(RNS) The United Methodist Church’s highest court has ruled that clergy may not officiate at same-sex unions, even in states where such marriages are legal, and gave the final OK for the George W. Bush Library to be built at Southern Methodist University. The church’s nine-member Judicial Council rejected separate resolutions passed by the California-Nevada…

PARIS – The presumed leader of a group of 27 young people charged with participating in the torture and killing of a young French Jew took his seat in juvenile court Wednesday with the defiant declaration, “Allah will be victorious.” The 23-year-old victim, Ilan Halimi, was found naked, handcuffed and covered with burn marks near…

(RNS) The number of baptisms by Southern Baptists — who consider the rite a gauge of their evangelism success and a key element of their faith — has dropped to the lowest rate in two decades. The denomination, which also saw a slight decrease in membership numbers, recorded 342,198 baptisms in 2008, a decrease of…

RICHMOND, Virginia – Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson plans to retire next summer as president of Regent University, the private Christian college he founded in 1978, the school said Tuesday. The 79-year-old, who became the university’s sixth president in 2000, will retire from the position effective July 1, 2010. He will continue to serve as chancellor…

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