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The escalating interfaith call for immigration reform, including a rally that brought 200,000 people to Washington Sunday, would have been the top religion headline… in a week not dominated by the widening Catholic sex abuse scandal, the bitterly contested health care bill, the U.S.-Israel conflict over Jewish settlements, and the preparations for Easter and Passover. Before we delve back into those…

(Updated at 3 p.m. EST to add links to Andrew Sullivan’s call for Pope Benedict’s resignation and to the Whispers in the Loggia blog.) After weeks of speculation over whether Pope Benedict could be linked to the Catholic Church’s coverup of clergy sex abuse in his native Germany, a devastating New York Times story today by religion…

Check out this Washington Post story about Spec. Zachari Klawonn’s struggles as a Muslim soldier in the U.S. Army. (Funny how this story came out the same week as the news about the Army now welcoming Sikh men — whose traditional turbans and beards have also made them targets of Islamophobia, although Sikhism is unrelated to Islam — into service after…

Less than a week after Pope Benedict sent an apologetic letter to Catholics reeling from a clergy sex abuse scandal in Ireland that spanned decades, Irish Bishop John Magee’s resignation has been accepted. According to the Associated Press, Magee apologized to victims of pedophile priests kept in parish posts since he took charge of the southwest Irish…

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up a case charging that a superintendent in Everett (near Seattle, my neck of the woods) should not have banned an instrumental performance of “Ave Maria” at a 2006 high school graduation ceremony. According to the Christian Science Monitor: The high court rejected the appeal over the dissent of…

(Updated at 6:30 p.m. EST to clarify my last question.) Amnesty International has issued an “urgent appeal” calling on Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese TV personality sentenced to death for “sorcery.” Ali Hussain Sibat, a 46-year-old Lebanese father of five, is facing execution in Medina on a so-called “sorcery”…

The Associated Press reports that Capt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan has become the first Sikh in 25 years to join the U.S. Army, thanks to an exception that allows the Indian American to retain his religiously-mandated turban and beard. About 300,000 Sikhs live in America; until 1984, a uniform policy exception had allowed them to serve in the military without sacrificing their…

(Updated at 8 p.m. EST to add Southern Baptist Convention and Church of Latter-day Saints, and more on Catholics.) After assuring pro-life Democrats that President Obama would sign an executive order affirming that federal money would not pay for abortions, Congress passed its health care reform bill last night, 219 to 212. As Christianity Today explains: the…

Sen. Hillary Clinton just addressed the annaul meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. JTA reports that she reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security, but also maintained the Obama administration’s position that building Jewish housing in Palestinian areas “undermines America’s unique ability to play a role” in the peace process. As for the…

Over the weekend, the Vatican released Pope Benedict’s letter to Catholics traumatized and horrified by the clergy sex abuse scandal in Ireland. In it, the pontiff expressed his own “dismay and sense of betrayal,” while urging victims to find solace and communion through the church and Jesus Christ. Politics Daily’s David Gibson explains that the letter expresses…
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