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Since this Fun Friday also falls on April Fool’s Day, here’s a little something for everyone: Jews: From the JTA Archive: April Fool’s Day lessons for Jewish Pranksters Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Jains, Quakers, Shakers: Stephen Colbert Talks Religion With Stephen Prothero Catholics: Pope Benedict, Manga Hero Evangelicals, Black Christians: Best. Sermon. Ever? Check out the “F”-Word…

Reversing an earlier announcement that it would merely “monitor” the situation, Facebook shut down a fan page for the “Third Palestinian Intifada” today — prompted by outcry from Israeli officials and Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League. I’m a bit confused, because you can still find several Facebook pages for Third Palestinian Intifada (mostly in Arabic),…

I don’t normally blog about obituaries here — religious leaders and prominent people of faith die every week, after all — but the coverage of the death of trailblazing vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, 75, struck me as particularly interesting, from a faith-related perspective. (Also, Zsa Zsa Gabor must be relieved that Ferraro seems to be…

A new study, covered by Religion News Service, USA Today & The Chicago Tribune, finds that churchgoers tend to be fatter than their less devout peers. Baptists tend to be the heaviest, with Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist groups bringing up the (skinny) rear. Matthew Feinstein, the Northwestern Medicine study’s lead investigator, speculated: It’s possible that getting…

This month’s new Public Religion Research Institute poll asked how America’s evangelicals, mainline Protestants,  Catholics and minority Christians felt about natural disasters, like Japan’s earthquake-tsunami-nuclear crisis, as it relates to their understanding of God. The findings include: Most white evangelicals (84 percent) and minority Christians (76 percent) believe God is in control of everything that happens…

Covering religion requires an open mind. I’ve written about all sorts of faith traditions in the 10 years, and not much raises my eyebrows anymore, but some things do require me to suspend disbelief more than others: celibacy-with-exceptions for Catholic priests, ultra-Orthodox Jewish slaughtering rituals, Shabbos goys, Young Earth creationism campaigns, the Westboro Baptist Church’s highly…

Sorry, folks — as you may have guessed by my absence and all the recent posting problems in the Comments section, Beliefnet has been moving the blogs over to a new system, and it’s taking longer than expected. In the meantime, let’s read this controversial profile of “Yasir Qadhi: An American Cleric” from Sunday’s New York…

It’s slim pickings for Fun Friday this week — even The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have been reruns — so I’ll take this opportunity to preview Purim, by far the funnest of Jewish holidays. (When else can you see Orthodox rabbis don rainbow-colored wigs, clown noses and gypsy skirts, with party themes ranging…

The clergy abuse scandal continues to plague the Catholic Church in Ireland (and Philadelphia, Los Angeles & Mexico, etc.), but the country’s patron saint still gets his due today — green beer, Shamrock Shakes, “Kiss Me I’m Irish” pins and all. Here are some faith-related links: The Long Line of St. Patrick (Whispers in the Loggia) Happy St. Patrick’s Day (Beliefnet) Dolan: Come…

Couldn’t resist a timely headline joke here — a Shakespearean nod to all the panicked Americans convinced that legalizing same-sex marriage represents DOOM, as March 15 traditionally does. Some relevant recent headlines: Maryland gay marriage bill dies with no final vote (Washington Post) Progress in WPost gay-marriage package (GetReligion) My gay son: The face of the…
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