Friday’s roundup

In a move sure to please social conservatives, President Obama has directed that any hospital that receives Medicaid or Medicare funding (basically, all of them) must allow all patients — including gays and lesbians — to decide who has visitation and decision-making rights. The full order can be read here. Obama said he still plans […]

In a move sure to please social conservatives, President Obama has directed that any hospital that receives Medicaid or Medicare funding (basically, all of them) must allow all patients — including gays and lesbians — to decide who has visitation and decision-making rights. The full order can be read here.

Obama said he still plans to issue a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer (May 6) even though a federal judge in Wisconsin on Thursday found the law mandating the annual observance is unconstitutional.

Speaking of public prayer, the NCAA has ruled that college football players will no longer be allowed to use they black eye paint to spread messages, Christian or otherwise, as Florida phenom Tim Tebow was so famous for.


A psychologist at a Connecticut treatment center that worked with Catholic priests said he observed a revolving-door approach to therapy as troubled priests cycled in and right back out into ministry with kids. WaPo says US Catholic leaders are now trying to track abuse claims filed against overseas priests where, in WaPo’s words, “abuse might be less likely to be reported and background checks less coordinated.”

Rogue Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson, who was welcomed back into the church by Pope Benedict XVI, was found guilty of breaking Germany’s law against Holocaust denial, and fined about $14,500.

Father Michael Pfleger, the incendiary Chicago Catholic priest who briefly caused troubles for President Obama, now says he’s sorry for voicing support for women’s ordination the Sunday after Easter. In case you missed, the NYT assesses Archbishop Timothy Dolan‘s first year in office. USA Today profiles Oprahesque guru Eckhart Tolle.

Veteran Christian singer Jennifer Knapp has confirmed what was long rumored to be true: she’s a lesbian. The Obamas and Bidens released their tax returns, and as the Washington Times put it, the vice president is a bit “tight-fisted when it came to digging in his own pocket for donations.” Ouch.

Newt Gingrich looks at the case on campus religious groups that the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday. An Arkansas appeals court said a father’s religious right to live in a Tony Alamo compound did not trump his children’s rights to live without fear of abuse and neglect. A NASA employee is claiming discrimination after he was allegedly demoted for trying to hand off Intelligent Design materials to his coworkers. Two polygamists pleaded no contest to bigamy charges and were sentenced in Texas yesterday — the first legal action for a polygamous sect that had mostly avoided legal charges.

Beverly Hills SWAT teams (who knew they needed them in 90210?) arrested a man who allegedly shot 2 worshippers at a North Hollywood synagogue last October. A New York imam who got wrapped up in a plot to bomb the city’s subway system has escaped jail time, but was ordered out of the country and told never to come back. Transit officials in Miami say they’ll pull ads that encourage Muslims to leave Islam with the phrase “Fatwa on your head?”


Belgium appears poised to become the first European nation to ban the burqa or other Islamic garb that fully conceals a woman’s body or face. Speaking of female garb, the BYU women’s rugby team says it will forfeit a quarterfinals game on Sunday because all the girls are practicing Mormons and need to be in church. A school in Somalia has been told they can’t ring their bells because, well, they sound too much like church bells, which are apparently un-Islamic.

A Catholic church in Warr Acres, Okla., is at war with itself over an icon/crucifix that appears to show Jesus in an, um, aroused state. The artist says viewers have gotten it all wrong, but others say it’s hard to miss. Full disclosure: the image is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

And finally this, just because it’s Friday: A British video game maker says it now owns the souls of thousands of online customers after it inserted language into those “Terms and Conditions” forms that people click without ever actually reading. From the contract, which you may or may not have read before you agreed to it:

“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.”

Let that be a lesson to ya.

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