Contraceptive Plan Still Draws Priests' Ire At masses across the country Sunday, Roman Catholic priests blasted the Obama administration's compromise on contraceptive insurance coverage, a sign the White House's backtrack late last week did little to defuse the controversy (The Wall Street Journal)
Final Worship in Public Schools Dozens of churches held what may be their final services in New York City public schools Sunday after losing a drawn-out court battle to hold on to the spaces. (The Wall Street Journal)
Congregations Vow to Keep Fighting School Worship Ban On the last Sunday before a New York City policy went into effect, religious leaders urged their congregations to draw strength from adversity. (The New York Times)
Islamism Set Stage for Maldives Coup This paradise for wealthy tourists has shown a very different face in recent days, where hard-line Islam is an increasing part of the political scene and played a role in overthrowing the democratically elected government. (The Wall Street Journal)
Rule Shift on Birth Control Is Concession to Obama Allies The decision to soften a requirement that religious-affiliated organizations pay for insurance plans offering free birth control was meant to appease Catholics on the left - not bishops. (The New York Times)
Contraceptive Plan Still Draws Priests' Ire At masses across the country Sunday, Roman Catholic priests blasted the Obama administration's compromise on contraceptive insurance coverage, a sign the White House's backtrack late last week did little to defuse the controversy (The Wall Street Journal)
Final Worship in Public Schools Dozens of churches held what may be their final services in New York City public schools Sunday after losing a drawn-out court battle to hold on to the spaces. (The Wall Street Journal)
Thousands March To Protest Ban On Using Public Schools For Religious Services An estimated 17,000 worshipers marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Sunday to protest the Appeals Court decision to ban religious services from public schools to avoid the appearance of government endorsement of particular faiths. (CBS)
Bishop Eddie Long's wife files for divorce Last fall, four young men accused Eddie Long, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, of coercing them into having sex. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Sarah Palin's letter from God In her email Palin imagines a letter from God to the family about to launch on its challenging child-rearing experience together. (Los Angeles Times)
Minister's Path of Miracles The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez helped oversee a shift of Latino voters, disillusioned with the Republican Party over failed immigration reform, toward the Democratic Party in the November election. (The Washington Post)
Invoking a Presidential Revelatory Moment The discussion of evil at the Saddleback forum gave Americans a valuable glimpse into the president-elect’s soul--and quite possibly into their own (Peter Steinfels, The New York Times)
Church keeps the faith with four-lane bowling alley A four-lane regulation bowling alley tucked in the basement of the Northwest Side church since the Depression era is one of the few remaining “church alleys” in Chicago. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Opinion: For Priests’ Wives, a Word of Caution The status of the priest's wife is perhaps even more strange and unsettling than that of her ordained Catholic husband. (Sara Ritchey, The New York Times)
Rule Shift on Birth Control Is Concession to Obama Allies The decision to soften a requirement that religious-affiliated organizations pay for insurance plans offering free birth control was meant to appease Catholics on the left - not bishops. (The New York Times)
Opinion: Rick Santorum and Natural Law Santorum’s statements reflect not knee-jerk prejudice, but something much more powerful: philosophically reasoned prejudice, based on centuries of Roman Catholic natural law (Molly Worthen, The New York Times)
White House tries to quell birth control storm White House officials insisted their position hasn’t changed, but Axelrod’s comments quickly became a Rorschach test for advocates on both sides (Politico)
Monitor: What would Jesus hack? Cybertheology: Just how much does Christian doctrine have in common with the open-source software movement? (The Economist)
News: Fall From Grace Readers of The Banner, the publication of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, reacted instantly to the news in January that two religion professors at Calvin College had written scholarly papers suggesting that evidence of genetics and evolution raised questions about the traditional, literal reading of Genesis about creation, the story of Adam and Eve, and the fall of humanity out of an initial idyllic state. (Inside Higher Ed)
Evangelicals Without Blowhards Some televangelists have given evangelical Christians a bad reputation among progressives. But there’s another strain of evangelicals, extraordinary for their generosity and compassion. (Nicholas Kristof)
Reverend John Stott dies aged 90 The Rev John Stott, who helped lead a resurgence of evangelicalism in Britain, has died at the age of 90. (BBC)
Opinion: Bad Christian Art I’m convinced that bad art derives, like bad literary theory, from bad theology. (Tony Woodlief, Image)
'Bible Man' OK'd by Jackson County school board After an hour’s deliberations, board members returned to the room to announce, to applause, that they would not be banning the Bible Man from schools, despite the complaint about his monthly meetings with county elementary children. (Huntsville Times)
White House tries to quell birth control storm White House officials insisted their position hasn’t changed, but Axelrod’s comments quickly became a Rorschach test for advocates on both sides (Politico)
The Trouble With Church Preservation The challenge for preservationists is coming up with alternatives that protect a church’s historic character while providing cost-effective long-term solutions (The Atlantic: Cities)
San Juan couple drops suit over citations for Bible studies City has agreed to pay back the $300 in fines levied against Chuck and Stephanie Fromm, who hosted large weekly Bible studies without a permit. Changes to the municipal code are in the works (The Orange County Register)
Court sides with Davidson College police Church-affiliated college's police force with the power to arrest doesn't violate church-state separation, court says (News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.)
Evangelical missionaries in B.C. public schools An evangelical group that sends apprentices to work in public schools has sparked concern among some Vancouver teachers who fear the young missionaries are trying to convert students. (Vancouver Sun)
Evangelist's aide asked to leave India A key aide to evangelist Franklin Graham, who is conducting a three-day religious programme in Hyderabad, has been asked to leave the country for violating visa norms. (IBN Live)
Are We Born With Some Notion of an Eye for an Eye? Our research shows that by 8 months of age, infants prefer to play with puppets who treat bad individuals badly, even over those who treat bad individuals well. (J. Kiley Hamlin, Science and Religion Today)
Bishops Criticize Tough Alabama Immigration Law A group of church leaders has formally denounced Alabama's new immigration law, calling it mean-spirited and un-Christian, and has vowed not to obey it. (The New York Times)
Opinion: Hiroshima’s lessons What the Air Force should remember about Just War and nuclear weapons. -(Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, The Washington Post)
Give us our daily passage: Reading Bible tied to social justice issues a new study by Baylor University researcher Aaron Franzen found frequent Bible reading predicted greater support for issues ranging from the compatibility of science and religion to more humane treatment of criminals (Ahead of the Trend, ARDA)
A Christian Group Seeks to End Extreme Poverty Some 138 million Christians live in the United States—and they collectively earn $2.4-trillion per year. If each one of those people just slightly increased the amount he or she gives each year, they could eradicate extreme poverty by 2035 (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Many say 'So What?' to God, religion, atheism "The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal" (USA Today)
Religious but not spiritual: The high costs of ignoring personal piety Even though research shows spiritually alive churches are the most likely to grow, the percentage of U.S. congregations reporting high spiritual vitality declined from 43 percent in 2005 to 28 percent in 2010, according to the latest Faith Communities Today survey (Ahead of the Trend, ARDA)
Opinion: When Spirituality Kills How should society regulate New Age gurus or Christian Scientists? (Mitch Horowitz, The Wall Street Journal)
A Rabbi in the Wilderness Jamie Korngold has earned the right to be called an "Adventure Rabbi" both for her athleticism and her mission to use the outdoors to help Jews connect with their spirituality. (The Wall Street Journal)
Union alum’s commercial a finalist in Doritos Super Bowl contest Jimmy Duke, a 1998 Union graduate, produced the commercial entitled “Birds of Prey” with some friends from his church for the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. In the commercial, a man starts acting like a bird of prey when he craves Doritos. Duke is pastor of family ministries at Mosaic church in Los Angeles. (Union Univ. news)
Mitt Romney releases tax returns The couple gave away $7 million in charitable contributions over the past two years, including at least $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Washington Post)
Iowa State cancels class on Biblical insights for business Everyone agrees a recently canceled Iowa State University class on the role of the Bible in business is a First Amendment issue.
As to what that issue is, opinions vary. (Inside Higher Ed)
Religious-Themed Business Course Canceled at ISU in Ames Iowa State University canceled a business management course that some faculty say would have advocated an evangelical Christian point of view and used a textbook that advised its readers against doing business with nonbelievers. (Patch)
Judge refuses to toss Armenian church Bible suit The Armenian church is demanding that the J. Paul Getty Museum return pages ripped from a sacred handwritten Armenian Bible dating back to 1256 (Associated Press)
Hero or coward? It all depends on the situation Research, for example, has shown we tend to be less attentive when we’re in a rush. We’re more reluctant to lend a hand when we’re in a crowd. And we’re much less forgiving when we’re around people who aren’t like us. (The Globe and Mail)
What Literature Owes the Bible The Bible is the model for and subject of more art and thought than those of us who live within its influence, consciously or unconsciously, will ever know. (Marilynne Robinson, The New York Times)
James Dobson Ventures into Fiction This will be Dobson’s first foray into fiction, and the novels will treat some of the same themes as his nonfiction titles, but in a dystopian future world. The first book, Fatherless, is slated for January 2013; the other two, Childless and Godless, are planned for fall 2013 and summer 2014. (Publishers Weekly)
Sales of New Bible Help Planned Parenthood-Funding Komen The Susan G. Komen Foundation, who as recently as last week was handing out cash to the nation’s number one abortion provider, makes the latest thematic Bible stand out on retailers’ shelves across the nation. (Lifenews)
A Jewish Edition of the New Testament Two professors have produced a scholarly experiment: an edition of the Christian holy book edited entirely by Jews. (New York Times)
HarperCollins to Buy Thomas Nelson Thomas Nelson generates about $200 million annually in revenue from all publishing categories, according to one industry estimate. (The Wall Street Journal)
Kenyan govt to work closely with church The Government and the Church have a collaborative role in tackling social ills and economically empowering communities, President Mwai Kibaki has said (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation)
YWAM Missionary Murdered in Kenya Charisma News has just learned that a Youth with a Mission (YWAM) missionary was murdered in Kenya just hours ago. (Charisma)
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