People of faith are responding to the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Today is the first day of the Ramadan fast. In Murfreesboro, Muslims will not be able to pray in their newly constructed mosque tonight. But after a building inspection and an occupancy permit, they may still be able to move in before Ramadan ends. Inshallah.
The latest social media wildfire concerns Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy who said his restaurant chain supports traditional marriage. “I can no longer eat nuggets filled with hate,” wrote one FB user.
Pluralities of Asian-Americans, or 42 percent, are Christian, according to a new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The next largest group of Asian-Americans identified as unaffiliated (26 percent), followed by Buddhists (14 percent), Hindus (10 percent) and Muslims (4 percent).
President Barack Obama supports a minute-long moment of silence at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London in tribute to the 11 Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 games in Munich.
NBC sportscaster Bob Costas won immediate plaudits from American Jews when said he would call out the International Olympic Committee for denying Israel’s request.
Lawyers for Msgr. William J. Lynn of Philadelphia, the first senior official in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted of failing to prevent child sex abuse by priests under his supervision, asked that he be spared prison. He argues a lengthy sentence “would be merely cruel and unusual.”
Nearly one in five Americans, or 19 percent, say they have no religious affiliation, a Pew Center for the People and the Press survey finds. That’s the highest figure ever documented, though that number has been rising at a rapid clip.
Orlando Episcopal Bishop Gregory Brewer plans to announce on Saturday that he will not sanction same-sex union blessings in his diocese. The church recently approved a liturgy for same-sex unions, but left it up to individual bishops whether to permit the blessings.
Religion Dispatches’ Sarah Posner speculates on “the end of Michelle Bachmann” after GOP strategist Ed Rollins condemned her accusations that Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. “This appears to be an important moment of Republicans finally trying to dial back the party’s Islamophobia wing,” she writes.
No laughing matter: The streets of Mexico City thronged with clowns earlier this week. They were making their annual pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady Guadalupe in Mexico City on Wednesday to pay homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Happy Friday.
Photo courtesy Agence France-Presse and La-paz.bcs.com
Yonat Shimron
