CLAYTON, Mo. (RNS) David Ellefson was an honest-to-God founding member of the legendary thrash metal band Megadeth. And his studies at a Lutheran seminary here illustrate why distance-learning programs are increasingly popular as seminarians don't have to uproot their lives to attend. For Ellefson, his new quest for the ministry is also about a peculiar foray through the apparent contradictions of rock and religion.

(RNS) The Obama administration said Friday that it will not broaden the religious exemption in new rules that require employers to provide contraception coverage to employees, a move that angered religious groups and opened a high stakes election-year fight. Instead, the White House will give faith groups a one-year extension to find a way to comply with the mandate without compromising their beliefs. By David Gibson. 800.

(RNS) Conservative Presbyterians launched a new denomination on Thursday (Jan. 19), saying that the Presbyterian Church (USA) was too consumed with internal strife and bureaucracy to nurture healthy congregations. By Daniel Burke. 300.

(RNS) More than 40 Catholic leaders and theologians have issued an open letter to Catholic candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum warning them "to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail." By David Gibson. 350, with optional trim to 250.

The jailed leader of an Amish splinter sect involved in a series of beard-cutting attacks says he is not opposed to allowing electricity installed in his home so that he can be released with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.

A bipartisan coalition of 80 U.S. mayors has launched a "Freedom to Marry" campaign to build public support for giving same-sex couples the right to legal marriage under U.S. and state laws.

Pope Benedict XVI gave his official approval to the Neocatechumenal Way to launch operations in all dioceses despite frayed relations with some bishops, as long as they allow full participation in their services. By Alessandro Speciale.

Everybody is talking about purity these days. If you like it you should put a ring on it and then WAIT UNTIL MARRIAGE: Good Magazine offers a fascinating little history of the "purity ring" in the U.S.

If you missed the fireworks at the GOP presidential debate last night in Charleston, Newt Gingrich ripped the media for prying into his, er, open marriage (the second one). Meanwhile, Gingrich's lesbian sister says its "frustrating as hell" that her brother gets to have three marriages when she can't even have one.