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It’s the week between Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the fasting Day of Atonement. This period of introspection, called the Days of Awe, includes another observance for ultra-Orthodox Jews (also known as Hasidic or Haredi Jews): sacrificing chickens. This kaparot ceremony (also spelled kaparos and several other ways) has caused a lot of…

Despite the “rifts amid mourning,” we’ve survived another Sept. 11 anniversary — and some of us, including four of my friends and a new baby, even celebrated birthdays. As this New York Times story about 9/11 birthdays notes, this timing is more problematic than “Pearl Harbor birthdays” used to be, because our generation’s calamity is…

In the spirit of recognizing that the media have made a mountain out of the anthill that should be Pastor Terry Jones’ “Burn a Koran Day” (assuming it’s even still happening?) tomorrow in Florida, I’m not going to post any more about that nonsense. Semi-coincidentally, I’ve also got “Ground Zero mosque” fatigue, and there really…

The chorus of voices against Pastor Terry Jones’ plan to host “Burn a Koran Day” at his ironically-named Dove World Outreach Center church in Florida church tomorrow — Sept. 11, which coincides with the Muslim celebration of Eid-al-Fitr, the joyous culmination of Ramadan, this year — now includes Pope Benedict, President Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Angelina Jolie, Gen.…

Rosh Hashanah 2010, the Jewish New Year (also spelled Hashana), begins tonight at sundown. The two-day festivity coincides this year with the Muslim celebration of Eid-al-Fitr 2010 (also spelled Id-al-Fitr — Judaism and Islam give copy editors headaches), which marks the end of the daytime fasting month of Ramadan. It’s an interfaith calendar convergence that could make for…

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. What better way to start off a short week with a big religion news question: what does Stephen Hawking mean, writing that God is “not necessary” to explain the Big Bang? My hunch is that the God focus is more a (highly successful) marketing ploy to get folks…

Cancer takes a horrible toll on the body, so perhaps we can crack a smile when we find examples of the soul remaining defiantly intact — even if it is the potentially-damned soul of someone who doesn’t believe in such nebulous things? Check out notorious atheist Christopher Hitchens’ love letter to the fire-and-brimstone responses he’s heard…

The high cost of being Jewish — kosher food, synagogue dues, tuition, etc. — has made secular and religious headlines in recent months. It’s not a new problem, but the recession and the Madoff scandal have taken a heavy toll on Jewish institutions, and there’s more talk than ever of the need to reach out to the…

Are you someone who opposes openly gay clergy, if not homosexuality in general, and find that your religious group has become too permissive in recent years? If so, you may be a Lutheran. Or Episcopalian. Or Presbyterian. Perhaps a conservative Jew? Hmmm. To focus on the latest example: Some Lutherans, dismayed at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s recent decision…

The investigation of Catholic Church clergy sex abuse has hit a new low/high in Belgium, where secular authorities raided church headquarters earlier this summer: the release of tapes from an April 8 meeting in which retired Cardinal Godfried Danneels advised a victim, now a grown man, to keep quiet so that his childhood abuser and uncle, Bishop Robert…
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