Tim Tebow leaving the White House in 2009. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Discontent threatens Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and its leader President Mohamed Morsi. Top Muslim and Christian religious leaders have been called to an emergency meeting.
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will delay the health care mandate that larger employers cover their workers, postponing the effective date beyond next year’s midterm elections. Meanwhile, a broad coalition of religious leaders called the contraceptive mandate a religious liberty threat. Religion Clause suggests that small business lawsuits objecting to the mandate could be dismissed on ripeness grounds.
Tim Tebow tried to stop Aaron Hernandez from getting into a violent bar fight in 2007 while both were played for the University of Florida, according to police records.
In the abortion wars, Sen. Marco Rubio will sponsor a Senate bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks, following a similar measure passed the House last month.
A state version is now being debated in the Texas legislature where it will likely pass. In a viral Daily Beast piece, Kirsten Powers says she and most women don’t stand with Texas Sen. Wendy Davis who led last week’s filibuster. Or, as David noted, Christine Wicker’s Religion Dispatches piece saw Davis’s filibuster as a form of prayer. Oh yeah. Hail Satan has been trending.
Facing a civil lawsuit alleging sex abuse coverup, C. J. Mahaney announced his departure from the Together for the Gospel conference he co-founded with fellow evangelical leaders Mark Dever, Albert Mohler and Ligon Duncan. The trio voiced their support for Mahaney last month.
William H. Gray III, a Baptist pastor-turned-Pennsylvania congressman who became the nation’s highest-ranking African American elected official in the U.S. House of Representatives died July 1 while attending Wimbledon. The Washington Post obituary notes that when Gray was asked what made him fit to lead the Congressional Budget Committee, the congressman replied, “Did you ever try to run a Baptist church?”
State bans on same-sex marriage made divorce harder for some than marrying in the first place. But last week’s Supreme Court decision could provide a basis for challenges to state laws.
Humanists are finding ways to home-school, despite curriculum challenges.
More details are coming out about the firefighters who were killed in Arizona, including one who had “simple faith in Jesus.” Some of a fire chaplain’s most important work will come after the funeral, Adelle Banks reports.
Members of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests wound up adopting fewer than half of its proposals, attempting to chart a middle course within the Catholic Church.
The United Church of Christ voted to make it the first major religious body in the United States to divest from fossil fuel companies.
Pope John Paul II has cleared the final obstacle before being made a saint, awaiting a final approval from Pope Francis and a date for the ceremony.
The president of France aims to allow voluntary euthanasia.
A group of Japanese Buddhist monks are using rock music to “spread the word.”
Two profiles worth reading: “The New Theist” about William Lane Craig in The Chronicle of Higher Education and “The woman behind Textweek.com” about Jenee Woodard in Duke’s Faith and Leadership.
Here are your tweets for the mid-week:
https://twitter.com/publicroad/status/352417661537370112
No chauffeur for Francis? RT “@CatholicNewsSvc: From Mercedes' site: Pope gets popemobile keys pic.twitter.com/sw52CWsXVq”
— Laurie Goodstein (@lauriegnyt) July 3, 2013
Forgive me Lord for I have stolen the only AC unit and locked it and myself in a bedroom, leaving @ANNELAMOTT to fend for herself.
— Sam Lamott (@SAMLAMOTT) July 2, 2013
Finally, RNS is holding an art contest: submit your renditions of Pope Francis here. Have a good Fourth, and try not to take too many Instagram shots of fireworks.
