My my, the GOP presidential field certainly stirs the religious cauldron, don’t it?

To wit: After a piece in The Atlantic raised questions about Rep. Michele Bachmann’s former membership in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Milwaukee-based denomination issued a statement explaining when Bachmann quit (six days before she officially launched her campaign) and why it believes the papacy is the anti-Christ. *

Some Catholic bloggers say, “Meh, no big deal, we’ve known Protestants don’t like the papacy for about 500 years.” Others are more troubled, and say Bachmann has some ‘splaining to do.

Likewise ‘splaining is Michele’s husband, Marcus Bachmann, who says that his counseling clinic is not focused on converting gays, and denied that he has ever called gay people barbarians.

Meanwhile, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain opposes the construction of a Tennessee mosque, saying it would spread Sharia law, and Texas Gov. (and possible presidential candidate) Rick Perry is being sued over his August prayer rally.

Slate looks at the long line of evangelical manifestos.

Ireland’s government continues to demand answers from the Vatican after a report concluded that Rome secretly discouraged Irish bishops from reporting pedophile priests to police. Ireland’s PM said priests should be prosecuted if they don’t inform police of crimes disclosed during confession.

American drones killed at least eight al-Qaeda affiliated militants in Yemen, according to the NYT.

Iran’s supreme court overturned the death sentence of a Christian pastor accused of blasphemy, but still requires him to repent and convert, according to AFP.

A federal court in Oklahoma held that Abercrombie & Fitch violated the Civil Rights Act by refusing to hire a Muslim who says her religion requires her to wear a headscarf. The culture wars are increasing being fought in corporate boardrooms, RNS reports.

The Legionaries of Christ will close its University of Sacramento, the third school shuttered or disaffiliated since revelations that the founder of the Roman Catholic order fathered children and abused seminarians.

Yr hmbl aggregator,

Daniel Burke

*All you church nerds out there (and really, who else reads this blog?) might find the AP Stylebook’s entry for Antichrist/anti-Christ interesting:

“Antichrist is the proper name for the individual the Bible says will challenge Christ. The adjective anti-Christ would be applied to someone or something opposed to Christ.” In the case of WELS, the latter definition applies, according to the denomination’s spokesman.

But does it? WELS uses “Antichrist,” as in this statement from the denomination’s website:

“We reject the idea that the teaching that the Papacy is the Antichrist rests on a merely human interpretation of history or is an open question. We hold rather that this teaching rests on the revelation of God in Scripture which finds its fulfillment in history. The Holy Spirit reveals this fulfillment to the eyes of faith (cf. The Abiding Word, Vol. 2, p. 764). Since Scripture teaches that the Antichrist would be revealed and gives the marks by which the Antichrist is to be recognized (2 Th 2:6,8), and since this prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in the history and development of the Roman Papacy, it is Scripture which reveals that the Papacy is the Antichrist.”