Tuesday’s Religion News Roundup: Richard Land, Bible Belt pregnancy and women really are nicer.

Some Republicans have a message for Mitt Romney: be more, not less, Mormon. Southern Baptist policy guru Richard Land, already under fire for racially charged remarks in the Trayvon Martin case and then for lifting those remarks from someone else, apologized. But he's also claiming “media bias,” saying he was “mugged” by The Tennessean newspaper […]

Some Republicans have a message for Mitt Romney: be more, not less, Mormon.

Southern Baptist policy guru Richard Land, already under fire for racially charged remarks in the Trayvon Martin case and then for lifting those remarks from someone else, apologized. But he's also claiming “media bias,” saying he was “mugged” by The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.

News flash: teen pregnancy rates are down, but not in the Bible Belt, where they are among the nation's highest. Researchers say religious opposition to birth control has something to do with it, but it's probably got more to do with issues of class, poverty and education.


After Missouri-Synod Lutherans set a major Supreme Court precedent with a case on employment discrimination last year, ELCA Lutherans won't get their day in court after the Supreme Court turned down a sexual harassment case brought by a former church music director against a Maryland pastor. Who knew Lutherans were so litigious?

Our own Jana Riess answers the question she gets asked too many times to count: If she's at times unhappy in the LDS Church, why doesn't she just leave?

(Catholic) Ohio congressman Tim Ryan is on a mission to bring meditation to the masses.

A school district in Ontario is bringing in extra security to discuss the distribution of Gideon Bibles — to fifth-graders. Meanwhile, Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms (their version of the First Amendment, more or less) turns 30 today.

A study now confirms it: women are generally nicer than men — or at least they're more likely to think of others when making decisions.

NPR digs into the complexities and contradictions of Shariah, or Islamic law.

And props to our former colleague, Dave Wood, who nabbed a Pulitzer yesterday for a series of stories on war-weary veterans.

— Kevin Eckstrom

(image via Shutterstock.com)

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