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A 2008 campaign manager for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney tells the National Journal that the former Massachusetts governor’s religious roots are a stumbling block towards his race to the White House. Carl Forti, Romney’s deputy campaign manager and political director in 2008, told the National Journal Insiders Conference that the yet-undeclared candidate in 2012 will…

(RNS) Almost all U.S. churches witnessed a change in the financial giving they received in 2010 compared to 2009, with smaller churches feeling the squeeze but larger churches faring relatively better, according to a new report. Only 12 percent of churches reported unchanged giving from 2009, according to the State of the Plate survey released…

LONDON (RNS/ENInews) William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre will mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible with a cover-to-cover reading between Palm Sunday and Easter Monday. Twenty actors will take part in the reading, which is scheduled to take 69 hours over eight days. They will recite all 1,189 chapters of the historic Bible in…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Obama administration’s nominee to oversee international religious freedom returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday (March 29) in her second bid to charm senators who have doubts about her lack of experience. “The life and professional background I offer to this position are unique,” the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook told members of the…

(RNS) Facebook shut down a “Third Palestinian Intifada” page and similar groups this week, prompted by complaints from Jewish groups that the content had crossed the line from free speech to violent incitement. The campaign has raised questions about whether Facebook should be used to facilitate some popular uprisings but not others, and even whether…

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Mormon President Thomas S. Monson, his two right-hand men and 12 apostles will take to the podium at this weekend’s (April 2-3) General Conference and offer sermons that many Mormons will treat like faxes from God. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider these 15 men “prophets,…

(RNS) It was billed as the first-ever congressional hearing on the civil rights of American Muslims. But it played more like an Act II than a premiere. In many ways, the hearing led by Senate Democrats on Tuesday (March 29) was the dramatic antithesis of one House Republicans held earlier this month on homegrown Islamic…

WASHINGTON (RNS) A coalition of religious and civil liberty groups is pushing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to stop employers from segregating “visibly religious employees from customers and the general public.” In a March 25 letter submitted to the EEOC, the groups asked the agency to “exercise its regulatory authority” and enforce Title VII of…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Supreme Court agreed Monday (March 28) to consider whether a teacher who was fired from a religious school is subject to a “ministerial exception” that can bar suits against religious organizations. The case involves an employment dispute between a Michigan school and a teacher who is defended by the Equal Employment Opportunity…

(RNS) When Jainal Bhuiyan attended Cornell University, he and his fellow Muslim students were mentored and led in religious prayers by a collection of Muslim professors, graduate students and staff. “That was our network that filled the void,” said Bhuiyan, 28, and now senior vice president at the New York investment bank Rodman & Renshaw.…

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