Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup

House Homeland Security chief Peter King kicks off his second round of hearings on radicalized Islam this morning, this time focusing on prisons. A whole slew of local and national Muslim groups, not surprisingly, aren’t happy. We’re live-tweeting it over at @religionnewsnow. As New York lawmakers appear headed to approving gay marriage, Gotham Archbishop Timothy […]

House Homeland Security chief Peter King kicks off his second round of hearings on radicalized Islam this morning, this time focusing on prisons. A whole slew of local and national Muslim groups, not surprisingly, aren’t happy. We’re live-tweeting it over at @religionnewsnow.

As New York lawmakers appear headed to approving gay marriage, Gotham Archbishop Timothy Dolan seems to liken the “state action” to that of China or, ahem, North Korea. Moving right along …


Dolan opens the summer meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops today in Seattle, where the NYT says “the bishops head into a meeting … proposing no significant revisions to the abuse prevention policies they passed in 2002 at the height of the scandal.”

The Daily Beast traces Tea Party fave Michelle Backmann‘s faith trajectory (that’s her, at left), including a scintillating tale of a campaign rally where two lesbians followed Bachmann into the restroom after she dodged their questions, and Bachmann screamed, cried and told police the two women were holding her against her will. “It seems clear from the statements given by both women that they simply wanted to discuss certain issues further with Ms. Bachmann,” the local prosecutor said.

Gay activists in Kentucky are complaining after two gay disabled men were booted from a public pool after a maintenance worker told them “the Bible” allowed him to kick them out. A federal judge said Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that struck down Prop 8 in California can stand, even though conservative activists wanted it thrown out because Walker’s gay.

Southern Baptists meeting in Phoenix elected a black New Orleans pastor to a top leadership post, part of their prayer that minorities can help revive the stagnant denomination.

A Jewish scholar thinks some Jews (i.e., Orthodox) are warming to the Tea Party, mostly over concerns that POTUS isn’t sufficiently pro-Israel. An Orthodox woman’s crisis pregnancy center, where abortion is not part of the program, is angering some other Jews.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., plans to introduce a bill in Congress to short-circuit attempts to ban infant circumcision in San Francisco or anywhere else in the US of A.

The NYT profiles the twin 92-year-old Franciscan Friar twin brothers who died on the same day.


Matzo maker Manischewitz cut the ribbon on its new HQ in Newark, N.J., with a 25-foot piece of matzo that they claimed was the world’s largest. And if anyone’s gonna know such things, it’s likely to be the good folks of Manischewitz.

Ambassador Sujay had her first run on the big stage in Geneva, where she denounced Florida pastor Terry “Anyone Got a Match?” Jones.

A Muslim soldier who got conscientious objector status is now alleging a smear campaign after he was charged with possession of child porn.

For the bargain price of $1.44 a day, you can pay a company to have your prayers read in a Romanian Orthodox Church.

And pity the poor guy in England who claimed to see the face of Jesus in a pile of candle wax near the pulpit; someone came through and cleaned it up without asking.

–Kevin Eckstrom

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