Thursday’s Religion News Roundup

President Obama hosted an Iftar dinner at the White House Wednesday night, using the occasion to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks, including Muslims, and U.S. service members. Among the guests invited to the fast-breaking Ramadan dinner were Muslim families whose relatives died in the Twin Towers and professional football players. Speaking of Muslim […]

President Obama hosted an Iftar dinner at the White House Wednesday night, using the occasion to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks, including Muslims, and U.S. service members. Among the guests invited to the fast-breaking Ramadan dinner were Muslim families whose relatives died in the Twin Towers and professional football players.

Speaking of Muslim athletes, a high school in Dearborn, Mich., is holding its grueling football practices from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. during Ramadan to accommodate the holy month’s proscriptions against eating and drinking during the day. The coach says it’s more a safety issue than a religious one.


Muslim women, too, are looking to beat the summer heat — even while remaining modestly dressed, WaPo reports.

Skipping over the pond, an annual peace service at Westminster Cathedral acquired fresh significance as Londoners gathered to pray for their city and other British communities torn by rioting. Separately, the Anglican Bishop of London called the violence “appalling – but not wholly unexpected.” The killing of three young Muslims has laid bare racial and religious tensions in Birmingham, England’s second-largest city, the AP reports.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has asked religious leaders to tell their flocks to stop hiding bombs in turbans and other religious garments.

The California Diocese of Orange boosted its bid for Crystal Cathedral from $50 million to $53.6 million, and the bankrupt cathedral’s creditors say it better darn well take the offer.

Even prison won’t break Warren Jeffs’ iron grip on his polygamist church, the AP reports.

The Rev. Roy Bourgeois is fighting his expulsion from the Maryknoll order after being told to stop pushing for women’s ordination or leave.

Starbucks’s CEO has backed out of a leadership summit at Chicago’s Willow Creek Church after an online campaign branded the church “anti-gay.” Change.org, where the campaign was launched, is fast becoming a bete noir to conservative Christian charities and churches, as RNS reported on Wednesday.


A Mississippi pastor has committed a nearly unforgivable offense: he banned fried chicken from the church fellowship hall. Pastor Michael Minor said it was “a traumatic time” at his church when he ordered the switch to grilled chicken. Lucky he didn’t get tased.

A Methodist pastor has reportedly done even worse, stepping down from his suburban Philadelphia church after being accused of exposing himself to two women. A Nebraska couple has been arrested for giving their 12-year-old daughter pyschodelic mushrooms for “religious purposes.”

Religious people are nerds, says this sorta funny video.

Yr hmbl aggregator,

Daniel Burke

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