Breaking News: SCOTUS ruled in favor of Westboro Baptist Church by a tally of 8-1, allowing the church to continue its anti-gay protests at funerals without fear of civil liability, at least in this instance. The opinions are here. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority; Justice Alito provided the lone dissent. Happy reading. (That’s director Kevin Smith’s take on the Westboro protests at left, by the way.)
The only Christian minister in Pakistan’s federal cabinet was assassinated today, just two months after the killing of another senior politician who had campaigned against the country’s draconian blasphemy laws. The murder was swiftly and strongly condemned by the Vatican and the Archbishop of Canterbury, among other religious leaders.
Secretary of State Clinton warned that Christians and other religious minorities are being targeted across the Middle East and need protection. President Obama met with Jewish leaders at the White House to discuss U.S.-Israeli relations and the turmoil spreading through North Africa and the Middle East. An influential imam in Yemen has called for the country’s president to be replaced by an Islamic state.
Obama’s “evolving” views on gay marriage are complicating his support among African Americans, according to WaPo. The U.S. 7th Circuit Court upheld a permanent injunction that permits students at an Illinois public high school to wear shirts saying “Be Happy, not Gay.”
Gay rights advocates in the PCUSA say they are making their most successful campaign yet to amend church rules that bar noncelibate gays and lesbians from the pulpit. A PCUSA court acquitted a gay Presbyterian pastor who married his partner in 2008 in California of violating those rules.
Victims of clergy sexual abuse claim church documents show that a former Philadelphia cardinal hushed up crimes against children. A federal judge has ruled that a Mexican man who claims he was abused by a priest shuttled between L.A. and Mexico can sue in U.S. courts.
Pope Benedict XVI makes a sweeping exoneration of Jews for the death of Jesus in a forthcoming book. A new translation ordered up by the U.S. Catholic bishops takes the “booty” out of the Bible.
Native Americans say they are tired of their traditions being co-opted by New Age gurus like James Arthur Ray, who goes on trial this week for his role in the deaths of three people during a sweat lodge ceremony in 2009. Archbishop Charles Chaput, who has a bit of Native American blood himself, said one of the worst mistakes U.S. leaders made in rebuildling Iraq was overestimating the appeal of “Washington-style secularity.”
The Christian moralist who condemns New Orleans as a modern-day Sodom is denying charges of public masturbation at a playground. “I had my hands in my pants,” said the Rev. Grant Storms. (Dickens couldn’t have come up with a better name.) When asked by a reporter what he was doing with his hands, Storms answered, “I don’t want to get into all that right now. That will come out in court.” Indeed.