Friday’s Religion News Roundup

If you haven’t seen it yet, drop whatever you’re doing and take a few minutes to read our own Dan Burke’s compelling and poetic account of Terri Roberts, whose son killed five Amish schoolgirls and wounded five others five years ago this weekend. Roberts now spends every Thursday bathing and reading to an Amish girl […]

If you haven’t seen it yet, drop whatever you’re doing and take a few minutes to read our own Dan Burke’s compelling and poetic account of Terri Roberts, whose son killed five Amish schoolgirls and wounded five others five years ago this weekend. Roberts now spends every Thursday bathing and reading to an Amish girl who was left paralyzed by her son’s actions. Read. It. Now.

American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi is either partying with the 72 brown-eyed virgins in paradise or, um, feeling the heat after being killed in a U.S. air-strike this morning. Al-Aulaqi, you’ll recall, was the New Mexico-born Yemeni cleric who provide theological and philosophical inspiration to the Fort Hood shooter, the undy-bomber and the failed plot to blow up Times Square.

Two Oregon parents were convicted for failing to seek medical care for their dead newborn son and opting instead for faith-healing; jurors said they were underwhelmed by an anemic defense, and well, the fact that a call ti 9-1-1 would have given the boy a 99.9% chance of survival.


Church leaders in Alabama say they’ll continue to feed, clothe and shelter all comers, regardless of immigration status, after a federal judge struck down a part of Alabama’s new immigration law that would have made it illegal to help the undocumented.

New data show that young evangelicals are engaging in premarital sex (80 percent) at nearly the same rate (88 percent) of the general population. One theory: biblical standards of sexual purity were written at a time when people got married at, say 14, but now it’s well into the late 20s, and people just aren’t willing or able to wait.

Catholics in New Orleans are mourning the death of retired Archbishop Philip Hannan, who eulogized JFK in 1963, RFK in 1968 and buried Jackie O in 1994. He died at age 98, the third-oldest living Catholic bishop in the U.S. His final words: “Sounds good to me,” after receiving a blessing.

New data show a fairly remarkable trend in acceptance of same-sex marriage: 46 percent in favor (up from 11 percent in 1988) and 40 percent opposed, the first time supporters outnumbered opponents.

Up north, while one in four Canadians identify as nonreligious, Catholic and evangelical churches are healthy because of immigration, a new study shows.

WaPo profiles the Rev. Sam Childers, the Machine Gun Preacher who’s the subject of a new Hollywood flick (and questions about his work in Sudan).


A Washington, DC man who refused to grant his wife a Jewish divorce is now facing sanctions from Orthodox Jewish leaders.

Youcef Nadarkhani, the Iranian Christian pastor who’s facing execution for not renouncing his faith, got some support yesterday from The White House and the National Association of Evangelicals

Spanish police say a man walked into a Madrid church and shot a pregnant woman before turning the gun on himself. The woman’s child survived, however, after an emergency C-section in the pews.

Catholic officials in Seoul are talking about sainthood for the Rev. Thomas An Jung-geun, who in 1909 assassinated Japan’s first prime minister as Korea suffered under Japanese occupation.

And finally, if till-death-do-us-part just seems like, well, too long, Mexico City lawmakers have an alternative: temporary marriage contracts that could expire as early as 2013, in case things aren’t working out.

— Kevin Eckstrom

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