A memoir by George W Bush‘s former speechwriter claims that Bush administration officials objected to giving JK Rowling a presidential medal of freedom on the grounds that her Harry Potter books “encouraged witchcraft”.

Latimer, whose memoir Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor was published last week by Crown in the US, says that the “narrow thinking” of “people in the White House” led them “to actually object to giving the author JK Rowling a presidential medal because the Harry Potter books encouraged witchcraft“.

See also: Harry Potter is converting Christian critics, Christian themes abound in Potter and How the boy wizard won over religious critics — and the deeper meaning theologians now see in his tale

While the fictional story lines about conspiracy and the Catholic Church in “The Da Vinci Code” caused an uproar among some Catholics and drew censure from the Vatican, a senior representative of the Freemasons in Australia called “The Lost Symbol” the work of a “terrific novelist.”

“We are very pleased, there is nothing in this book that will offend my organization. It does give us the opportunity to open it up a bit,” said Greg Levenston, Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory for the Freemasons.

With Dan Brown’s newest novel, The Lost Symbol, hitting bookstores Sept. 15 — much of it rumored to revolve around Masonic myths — the Masons are in pre-emptive damage-control mode, Religion News Service reports.

Small wonder, since The Da Vinci Code — which Brown claimed to be historically accurate — was full of errors.

The influential comics artist Robert Crumb, best known for such outré works as “Keep On Truckin’ ” and “Fritz the Cat,” is exploring a surprising new topic in his latest work: the Bible.

Over at Beliefnet, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield wonders whether Crumb’s work will be heavenly or heretical?

Philip Pullman, the children’s author, is set to cause controversy with a new book – called The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – denying that Jesus was the son of God.

Publisher Jamie Byng said that Pullman’s book, which will be published next Easter, “strips Christianity bare and exposes the gospels to a new light”.

Five years ago, young Muslims across the United States began reading and passing along a blurry, photocopied novel called “The Taqwacores,” about imaginary punk rock Muslims in Buffalo.

The novel is “The Catcher in the Rye” for young Muslims, said Carl W. Ernst, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Springing from the imagination of Michael Muhammad Knight, it inspired disaffected young Muslims in the United States to form real Muslim punk bands and build their own subculture.

Most believers would say the Bible is the word of God, or at least a divinely inspired book written by divinely inspired men.

But what if the Bible had been mistranslated or censored to remove the tawdry bits about pimps, cross-dressers or, ahem, a Brazilian wax as punishment?

“It’s like being raised in the mob; it’s the world that you know,” Frank Schaeffer said. “Really, it’s like growing up in New Jersey and killing people seems normal. Until you get out of it and realize maybe this isn’t as normal as you thought.”

Regardless of whether you’re religious, you can partake of a fair amount of manga out there with Christianity as its main basis. Granted, such books and stories are not often kind on the subject — usually taking the harder-line stance of the church and God as forces to be feared, with sins coalescing as tangible demons of hell — but then, you shouldn’t really expect to learn all that much from dramatized tales.

Fifty years after it was first published, Ayn Rand’s most influential book offers a vital clue to why so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests.

Provocative author Christopher Hitchens has been nominated for a U.S. National Book Award for his bestselling work, God is Not Great.

How can a woman be so indoctrinated that she accepts her husband has other wives? And how can she find the courage to leave? Catherine Elsworth meets a former Mormon who, at the age of 70, has decided to speak out.

John Humphrys went looking for God and ended up an angry agnostic – unable to believe but enraged by the arrogance of militant atheists. It’s hard to see the purpose of the world, he says, but don’t blame its evils on religion.

This is the story Patricia Hochstetler tells in a series of three books about her childhood in an Old Order Amish splinter group ruled by a man called “The Elder.”

Struggling authors should keep the faith – literally. Sales of books that explore religion or spirituality have grown by more than 50 per cent in the past three years, according to online retailer Amazon.

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