After Atlanta pastor Louie Giglio bowed out of giving the benediction at President Obama’s inauguration for saying un-PC things about gays, there are at least 72 people in these United States who are trying to draft our pal Father Jim Martin to step in. He’s got our vote.
(GLAAD has its own list of gay-friendly possibilities, including the “monk” (???) Jim Martin; HuffPo and ThinkProgress offer their suggestions here.)
File this under Things We Already Knew: Roy Bourgeois, the Catholic priest who was defrocked for his support of women’s ordination, is now defrocked — officially.
And this, from the Dept. of Things That Make You Go Hmmm: there’s growing demand at the nation’s kosher food banks and yes, social workers say, there are poor and hungry Jews in the U.S. Seriously, read it. It’s a good one.
Another enlightening read: the public library in Newtown, Conn., has been inundated by hundreds of grief counseling books from authors, publishers and people across the U.S. after the Sandy Hook massacre.
The Forward profiles a minority within a minority: Jews who oppose gun control.
The story that always make me uncomfortable, so I’ll just let Reuters do the work: “A Manhattan federal judge refused to block a New York City regulation requiring people who perform circumcisions and use their mouths to draw away blood from the wound on a baby’s penis to first obtain written consent from the parents.”
Churches and synagogues (but mostly synagogues, it appears) in New York and New Jersey are applying for federal rebuilding aid after Superstorm Sandy, but church-state watchdogs say it doesn’t pass constitutional muster.
Scott Lively, an American evangelist with ties to Uganda’s controversial kill-the-gays bill, says the reason God sent Noah’s flood was because the locals had started composing songs for gay weddings. Or something like that. Gives new meaning to the Weather Girls, I suppose.
CNN says Hindus’ “expectations are high” for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu member of Congress. On their to-do list: “international religious liberty,” “religious diversity and freedom in America,” and “generating appreciation and respect for Hindu American contributions.”
The U.S. tax code is 10 times longer than the Bible, says the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
You don’t see this every day: A New Hampshire woman who’s been ID’d as a lawyer for the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom was convicted of engaging in sex with a 14-year-old girl and transporting her to Canada to make a porn video. You can’t make this stuff up.
The leftish Jewish lobbying group has launched a “Smear a bagel, not Chuck Hagel” campaign in support of the Pentagon chief-in-waiting. Meanwhile, Jews in Hagel’s native Nebraska say he’s no anti-Semite.
Vaticanista John Allen floats the name of several possibilities for the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, including Duquesne’s Nick Cafardi, Catholic University’s Stephen Schneck and former Catholic Relief Services chief Ken Hackett.
A British court ruled against a Christian woman who claimed religious discrimination for being forced to work on Sundays at a children’s home.
A Sri Lankan woman was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for smothering a 4-month-old baby who was in her care.
And on that happy note, it’s off to the weekend.
