Rotating Earth from Marvel via Wikimedia Commons.
It’s Election Day.
And it may be Election Day on many other of the tens of billions of Earth-like planets that share our galaxy. What does this new discovery do – if anything – to your theology or lack of?
I originally put this story at the bottom of this roundup but don’t you think it belongs at the top? Warring factions in Syria stopped fighting for three days so a group of Christians could raise a 40-foot bronze statue of Jesus on a Syrian mountain.
Back to the bad.
A mortar shell hit the Vatican’s embassy in Damascus, but no one is claiming responsibility and it is yet unclear whether the building was targeted.
Here’s a succinct history of legislative prayer in anticipation of tomorrow’s big case at the Supreme Court, Greece v. Galloway, where the Town of Greece, N.Y., will argue that its guest chaplains should have great leeway in choosing the prayers that open town council meetings.
The Senate pushed forward a measure to protect Americans from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. Don’t expect the House to follow suit.
“Yes I Am” (gay) says Maine congressman and gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud, who wrote that he decided to come out to end the whisper campaigns. “Let me save them the trouble,” he penned in an op-ed that ran in major Maine newspapers.
A New Jersey couple who claims their religious rights are being violated is suing N.J. Gov. Chris Christie over the state’s ban on conversion therapy.
Do you remember that line Dana Carvey used to use to impersonate former President George Bush the Father? That’s basically the Vatican’s response to the rumored possibility that the next new batch of cardinals would include women: “Not gonna do it.”
A female cardinal by Thomas O’Neil via Wikimedia Commons.
The Vatican’s old boy network is as strong as ever, according to critics of Pope Francis’ pick for the next archbishop of Hartford, Conn., writes David Yonke.
Soothsayers say laws against their trade unfairly target those who believe in them.
Dateline Not Disneyworld: A wealthy Orlando businessman is suing World Hope Inc. and Pastor David Janney for the return of more than $117,000 donated to the Baptist preacher’s charity — money he thought he was giving to support chicken farming in Kenya, but which allegedly wound up in the pastor’s personal bank account.
Two dozen people were killed at a stampede at a crowded all night vigil at Holy Ghost Adoration Ministry in eastern Kenya, at an All Soul’s Day event. Other recent church gatherings have turned into deadly stampedes in Angola and Kenya, Christianity Today reports.
Tracy Simmons reports that Washington state voters (ahead of the pack once again, remember the pot vote?) will weigh in on a ballot measure to require labeling of genetically modified foods.
Proponents say it’s an ethical issue because you have a right to know what you’re putting into your body.
Cathleen Falsani, aka God Grrl, reviews Ann Romney’s new cookbook, “The Romney Family Table,” and recommends the Welsh skillet cakes.
A German hotel is apologizing for an ad for “a long, romantic Kristall-Nacht” at their establishment. Nov. 9 is the 75th anniversary the “night of broken glass,” the 1938 Nazi pogrom against German and Austrian Jews that killed 91, sent 30,000 to jails or concentration camps, burned 1,000 synagogues and destroyed 7,000 Jewish businesses.
More than $1.3 billion in art looted by the Nazis was just discovered in the storage closet of a reclusive Munich octogenarian.
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– Lauren Markoe
