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United Press International Jerusalem – Israeli archeologists say they have uncovered the ruins of a second century Roman temple in the Zippori National Park in northern Israel. The archeologists, led by Professor Zeev Weiss of the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also discovered the foundations of a church from the Byzantine…

Associated Press Houston – A flight attendant suing the wife of megachurch evangelist Joel Osteen told a jury Tuesday she was simply doing her job when she was attacked without provocation. Continental Airlines flight attendant Sharon Brown testified that Victoria Osteen approached her and was upset and angry before the start of a 2005 flight…

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service (RNS) A California federal judge has ruled that the University of California had a “rational basis” for rejecting science and history courses taught at Christian high schools. Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, Calif., and the Association of Christian Schools International had charged that the university had an…

Associated Press – August 11, 2008 NEW YORK – Very little goes unexamined in the kosher world. From meat and poultry to the coating on vegetables and the ingredients in mouthwash, rabbis who determine whether a product meets Jewish dietary laws scrutinize the most minute details about all things consumed. For religiously observant Jews, that…

The Salt Lake Tribune – August 10, 2008 Aug. 10–Leaders of Affirmation, a support group for gay Mormons, want LDS general authorities to make a clear, unambiguous statement in the church’s annual General Conference that homosexuality is not a sin or a disease and that mothers don’t cause it. They want the church to teach…

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – A Muslim civil rights group has filed a federal complaint on behalf of a Muslim teenager who alleges she was denied a job at Abercrombie & Fitch because she wears a hijab, or head scarf. The complaint, filed at the Oklahoma City office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claims that…

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service (RNS) A church-state watchdog group has joined Hindu and Jewish organizations in arguing that a Utah court erred in ruling that a highway cross memorializing a fallen state trooper is a “secular symbol of death.” A friend-of-the-court brief was filed Wednesday (Aug. 6) in the 10th U.S. Circuit…

By Frank Lockwood c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The simple wood chapel 110 miles southeast of Memphis, Tenn., is no Crystal Cathedral. But the East Tupelo (Miss.) First Assembly of God building had a greater impact on 20th-century music than any of America’s gilded megachurches. Inside its walls, Elvis Aron Presley discovered God and…

By Frank Lockwood c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The simple wood chapel 110 miles southeast of Memphis, Tenn., is no Crystal Cathedral. But the East Tupelo (Miss.) First Assembly of God building had a greater impact on 20th-century music than any of America’s gilded megachurches. Inside its walls, Elvis Aron Presley discovered God and…

Associated Press Houston – She’s the wife of a renowned evangelical pastor and one of the leaders of a Houston megachurch, but Victoria Osteen is being accused of behavior that wasn’t very Christian. Opening arguments were set for Thursday in a civil lawsuit that accuses Victoria Osteen of assaulting Continental Airlines flight attendant Sharon Brown…

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