- Religion News, Dec. 6, 2010
- Tension is growing between the Muslim community and the FBI after an informant, Craig Monteilh, infiltrated a mosque, only a month after a local FBI leader visited the mosque and said the agency would do no such thing. Now, Monteilh is suing the FBI and revealing details of his operation.
- Majority of Muslims want Islam in politics, poll says: They have mixed feelings about militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, the survey shows.
- Bankruptcy filings show generous pay for relatives of Crystal Cathedral founder: As revenue plummeted at the Garden Grove mega-church this year, and employees and vendors went without pay, the church paid more than $1.8 million to 23 insiders and Schuller relatives. [We figure that’s why it is so easy for them to ‘think positively.’] Meanwhile, the Bible has an interesting message for anyone who thinks that ‘Godliness is a means to financial gian.’
- Jury awards $4.6M to former Torrance church pastor in slander suit: she claimed she had been slandered when the current pastor said she was “of the devil,” among other statements. The jury also found that Johnson is owed $12,000 for lost property by the current pastor, Erik Kirk; the church, Prairie Avenue Foursquare Church; and the denomination, Los Angeles-based International Church of the Foursquare.
- Cult leader Warren Jeffs marks 55th birthday, in jail [Warren Jeffs]
- Agnostic man claims religious bias cost him custody: Craig Scarberry, 29, of Anderson says a recent ruling granting sole custody of his three young children to his ex-wife included two references to his religious beliefs. The ruling noted that Scarberry and ex-wife Christine Porcaro did not participate in the same religious training and said that when Scarberry, who is agnostic, had followed the Christian faith, “the parties were able to communicate relatively effectively.”
- Boycott over atheist ads on Fort Worth buses will proceed, pastors say after the area’s transportation agency allowed a group of atheists and agnostics to buy ads on the buses that will read: “Millions of Americans are Good Without God.”
- Hate Groups
- Muslim cleric puts price on condemned Christian’s head: A Pakistani cleric is offering a nearly $6,000 bounty for the killing of a Christian woman whose death sentence for blasphemy is being challenged by Pakistan’s government.
- Gunmen kill elderly Christian couple inside their Baghdad home: the latest in a string of religious-rooted violence that has spurred international outcry and a full-court press for justice from Iraqi authorities
- Analysis, Commentary, Opinion
- Germany’s angst about Islamists goes mainstream: It’s part of a trend seen across Europe: Spooked by what many see as a terrorism threat, ordinary people are becoming increasingly vocal in opposing radical Muslims. They are ditching traditions of tolerance and saying no to cultures that do not share their democratic values. Germans are even more negative toward Muslims than their European neighbors, according to a survey published Thursday.
- Christian ‘hemorrhage’ increases in Iraq
- Egypt’s Coptic Christians fear Islamist revival: Egypt’s beleaguered Coptic Christians, who saw two of their number killed in clashes with police last week, fear growing discrimination despite the Islamist opposition being wiped out in parliamentary elections.
- Norman Rockwell and other blasphemies
- Intelligent Design: Losing the Catholics
- Documentary Highlights Child-Witch Killing in Benin
- Also Noted
- The Narnia Policeman: Douglas Gresham, C. S. Lewis‘s stepson and co-producer of the Narnia movies, is the keeper of his stepfather’s flame.
- Thieves ‘use Google Earth to steal lead from churches’
- Gaddafi spreads Islam among models He developed a taste for preaching to Italian women during his 2009 visits, and again in August this year, when Hostessweb, which recruits models and hostesses, laid on busloads of women to hear him talk about Islamic culture and faith.
- Immaculate Perception: At a time when the weight of scientific evidence would seem to call into question the Bible’s account of history and the God who set it in motion, the Virgin Mary enjoys a kind of free pass.
- Virgin Mary will ride LA Metro to save cash: An annual religious procession by Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles is now taking the Metro for part of its route.
- Danish playground plan to boost religious tolerance: Children skip across the roof of a mosque and play hide and seek in a Hindu temple: this unsual playground is designed to build tolerance as religious relations are cooling in Denmark.
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