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Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News – May 20, 2008 May 20–Some see it as too harsh. Others see it as a last resort for safety. A Minnesota church’s efforts to bar a severely autistic 13-year-old boy from its Roman Catholic mass, saying he’s a danger to others, illustrates the difficulties that surface when institutions and parents…

Chicago Tribune – May 21, 2008 CHICAGO – As Marcia Macy chatted with her dog walker in the driveway of her Wheaton, Ill., home Thursday, a young Muslim man passed her and hooked a plastic bag containing a Quran on her doorknob. Unlike most religious solicitors, the man didn’t try to speak with her or…

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service Washington – The Internal Revenue Service has concluded that a Southern Baptist pastor’s endorsement of former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was a personal one that does not jeopardize his church’s tax-exempt status. Pastor Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., received a May 12…

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service A minister to married adults at Prestonwood Baptist Church, a prominent Dallas-area Southern Baptist megachurch, has resigned after being charged in an Internet sex sting. Joe Barron, 52, was charged Friday (May 16) with soliciting a minor online, the Associated Press reported. Police said he had communications of…

By Ron Csillag Religion News Service Toronto – Despite stern warnings and threats of discipline, a Lutheran church north of Toronto on Friday (May 16) ordained an openly gay man who is legally married to another man. Lionel Ketola, 45, will now serve as associate pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket, Ontario, and…

The Dallas Morning News – May 15, 2008 (MCT) CALLAHAN COUNTY, Texas – In his first sermon after leaving jail, Yisrayl “Buffalo Bill” Hawkins was in classic form: folksy, paternal and apocalyptic. “No, we’re not getting ready to kill ourselves,” said the prophet of the House of Yahweh, a barbed wire kingdom of brimstone prophecies…

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Coast Guard has granted a religious exemption to an officer who sued after being denied a waiver from receiving a Hepatitis A vaccine that he believed was derived from aborted fetuses. Lt. Cmdr. Joseph J. Healy, a Catholic from Catonsville, Md., sued the Coast…

By JONATHAN D. RUBIN c. 2008 Religion News Service WASHINGTON — Dramatic increases in food and gas prices are leaving some religious hunger-relief groups praying for relief. Problems were already apparent in 2006, but U.S. churches now report increased difficulty getting meals to people who need them. Food distributors see a perfect storm: a huge…

Associated Press – May 16, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO – Even as same-sex couples across California begin making plans to tie the knot, opponents are redoubling their efforts to make sure wedding bells never ring for gay couples in the nation’s most populous state. A conservative group said it would ask California’s Supreme Court to postpone…

Associated Press – May 16, 2008 TRAMOUNG CHRUM, Cambodia – When residents of this poor, Cambodian village need something built, they call on the Lightmans. The Jewish-American family’s latest gift: a mosque. “We never had such a beautiful mosque in our village,” said 81-year-old Leb Sen, a toothless, village elder with a wrinkled face. “The…
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