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Glenn Beck held his “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, the 47th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. The news reports before, during and after the events makes it pretty clear where Beck and his supporters put themselves politically (anti-Obama, pro-Tea Party), but their spiritual stance…

Five years after Hurricane Katrina all but destroyed a pine forest owned by St. Joseph Abbey, the Benedictine monks have been trying to turn lemons into lemonade — in this case, damaged timber into hand-crafted caskets — to raise funds. Unfortunately, they found themselves breaking a Louisiana law that protects the state’s funeral directors from competition. Check out the…

Mother Teresa would have turned 100 today — an event celebrated with a Mass in Calcutta, India, where she devoted her life to the poor — and some Catholics are upset that the Empire State Buliding won’t be lighting up in blue and white in her honor. They’re heading to the skyscraper from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to make their…

Updated to add Gallup’s pro-life poll results. A U.S. district judge has granted a preliminary injunction to stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research that destroys embryos, a blow to the Obama administration, which plans to appeal the decision. Some links: Judge stops federal funding of embryonic stem cell research (CNN) Stem cell ruling will…

As the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” (neither at Ground Zero, nor a mosque) controversy has raged on, fellow Greek Americans have been urging me to instead write about St. Nicholas, the Ground Zero church (no qualifier needed) destroyed on 9/11. Here’s my Religion News Service piece. (Also picked up on The Huffington Post, but the last…

As requested, here’s a roundup of links regarding the Military Religous Freedom Foundation’s investigation of claims that dozens of soldiers have been punished for opting out of attending a religious concert series at Fort Eustis in Virginia, organized by Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers, a born-again Christian: Troops: Skipping Christian concert got us punished (AP) US Soldiers Pressured…

(Updated to add vuvuzela ban.) Pope Benedict will embark on the first official papal visit to England and Scotland in a few weeks, and organizers have released a list of what is allowed and not allowed at the large-scale gatherings in London and Birmingham. The Guardian, the BBC, the Associated Press and Reuters report the list forbids candles,  alcohol,…

Updated: Check out what else applies to 1 in 5 Americans, over at my Huffington Post column. First, the not-so-fun news: The Rev. Franklin Graham went on CNN and perpetuated the misconception that President Obama was born Muslim because his absentee father’s family was Muslim. Memo to Graham: Like Christianity, and as opposed to Judaism, Islam is a…

Updated: Check out what else applies to 1 in 5 Americans, over at my Huffington Post column. I thought I was just being a little snarky in my last post about Park51 (the not at Ground Zero, not a mosque proposal ) when I noted that since some Americans still insist that President Obama is some kind of secret Muslim, he…

Davidson College, a small private Presbyterian school in North Carolina, can’t have police officers with the power to arrest suspects and enforce state law — because of its religious affiliation, the state Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. From the Associated Press story: Allowing the school’s security officers to carry out laws on behalf of the state violates the U.S.…
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