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Today is America’s Flag Day, part of the presidentially proclaimed Flag Week. I wasn’t sure whether to post about this. For starters, isn’t every day basically Flag Day – especially at a time of war and when a big sporting event, like the World Cup soccer tournament, is going on? Maybe it depends on what part of…

Here’s a belated story that has stirred up debate over the fluidity of political and religious labels: Rush Limbaugh, 59, an entertainer with a strong conservative Christian fan base, is now on his fourth marriage. To top that off, the wedding singer at last week’s luau-themed Florida ceremony was none other than Elton John, an out-and-proud entertainer whose fan base logically takes issue…

Pope Benedict has marked the end of this unfortunately-timed (thanks to Satan?) “Year for Priests” with more apologies for the clergy abuse scandal, asking for forgiveness and vowing during a huge rally of clergy in St. Peter’s Square to do “everything possible” to prevent such horrors from happening again. He also staunchly defended celibacy, however, which some Catholics blame for…

Lady Gaga’s new music video for “Alejandro,” a catchy tune that strikes me as the lovechild of Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” and Ace of Base’s “Don’t Turn Around,” has made headlines for its “blasphemous” images, including the singer dressed as a latex-clad nun and swallowing a rosary, cavorting with nearly-nude gay men sporting monk-like hairdos, that sort of thing.…

Updated on 6/11 to reflect GetReligion’s correction that Senyonjo is a former, not current, Anglican bishop. The Anglican Communion’s objection to the ordination of openly gay bishops by America’s Episcopalian branch has made headlines again this week, as the Episcopal Church in the United States has now been suspended from participating in ecumenical dialogues. Nevertheless, former Anglican Bishop Christopher…

(I was going to save this for Fun Friday, but decided to save that for something more funny ha-ha, less funny tragic.) Last night’s episode of The Colbert Report featured a surprise interview with Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., regarding the fatal raid on the Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla and the controversial remarks that…

Catholic News Agency reports that a group of U.S. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox clergy and scholars are working on a statement regarding the prospects for reunification, nearly a thousand years after the Great Schism split the church into eastern and western bodies. I have to do more research, but given what I already know from…

Sholom Rubashkin, a prominent ultra-Orthodox Jewish businessman, has been aquitted of knowingly employing minors in his family’s now-defunct Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa. These were state misdemeanor charges, dwarfed by the possibility of a 25-year prison term for Rubashkin’s federal fraud conviction; that sentencing is scheduled for June 22. Nevertheless, this has significantly boosted the morale of…

As I hinted at in my blog posts on the anniversary of President Obama’s Cairo speech to the Muslim world, I’ve been working on a Religion News Service story about the impact that America’s political efforts and cultural exports — including “Sex and the City 2,” “South Park” and the Miss USA pageant — have had on U.S.-Muslim relations. (This term is too vague and oversimplified, a…

Updated at 10 p.m.: CNN reports that Helen Thomas has retired. For additional information about her long career in the White House press corps, including some context about the remarks that prompted her resignation, check out  The Washington Post and New York Times stories. The American, Jewish and Israeli media have blown up over Helen Thomas’ remarks that…
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