religion

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Huckabee Tests Limits of Faith
Huckabee Tests Limits of Faith

Huckabee Tests Limits of Faith

Preaching prompted a backlash in Arkansas; in Iowa, will Christian soldiers come out?

(Newser) - Mike Huckabee is banking on his deep Christian faith drawing voters to him in the presidential primaries, but that same passion has proven a liability in the past. As Arkansas governor, Huckabee made several religious molehills into mountains big enough for Moses, the LA Times reports in an examination of...

Priests Brawl With Brooms at Church of the Nativity

Punch-up in Bethlehem injures 5 priests, 2 cops

(Newser) - A holiday cleanup at the church built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born turned ugly Thursday, as Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows, the Times of London reports. Robed priests pummeled each other with brooms and stones in the Church of the Nativity...

Ill. Bans Natural Hallucinogen
Ill. Bans Natural Hallucinogen

Ill. Bans Natural Hallucinogen

Defenders tout controversial herbal remedy's benefits as law closes in

(Newser) - An impending ban on a hallucinogenic plant used in religious ceremonies by Mazatec Indians in Mexico has defenders of the herb objecting to the fact that it's about to be illegal in Illinois. Possessing salvia divinorum will be a felony beginning Tuesday. Defenders of the herb insist it offers beneficial...

Catholics Now No. 1 in Britain
Catholics Now No. 1 in Britain

Catholics Now No. 1 in Britain

Anglicans second to Catholicism for first time in 400 years

(Newser) - For the first time in 400 years, Catholicism has more adherents than the Church of England in Great Britain, the Sunday Telegraph reports. Immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa have filled the pews of Catholic churches, while attendance at Anglican Sunday services has dipped 20% since 2000, according to a...

In Shift, Clergy Gives More Dollars to Dems

Donations favor Obama, Clinton over Huckabee

(Newser) - In a shift from 2004, Republican presidential and congressional hopefuls are losing clergy support as measured by campaign donations, Politico reports. According to FEC data, clergy and religious groups have given Dem candidates $367,000 but the GOP just $288,000. Of the Dem haul, Barack Obama leads with $107,...

Mike to Mitt: So Sorry About Mormon Jab

Candidates make nice; Romney accepts apology

(Newser) - Surging GOP candidate Mike Huckabee apologized to Mitt Romney yesterday for having asked a reporter if Mormons believed that Jesus and the Devil are brothers. Huckabee said he apologized after the Republican debate in Iowa, and Romney "graciously" accepted. Earlier this week Romney had slammed Huckabee, a former Baptist...

Germany to Try Scientology Ban
Germany to Try Scientology Ban

Germany to Try Scientology Ban

Lawmakers order domestic spies to gather a decade of data on the group

(Newser) - German ministers accused Scientology of being unconstitutional today and took steps to ban it from the country, Der Spiegel reports. They ordered spies to assemble a dossier on the group, based on 10 years of surveillance, to support the ban. Scientologists were outraged, and called themselves victims of "on-going...

Mitt: 'Freedom Requires Religion'
Mitt: 'Freedom Requires Religion'

Mitt: 'Freedom Requires Religion'

Romney stands by Mormon faith in long-awaited address

(Newser) - In a much-hyped address on religion, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney asserted today, “Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone." The former Massachusetts governor focused on religious liberty during the speech in College Station, Texas, but did allow that if Mormonism hurts his candidacy, “so be...

Religion Remains Flashpoint With Huckabee

GOP candidate sounds off on creationism in schools, Romney's Mormon faith

(Newser) - A month before the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reacted with frustration when asked if creationism should be taught in public schools, the AP reports. Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister who has said he does not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, said his personal views on religion...

Senator Attacks Free-Spending Megachurches

Tax-exempt status at odds with ministers' perks: Grassley

(Newser) - Sen. Charles Grassley thinks big-spending pastors of so-called “megachurches” might be abusing their tax-exempt status, NPR reports. Ministers in these stadium-sized churches preach a gospel of wealth, and practice what they preach—driving Rolls Royces, flying in private jets, living in mansions. “Maybe that's not illegal,” the...

Romney to Address Mormonism
Romney to Address Mormonism

Romney to Address Mormonism

With Huckabee ahead in Iowa, Romney hopes to draw Christian voters

(Newser) - Mormon presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will address voters' discomfort about his faith in a speech Thursday, hoping to repeat JFK's 1960 success in allaying fears about his Catholicism, the Boston Globe reports. The former Mass. governor wants to convince Christian voters that his faith shouldn't be a reason to turn...

Boy Dies After Refusing Cancer Treatment

Judge denies parents' plea for transfusions hours before death

(Newser) - A 14-year-old Seattle boy who was given a 70% chance of recovering from childhood leukemia has died, weeks after refusing blood transfusions his biological parents—both recovering drug addicts—wanted him to have, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. He died just hours after a judge ruled in his favor after determining...

Faith Doesn't Play in British Politics

Blair complains that any UK pol who cites God is considered 'a nutter'

(Newser) - Soon-to-be-Catholic Tony Blair has confessed that faith was "hugely important"  in decisions he made as Britain's prime minister, and he wished he could, like President Bush, have been open about it at the time. But Britons are suspicious of religion, Blair said in a TV interview reported in...

Doomsday Cult Leader Pleads With Holed-up Flock

Followers refuse to release children

(Newser) - Self-declared prophet Pyotr Kuznetsov today asked the doomsday cult he started to release four children from their underground cave, the AP reports. Confined to a psychiatric ward and charged with setting up a violent religion, Kuznetsov was brought to the site and spoke through a ventilation hole, telling adults and...

Mormons Losing Faith in Mitt
Mormons Losing Faith in Mitt

Mormons Losing Faith in Mitt

Romney's attempts to look like an Evangelical disturb some in his own faith

(Newser) - Mitt Romney’s attempts to massage his Mormon faith are causing grumbles in Utah, the New Republic reports. Many criticize Romney for downplaying key beliefs to win over mainstream Christians who traditionally loathe them. “I understand he has to appeal to them,” said one Mormon, “but it...

LAPD Scraps Muslim Mapping Program
LAPD Scraps Muslim Mapping Program

LAPD Scraps Muslim Mapping Program

Mayor rips 'counterproductive' police plan

(Newser) - Following a frenzy of controversy, the Los Angeles police department is scrapping its much-criticized plan to "map" Muslim communities. The department had hoped to pinpoint isolated Muslim communities in an attempt to identify problem hot spots. Critics said the plan was a form of religious profiling, and that it...

Blair to Convert to Catholicism
Blair to Convert to Catholicism

Blair to Convert to Catholicism

Long-rumored move expected in next few weeks

(Newser) - Tony Blair will officially become a Catholic in the next few weeks, a Catholic newspaper says, after years of signing off on Anglican appointments as prime minister. The conversion isn't a shock—Blair often attended Mass with his Catholic wife and child. But the Church of England’s official status,...

Lawmaker Probes TV Preachers
Lawmaker Probes TV Preachers

Lawmaker Probes TV Preachers

Says ritzy ways sparked inquiry into six ministries

(Newser) - A top Republican lawmaker is probing six televangelists who have put their opulent lifestyles on display, the AP reports. Rolls Royces, private jets, and a $30,000 table are among the luxuries that sparked Sen. Chuck Grassley's inquiry, he said yesterday. "I don't want to conclude that there's a...

Parents Leaning on Religion to Dodge Vaccines for Children

Faith often used to cover other objections

(Newser) - Parents are turning to state laws allowing religious exemptions to keep their children from being vaccinated, the Associated Press reports. Such shots are often required for children to attend preschool; though sects such as the Christian Scientists have real religious objections to medicine, some parents distrustful of the science behind...

Thompson Losing Evangelicals
Thompson Losing Evangelicals

Thompson Losing Evangelicals

Balk at endorsing candidate who won't talk about his religion, doesn't back gay marriage ban

(Newser) - Fred Thompson, once the longed-for alternative to a field of uninspiring GOP candidates, didn't get through his campaign's first official month before the religious right started jumping ship, Politico reports. Thompson's refusal to back a gay marriage ban, past lobbying for an abortion-rights group, and refusal to talk religion has...

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