MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe doesn’t like Palin’s choice of C.S. Lewis as a source of “divine inspiration” because, he says, Lewis just wrote “a series of kids books.” Newsweek profiles 11 top leaders of the new evangelical right (someone oughta alert Jim Wallis he’s on the list; he might be surprised of the company he keeps).

Those nice folks out at Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps’ Kansas church plan to picket outside Elizabeth Edwards‘ funeral on Saturday in Raleigh, N.C., saying her embrace of same-sex marriage rights and her “whorish husband” lead to nothing more than “disease & death & orphaned children.”

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear says the tax incentives to help build a Noah’s Ark theme park connected to the Creation Museum come with strings attached: recipients can’t discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion. Supporters of a Manhattan Declaration iPhone app have rejiggered it — taking out a quiz with “correct” answers on opposing gay marriage — and resubmitted it for approval. WaPo profiles the late artist David Wojnarowicz, whose ants-on-a-crucifix art installation was yanked from the Smithsonian after conservatives found it offensive.

The nun on the run, accused of embezzling $1.2 million from a Catholic college outside New York, turned herself in; college officials say the $1.2 million figure is “significantly inaccurate.” A Presbyterian pastor in Scotland has apologized for posting a Facebook photo of himself dressed as a nun; sadly, I couldn’t find the photo for y’all.

Two New York men were charged with a hate crime after they beat up an imam on a NYC subway car. From The Department of Well That Was Quick, Texas officials have dropped a criminal probe into the alleged blackmail plot to derail Daystar Network founder Marcus Lamb over an affair.

German Muslims are seeking police protection after a prominent Berlin mosque was firebombed, the latest in half a dozen similar attacks.


A Vatican adviser says China’s recent moves to appoint bishops and gather them into assemblies without approval from Rome could “turn the clock back to the times of Mao Zedong.” The Catholic Church in the Netherlands is facing as many as 2,000 claims of sexual abuse. Traces of JP2‘s blood will be installed as the central relic in a Polish church, planned to coincide with his likely beatification and/or sainthood. The Vatican’s point man on ecumenical affairs says Protestant churches are “a special case,” but tense relations with the Orthodox are “the greatest challenge.”

And, for all you church nerds who have a weekend free of holiday festivities ahead of you, a Wikileaked copy of the new Roman Missal (the new English-language Mass that will kick in a year from now) are (apparently) here, including some internal criticisms here (h/t to Robert Mickens at the Tablet).

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