The News Wire

2012-05
2012-05-23	Money becomes new church battleground The money will be made available only to churches that commit themselves to a rejection not just of homosexuality, but of liberalism: they must sign "in good faith" a declaration that they will "reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed
2012-05-23	Afghan 'poison attack' on schoolgirls in Takhar The education ministry said last week that 550 schools in the 11 provinces where the Taliban have strong support had been closed down by them.
2012-05-23	Priest Arrested In Child Sex Assault Case "We are grateful to police in Colorado for making this arrest. Children are always safer when predators are behind bars, and today we can be thankful that Fr. Charles Manning will be kept away from kids at least for a while."
2012-05-23	APNewsBreak: Franciscan files tell abuse story "One offender bringing kids in can set them up to be abused by another offender and those kids in turn grow up to become a member of the order and themselves begin abusing children,"
2012-05-22	How Critical Thinkers Lose Their Faith in God analytic thinking may inhibit our natural intuition to believe in supernatural agents that influence the world
2012-05-22	Legion of Christ head admits sex scandal coverup Maciel's double life, and the well-known problems of the cult-like order, have cast a shadow over John Paul's legacy since the Vatican knew of Maciel's crimes as early as 1950, yet he enjoyed the highest Vatican praise and access until he was finally sanctioned in 2006.
2012-05-21	Autocratic church betrays signs of panic and confusion So it makes me sad to see the Catholic Church grow so unCatholic, intent on loyalty testing, mind control and heresy hunting.
2012-05-21	Ultra-Orthodox Jews Rally to Discuss Risks of Internet The rally in Citi Field on Sunday was sponsored by a rabbinical group, Ichud Hakehillos Letohar Hamachane, that is linked to a software company that sells Internet filtering software to Orthodox Jews.
2012-05-21	‘Baby clutching Quran’ born in Lagos church But now, if you put the Quran in the baby’s hand, it is bigger than the baby’s hand because it has become bigger. Maybe as the baby grows, the mini Quran will be getting bigger.”
2012-05-19	Death threats prove too much for Pretoria church They alleged that Seoka had used R500,000 of the Diocese of Pretoria to pay for a mortgage bond for him and his wife. They also claimed that Seoka had misappropriated R162,000 to be used to fund legal representation against a church dean.
2012-05-19	Ex-priest accused of death plot found guilty Prosecutors say Fiala tried to hire a neighbor’s brother to kill the man who accused him of abusing him in 2008. That’s when the man was 16 and Fiala was the priest at a rural West Texas parish.
2012-05-18	Prosecutor: Pa. diocese 'disgraceful,' 'criminal' Nearly 2,000 internal church documents unearthed from secret, locked archives show that Bevilacqua approved and occasionally overturned priest assignments recommended by Lynn. The archdiocese routinely kept accused predators in parish work, sometimes after a stint at a church-run treatment center
2012-05-17	Archaeology contradicts the Bible most archaeologists have abandoned the investigation of Moses and The Exodus as a fruitless pursuit.
2012-05-17	Catholic Church challenges priest child rape liability ruling "It publicly expresses a commitment to take sexual abuse seriously and to eradicate it, yet is chooses to challenge a high profile High Court ruling that finds the church is legally responsible for it."
2012-05-17	When General Grant expelled the Jews On 17 December 1862, almost halfway into the Civil War, the Union general Ulysses S Grant ordered the expulsion of all Jews from the territory under his command in the South.
2012-05-17	Vicar refused homosexual burial His decision, he says, was made because as he did not want to marry homosexuals, he thought it was perhaps wrong to bury homosexual people.
2012-05-17	Islamic Hate for a Dead Pope “Yesterday [March 17], thanks be to Allah, the head of infidelity and polytheism, this so-called Shenouda, died—may Allah be avenged on him. He perished, and all were relieved of him—people, worshippers, trees, and animals; Egypt is relieved of him, for he initiated sectarian strife.”
2012-05-16	Bishop convicted for child porn stripped of duties The Holy See in Rome has stripped Raymond Lahey of his clerical duties in what is one of the most serious penalties that the Roman Catholic Church can impose
2012-05-16	How filthy lucre could subvert the Church of England Five retired English bishops, among them Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former bishop of Rochester who was the evangelical candidate for archbishop of Canterbury last time, have promised to act as bishops for those clergy who sign up to the pledge not to accept women bishops or tolerate gay people in the church.
2012-05-16	Sebelius-Catholic Church rebukes Georgetown The decision drew immediate ire from some Catholic groups who see Sebelius, a Catholic, as someone who is using her office to violate religious liberty.
2012-05-16	Gove's Bibles: good for schools? Tell us if you think the scheme is a good idea, and if you don't, use the thread below to suggest books that could have been donated instead
2012-05-16	Prominent Legion priest admits he fathered child The Rev. Thomas Williams, a moral theologian and prominent American author, lecturer and television personality, said in a statement he was "deeply sorry for this grave transgression" against his vows of celibacy
2012-05-16	Author says Wright helped Obama accept Christianity without denouncing Islam "He said, 'I don't know if I could go that far, but I can tell you that I made it comfortable for him to accept Christianity without having to renounce his Islamic background,"
2012-05-15	Church lawyer: Philly cardinal, aides lied to me No one told him that Bevilacqua had ordered the list shredded in 1994, shortly after Monsignor William Lynn, his secretary for clergy, compiled it.
2012-05-15	Same-sex couple barred from Lexington Catholic prom Two female students say they were not allowed to attend Lexington Catholic High School's prom as a couple Saturday night, upsetting a number of students at the school.
2012-05-15	Diocese files documents denying discrimination The diocese says any legal review of its doctrine would violate its religious rights.
2012-05-13	Military Chaplains Raise Gay Marriage Concerns the House Armed Services Committee passed its version of a bill designed, in part, to protect military chaplains from coming under pressure to marry service members of the same sex.
2012-05-13	Israeli city bans girls from singing at a youth conference for religious reasons Strictly Orthodox Jewish men do not listen to women singing for reasons of religious modesty.
2012-05-12	Egyptian Campaign Focuses on Islam’s Role in Public Life “The real approach to democracy is governance of the people and the rotation of power.” The Salafis attacked those same quotes as sacrilege, arguing that God’s law should be supreme.
2012-05-12	A Startling Thesis on Islam's Origins "unlike the Bible, which name-checks any number of conveniently datable rulers—from Cyrus to Augustus—the Quran betrays what is, to any historian, a most regrettable lack of interest in geopolitics. Those who are named in its pages tend to be angels, demons or prophets. . . . The focus of the Quran is fixed implacably, not on the personal but on the divine."
2012-05-11	Muslim leaders warn of far right exploitation of Rochdale child sex case "This is dangerous for community relations," he said. "There's lots of discussion about 'Muslim paedos', like saying the prophet married a young girl
2012-05-11	Same Bible, Different Verdict On Gay Marriage "When you read the Bible, you can find justification for almost anything," she says, "including slavery, the subjection of women and an argument that the sun actually revolves around the earth."
2012-05-11	For Ultra-Orthodox in Abuse Cases, Prosecutor Has Different Rule But Mr. Hynes has taken the highly unusual step of declining to publicize the names of defendants prosecuted under the program — even those convicted. At the same time, he continues to publicize allegations of child sexual abuse against defendants who are not ultra-Orthodox Jews.
2012-05-11	War with Islam training 'not surprising' "There is a certain element in our military - a lot of them influenced by evangelical religious beliefs - that feel that the attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are an indication of the fact that we are at war with Muslims
2012-05-11	Vatican 'probes Legion of Christ priests over child abuse The previous pope, John Paul II, long held up Fr Maciel as a model to the faithful, despite persistent allegations of sexual abuse, which were later proven.
2012-05-10	Girl Scouts under scrutiny from Catholic bishops Last year, the Scouts angered some conservatives by accepting into a Colorado troop a 7-year-old transgender child who was born a boy but was being raised as a girl.
2012-05-10	Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended to destroy their businesses.
2012-05-09	Ofcom may close TV station over show condoning murder for blasphemy "I hail those who made this law [Pakistan's blasphemy law] which states that one who insults the prophet deserves to be killed - such a person should be eliminated."
2012-05-09	Defense: Pa. church trial veering far from charges Cudemo was accused of sexually abusing nearly a dozen girls. One woman told the grand jury he started raping her in 1971, when she was 11. He impregnated her before high school and took her for an abortion, according to the 2005 grand jury report
2012-05-09	Congress lends Statuary Hall to religious right activists I'm curious about why, exactly, the House Republican leadership is willing to lend these folks Statuary Hall, which is rarely lent to anyone. Would the Speaker's office be equally gracious towards other faith groups or for an atheists' event?
2012-05-08	New Charge Sought Against KC Bishop, Diocese Both Finn and the diocese have denied any wrongdoing.
2012-05-08	When Religious Rules And Women's Health Collide more than one-third report they've had a conflict regarding religion-based policy and patient care. At Catholic hospitals, the figure was 52 percent.
2012-05-08	Bishop won't let group publicly honor gay student "We preach tolerance and acceptance but then we turn around and we don't practice what we preach," he said. "If the bishop says we're not going to do it, I can voice my objection to it, but there's not a whole lot I can do."
2012-05-08	Why shouldn't paganism have a place in RE lessons? it would have enlivened one's schooldays considerably: the prospect of Smythe minor being bloodily slaughtered in appeasement of Satan would, I feel, have been a memorable end to the academic year.
2012-05-07	Grab a man or miss out, Church warns girls WOMEN (who like men) should marry earlier and not be too picky to avoid an Aussie man drought, the Catholic Church has warned.
2012-05-07	Councils abandon prayers following NSS High Court victory “As a nation we need to be determined not to forego the values based on the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which have shaped our country for centuries and made it the thriving and flourishing nation that it is today.
2012-05-05	Family Battle Offers Look Inside Lavish TV Ministry Ms. Koper and the two other former TBN employees also said that dozens of staff members, including Ms. Koper, chauffeurs, sound engineers and others had been ordained as ministers by TBN. This allowed the network to avoid paying Social Security taxes on their salaries and made it easier to justify providing family members with rent-free houses, sometimes called “parsonages,” she said.
2012-05-05	David Barton, Jon Stewart, and the Myth of Raymond Raines So despite the fact that this incident took place nearly twenty years ago - and never actually happened - David Barton is still citing it today as proof that Christianity is under attack in America.
2012-05-05	5 Pa. Priests Ousted After Sex Abuse Inquiry He said [Msgr. Francis Feret] sexually assaulted him at least 100 times when he was a student at St. Timothy's school in Northeast Philadelphia in the early 1970s. The abuse occurred in the church confessional, choir loft and other places, he said," the paper reports.
2012-05-04	Don’t break oaths and don’t kill Muslims: In letters, bin Laden worried about al-Qaida image “This is not the kind of lying to the enemy that is permitted. It is treachery,” bin Laden wrote.

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