The Catholic Church isn’t the only denomination that has struggled with the concept of reporting accusations of child sexual abuse to the police, rather than trying to handle as much as possible internally in deference to ancient religious laws and the avoidance of scandal. Hasn’t every religious group — or secular organization that oversees children —…

Stephen Colbert had some fun words for Texas Gov. Rick Perry — is it just the twangy God talk, or is he physically morphing into his predecessor George W. Bush, too? — on his Comedy Central show a few days ago, regarding his controversial upcoming prayer rally and possible presidential bid: The Colbert Report Mon –…

Updated at 1 p.m. EST to add NCR interview with Archbishop Chaput. It’s been a tough year for the Catholic Church in Philadelphia, where the pesky clergy abuse revelations just won’t go away. But now Cardinal Justin Rigali — due to reaching age 75 and/or the way the scandal has festered — is retiring, and Archbishop Charles…

You know it’s an election cycle when there’s even more gay-related religion news than usual, beyond the usual headlines about marriage, parenting, ordination, DADT in the military, etc. On that topic, two stories in particular are rocking Christian America’s “is gay OK?” fault line: Amid Bachmann controversy, many Christians are cool to conversion therapy for…

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