Nearly 60 percent of evangelicals believe God uses natural disasters to send messages, according to a new survey conducted by RNS and Public Religion Research Institute.
More than half of evangelicals say God punishes whole nations for the sins of individuals, according to the survey. The vast majority of mainline Protestants and Catholics disagree. Do sunny days mean that God is happy with us?
The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said bishops “resolve to deal firmly” with clerics who abuse children in a statement issued about a month after a grand jury in Philadelphia said the local archdiocese did anything but.
In a huge shift, the UN’s Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution that focuses on protecting religious freedom. Many people, including Secretary of State Clinton, are happy that references to defamation, often used in Islamic countries to stifle debate and silence religious minorities, were omitted.
The Florida pastor who threatened to burn Qurans plans … oh, forget it.
Rep. Peter King is charged-up to continue his hearings on homegrown Islamic radicalism, telling WaPo that corrections officials tell him that conversion to violent forms of Islam in jail is a problem. Will he call any actual officials this time, I wonder? Muslims are quite pleased that the Senate is holding a hearing of its own, this one on the threats to Muslim civil liberties.
More college campuses are hiring Muslim chaplains. Arizona’s legislature has passed a bill barring colleges and universities from discriminating against students because of their religious beliefs.
The Muslim Brotherhood has become a tacit partner with the military government in Egypt, the NYT reports.
Though the U.S. has only 6 percent of the world’s Catholics, it accounts for 60 percent of marriage annulments granted by the Vatican. Rural Americans are now just as likely to get divorced as those heathen city dwellers, according to a NYT analysis of census data.
The Vatican launched its “voyage through the desert” with nonbelievers. That desert is in Paris, apparently. Maybe they meant dessert?
Elizabeth Taylor was a Jewish convert from Christian Science whose favorite Hollywood haunt was a gay bar called the Abbey. The Vatican’s newspaper called her Hollywood’s “last remaining star.”
Rob Bell’s new book on hell (or the lack thereof) debuted this week at No. 2 on the NYT’s bestseller list. He says “he never set out to be controversial.”