Religion News Roundup 5/25/2010

Hello readers! Here's what you may have missed in recent religion news:

• Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the need for reform within the Catholic Church, and a great deal of self-examination. The Dallas Morning News put out an interesting series of blurbs by local faith leaders regarding Benedict's reflection.
• A friend of mine (and former colleague) is working to get African-American non-religious "out of the closet."
• It's been a rough week or so for the Saudi "morality police," or Mutaween.
• Get Religion does its usual excellent job predicting the religious and political fallout of a repealed "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy.
• American Catholic women are just about as likely as any American woman to terminate a pregnancy via abortion. Why? Because they're otherwise just like other Americans. (CNNvia Pew)
• Here's some interesting reading from Sojourners about (the biblical) Ruth...as an illegal immigrant. There are some very good points made about choosing compassion over law.
• In a seeming coincidence of the last two points I posted above, a nun (and others, presumably) have been excommunicated for performing an abortion to save a woman's life. (Politics Daily)

Religion News Roundup (January 15 2010)

Hello readers,

Here's what's been going on in religion recently:

• The writing of the Bible may have started a lot earlier than scholars previously thought. (Haaretz)
• The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has recently been full of useful statistics about beliefs and attitudes in the U.S. 16.1% of US adults identify as "unaffiliated." Does this mean a lot of agnostics/atheists, or that a significant number of people are fed up with religious organizations?
• Also worth seeing: How religious is your state? (Pew) and the increasingly common mixture of faiths (Pew).
• The recent battle over gay marriage here in D.C. (my hometown) has been leaving many questioning whether the Catholic Church is too influential, or at least, trying to be. Now, a Washington Post guest columnist is asking the same question over a different topic: the healthcare debate. (WaPo).

Have a great Martin Luther King Day weekend!

Religion News for 9/24/2009

Hello, readers! Today in 622, the prophet Muhammad completed his hijra from Mecca to Medina. And today in religion news...

• Worldwide, witch hunts persecuting women and children are on the rise, according to the UN. (Reuters)
• Tomorrow's Islam on Capitol Hill [site contains automatic audio] event is already attracting attention, not all of it positive, and not all just from anti-Muslim groups. (PD, Beliefnet)
• Pope Benedict XVI will be making his first official visit to Great Britain. (Times of London)
• Leaders from African-American churches will be endorsing Obama's plan for healthcare reform. (LAT)
• Two openly gay members of Congress have endorsed legislation barring workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. (Baltimore Sun)