No joke, he was asked to leave. And he was sober. But a nun is going to the Oscars. Jesuits want bishops to tone down the "war on religion" chatter. China may invite religious freedom envoy. And Richard Dawkins needs to Google Darwin.

 (RNS) Jewish groups are up in arms about a Mormon's decision to baptize the parents of Holocaust survivor and Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Which raises an interesting question: Why do Mormons baptize the dead? By Daniel Burke.

JERUSALEM (RNS) An Israel-based tourism company is offering "medical tourism" packages that combines medical care with a pilgrimage for the thousands of Americans who travel abroad for medical care. By Michele Chabin.

“God allows a time for people to leave his Earth,” Newark native Jethro Townes said, recalling the recent death of Etta James and the loss of Michael Jackson in 2009. “But if you look at what has happened over the past few years, God has a great choir now.”

Jeremy Lin does it again, and Tim Tebow may need a new nickname. Tim Dolan also (hearts) NY, and will tell pope why. China snubs Washington's religious freedom envoy, Oliver Stone becomes a Muslim -- sorta. Hutaree militia was hunting the antichrist, not the Feds.

CHESNAY, France (RNS) With 36,000 members and a history stretching back to the1850s, France's Mormon community is among the biggest and oldest in Europe. But while Mormons in the U.S. bask in the so-called "Mormon moment," French Mormons are facing stiff opposition in their bid to build the country's first Mormon temple. By Elizabeth Bryant.

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) Lauren Winner is a jumble of contradictions: A Jew who found Jesus and recently the priesthood, an accomplished historian who rides an oversized tricycle to work -- and a memoir writer who wants to keep some details of her private life private. By Yonat Shimron.

WASHINGTON (RNS) Americans are split on a federal mandate requiring nearly all employers -- even institutions with strong religious affiliations -- to provide insurance covering contraception. By Lauren Markoe.

(RNS) Some critics of President Obama's compromise on contraception have called it a "game of let's pretend." Yet that "game" is actually a venerable tradition in Catholic moral theology that for centuries has provided a way for Christians to think about acting virtuously in a fallen world. By David Gibson.

(RNS) "We could probably count on one hand the number of Asian-Americans who speak out as prominent Christians.," said Melanie Mar Chow of the Asian American Christian Fellowship, a campus ministry. "It's great to have a role model like him."

LONDON (RNS) Britain's Court of Appeals has ordered a pair of Christian innkeepers to pay thousands of pounds in damages to a gay couple they refused to allow to stay together in one of their rooms. By Al Webb.

(RNS) Too many providers -- churches, retailers, even politicians -- come across as having a low opinion of their constituents. Voters know this recession better than their politicians, and believers seem to take their faith more seriously than the institutions that seek to enroll them as members. By Tom Ehrich.

(RNS) Evangelicals are all over the news, but just who are these Christians? "Actually, that's a question, I'd like to ask somebody, too," evangelist Billy Graham once said. Here's a primer about these religious types, their history, faith and politics. By Peggy Fletcher Stack.