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Both of these stories cracked me up this week: a California inmate cited his religious belief in Seinfeld’s “Festivus” holiday in a bid to get salami-free prison meals, and a quartet of buff acrobats performed a bizarre barechested show for Pope Benedict during his general audience. The Festivus story is more fun to read and interesting…

I already blogged about the “War on Christmas” topic last week, but here are a few more headlines that have caught my attention: Mangers and ‘Star Wars’ mingle in displays on Loudon courthouse grounds (Washington Post) Let Xmas be Christmas? (GetReligion) Argentine archbishop slams Santa Claus (AFP) The backstory on ‘Grandma Got Run Over by…

Frank Rich had a scathing column in yesterday’s New York Times about the Smithsonian’s decision, prompted by conservative Catholic and right-wing political outrage, to censor artist David Wojnarowicz’s video, “A Fire In My Belly.” Rich explains: When his mentor and former lover, the photographer Peter Hujar, fell ill with AIDS in 1987, Wojnarowicz created a video titled “A Fire in My…

Plenty of off-beat Christian news to pick from this week, ranging from entertaining to just odd. Here’s something for everyone: Pope Benedict & Condoms PETA launches ‘Pope condom’ ads to avoid unwanted dogs, cats (USA Today) Pope has not endorsed condoms for cats, contrary to PETA leaflets (Politics Daily) Tweeting the Christmas Story The nativity 140…

Before I get to Fun Friday, here’s some breaking news: Brian David Mitchell, an excommunicated Mormon who had claimed to be a prophet, has been found guilty in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping/rape trial. He could face life in prison when sentenced in late May. Street preacher guilty of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart (Reuters) The Salt Lake Tribune has done…

I try to keep perspective when covering religious extremists, noting that these folks represent a tiny fraction of a much larger community of believers (Mormons, evangelical Christians, Muslims, etc.) — but the news value of such stories gives disproportionate coverage to the crazies. See also: Westboro Baptist Church in general, and its recent announcement that…

(Updated on 12/9 with Politics Daily story about Elizabeth Edwards.) Here’s a Belief Beat experiment: a Wednesday post that catches some of the faith news items that haven’t made it into a designated blog post yet. If you like this, I can make it a weekly feature. As I noted in yesterday’s Comments section, it’s a…

I’m assuming that it’s no coincidence that on yesterday’s St. Nicholas Day, leaders of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church destroyed on 9/11 began legal action against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. I wrote about this ongoing dispute earlier this year, and blogged about it here. Essentially, the church leaders and Greek…

This year, Time has solicited nominations for the magazine’s 2010 Person of the Year. (It’s probably not you — or “you” again — this year. Sorry!) Here are the top 20 results, to which I’ve added their religious afffiliations and faith-related links. (I’m doing this rather quickly, so please post in the Comments section if you can…

While I appreciate that some people have genuine concerns about church-state separation, religious freedom and cultural sensitivity, I simply can’t take “war on Christmas” stories too seriously, given the real wars going on in the world. As Stephen Colbert noted last night on The Colbert Report, “it’s the only war that’s been going on longer than Afghanistan!” (I…
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