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1. No charges filed in fight between prominent preacher couple
Juanita Bynum is one of the most prominent female preachers in America. Her husband, Thomas W. Weeks III, founded a series of churches called Global Destiny. The two married in 2002 in a televised ceremony; her ring famously sported a 7.76-carat diamond. But the couple has apparently been in for a rough patch lately,and they met at an Atlanta hotel to try to reconcile. It apparently didn't go well. At 4 a.m., the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, a physical fight broke out and a bellman had to pull Weeks off of Bynum. "She was bruised up and battered," a police officer told the paper. "She had purple bruising around her neck and upper torso." No charges have been filed against Weeks, the paper reports.

2. Billy Graham recovering after treatment
Evangelist Billy Graham, 88, had a colonoscopy Wednesday night, and his gastroenterologist cauterized an area of bleeding. "Mr. Graham was alert during the procedure, watching the monitor, talking with the physician and hospital staff, and asking them about their families," a statement from the hospital said. "Mr. Graham has resumed a liquid diet will continue to rest and be under observation for the next 72 hours. This evening, he has been watching television and visiting his daughter, Gigi Graham Foreman, and his daughter-in-law, Jane Austin Graham, wife of son Franklin Graham. He will soon return to his routine of walking in the nursing unit, as he has been throughout his hospital stay."

3. The Reformation isn't over in Louisiana
The governor's race in Louisiana is getting nasty, and sectarian. Democrats are running television ads against Republican candidate Bobby Jindal, quoting from a 1996 New Oxford Review article (alt.) "The party claims Jindal once characterized non-Catholics as being burdened with 'utterly depraved minds,'" says the Baton Rouge Advocate. Actually, what Jindal, who was raised Hindu, wrote was:

Post-Reformation history does not reflect the unity and harmony of the "one flock" instituted by Christ, but rather a scandalous series of divisions and new denominations, including some that can hardly be called Christian. Yet Christ would not have demanded unity without providing the necessary leadership to maintain it. The same Catholic Church which infallibly determined the canon of the Bible must be trusted to interpret her handiwork; the alternative is to trust individual Christians, burdened with, as Calvin termed it, their "utterly depraved" minds, to overcome their tendency to rationalize, their selfish desires, and other effects of original sin. The choice is between Catholicism's authoritative Magisterium and subjective interpretation which leads to anarchy and heresy.

Yeah, sounds like New Oxford Review. But he doesn't really, as the ads say, "refer to Protestants as scandalous, depraved, selfish, and heretical." Yet Louisiana Democratic Party chairman Chris Whittington insists that the commercial reflects Jindal's own words about religion. "I'm not analyzing. I'm not commenting. I'm not saying he's right or wrong," he told the Advocate. Looks like this has a huge potential to backfire against Jindal's Democratic opponents and the state party. I expect we'll soon see pressure on the national party to condemn the ads.

4. Spies in church
Bynum's battery isn't the only disturbing religion story out of Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also reports:

When a new couple arrived at Southside Christian Fellowship Church in August 2005, members welcomed them with open arms.

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August (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51