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These two New York Times religion stories caught my eye over the weekend: The Burning Bush They’ll Buy, But Not ESP or Alien Abduction (by Mark Oppenheimer) For Roman Catholics, Interest in Exorcism Is Revived (by Laurie Goodstein) Oppenheimer’s piece points out that religious scholars are “concerned with all sorts of supernatural and metaphysical claims”…

There were too many entertaining faith-related headlines to pick just one newsmaker this week, so here’s a Top 3 video edition of Fun Friday. (If you only want a print story, I also enjoyed the Baltimore nuns cashing in on a rare Honus Wagner baseball card.) Comedian Steve Martin performed “Atheists Don’t Have No Songs” for a…

Today (and every day, really) is Veterans Day, and I’d like to thank my father and others for their service and sacrifice. Incidentally, now that I live near Canada (and get to watch CBC’s figure skating coverage), I’ve seen how they wear red poppies on what they call Remembrance Day in honor of their veterans,…

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have concluded their trip to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country and the president’s former childhood home. Although the Indonesia visit had been postponed twice because of erupting domestic American concerns, the Obamas also ended up leaving early, due to an actual erupting volcano. (Nature has a sense…

Elizabeth Smart, a sheltered, devout Mormon teenager from Salt Lake City, was abducted, raped and held against her will as the “plural wife” of self-proclaimed prophet Brian David Mitchell in June 2002. After reuniting with her parents and five siblings nine months later, she moved on with her life, including studying music at Brigham Young University and serving an…

From today’s Religion News Service roundup: In Spain over the weekend, Pope Benedict XVI defended traditional families and the rights of the unborn, attacking Spanish laws that allow gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier access to abortions; the pontiff was met by 200 kissing gays and lesbians as he headed to dedicate Barcelona’s iconic basilica,…

Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who recently made headlines for adding his voice to the “It Gets Better” project aimed at preventing gay teen suicides, has announced that he will retire in 2013. Robinson will only be 65 when he steps down — young for a bishop — just shy of a decade since New Hampshire…

Comedy Central hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert didn’t skip a beat this week, coming back from their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear to satirize the mid-term elections (aka “Indecision 2010”) — including live Election Night coverage. Check out Colbert’s take on the results, including Oklahoma’s approved constitutional amendment to forbid the state’s courts…

Diwali, a major Hindu holiday also celebrated by some Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists, starts tomorrow — just as President Obama kicks off his 10-day tour of India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. McClatchy’s Washington Blog reports: Obama knows all about the holiday. Last year, he became the first U.S. president to observe Diwali in a White…

The Republicans have the majority again in the U.S. House of Representatives — poising Rep. John Boehner to become its fifth-ever Catholic speaker and Rep. Eric Cantor to become its first-ever Jewish majority leader — but the U.S. Senate has kept its Democrat majority. Meanwhile, South Carolina’s new governor is Indian American Sikh-turned-Methodist Nikki Haley (the state’s first non-white, non-male governor), Colorado voters defeated a…
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