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WASHINGTON – A Hindu clergyman made history Thursday by offering the U.S. Senate’s morning prayer, but only after police officers removed three shouting protesters from the visitors’ gallery. Rajan Zed, director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple, gave the brief prayer that opens each day’s Senate session. As he stood at the chamber’s podium…

NEW YORK – The American Psychological Association is embarking on the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians, a step that gay-rights activists hope will end with a denunciation of any attempt by therapists to change sexual orientation. Such efforts – often called reparative therapy or conversion therapy – are considered…

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A radical cleric whose besieged mosque sought to impose strict Islamic morality on the Pakistani capital was killed Tuesday after refusing to respond to troops who demanded his surrender, officials said. About 50 militants and eight soldiers died when the military stormed the sprawling Red Mosque compound. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the public…

CLEVELAND — Across Northeast Ohio, population shifts from older neighborhoods to the suburbs could mean the closing, merger or consolidation of about one in six schools operated by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. But in Cleveland proper, Catholic schools have found a guardian angel in state taxpayers, who provided more than $16 million in tuition…

Washington – President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general faces an uncertain confirmation in light of a 16-year-old paper he wrote as part of the United Methodist Church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality. In an eight-page paper titled “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality,” Dr. James Holsinger described physical injury and even death that can result from what he…

Sales of Christian products increased to $4.6 billion last year, according to reports by the major trade association for Christian retailing. The $4.63 billion in 2006 sales, through a range of religious and secular distribution channels, is up from $4.3 billion in 2004, $4.2 billion in 2002 and $4 billion in 2000, reports CBA, a…

Jerusalem – For the first time in its history, the 22-nation Arab League will send a delegation to Israel this week, with the mission of discussing a sweeping peace initiative as well as the threat posed by Hamas and other Islamic extremists. The announcement from Israeli and Arab diplomats came Sunday, just as Israel’s Cabinet…

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., July 6–Missouri abortion providers will face new regulations for their clinics and new restrictions on teaching sex education classes under a bill Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law Friday. The measure places more abortion clinics under government oversight by classifying them as ambulatory surgical centers. Planned Parenthood has said the law could…

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI removed restrictions on celebrating the old form of the Latin Mass on Saturday in a concession to traditional Catholics, but he stressed that he was in no way rolling back the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Benedict issued a document authorizing parish priests to celebrate the Tridentine…

SLIDELL, La. (RNS) A portrait of Jesus Christ that hangs in the lobby of Slidell City Court violates the separation of church and state, according to a a federal lawsuit that was filed Tuesday (July 3) by the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union. The organization filed the suit in U.S. District Court in New Orleans…
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