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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (RNS) After two accomplices pleaded guilty, the sole man to stand trial for torching a black church the night of President Obama’s election was confronted with secretly taped recordings during opening arguments on Monday (March 21). “Gas, straight-up gas. Hit the corners and the whole thing went straight up,” Michael F. Jacques said…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The White House is hoping to recruit America’s college and seminary students in a nationwide interfaith service campaign that was launched Thursday (March 17). In the next month, the Obama administration will solicit plans submitted by colleges, universities, seminaries and rabbinical schools for year-long community service projects such as food drives, house building…

(RNS) The New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling on Wednesday (March 16) that orders an 11-year-old girl to enroll in public school instead of being home-schooled by her mother. Although the girl’s mother, Brenda Kurowski, argued that the original ruling violated her religious rights, the high court based its decision on the…

(RNS) It isn’t a crime to practice Islam in the United States of America. At least, not yet. On Monday (March 14), Missouri state Rep. Don Wells introduced a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at blocking Shariah — the Islamic legal code — from being used in state courts. Another Missouri lawmaker introduced a bill to…

(RNS) Southwest Airlines has apologized to a Muslim woman who claims she was removed from a flight from San Diego on Sunday (March 13) because of her Islamic headscarf and South Asian background. “We sincerely apologize for the customer’s inconvenience, and we regret that she was unable to travel as scheduled,” the airline said in…

(RNS) Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller said Wednesday (March 16) he never would have approved a recent covenant that choir members were asked to sign urging them to be Christian and heterosexual. “I have a reputation worldwide of being tolerant of all people and their views,” Schuller told The Orange County Register. “I’m too…

FERGUSON, Mo. (RNS) The Rev. Steve Lawler should have just given up chocolate or television for Lent. Instead, Lawler, the part-time rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, decided to adopt the rituals of Islam for 40 days to gain a deeper understanding of the faith. Two days after it began, he faced being defrocked if…

(RNS) Rest on the Sabbath. Heed Old Testament dietary codes. And be ready for Jesus to return at any moment. If these practices sound quaint or antiquated, think again. They’re hallmarks of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the fastest-growing Christian denomination in North America. Newly released data show Seventh-day Adventism growing by 2.5 percent in North…

(RNS) Talk about hellfire! One of the nation’s rock-star-popular young pastors, Rob Bell, 40, has stuck a pitchfork in how Christians talk about damnation. Pastor Bell’s Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, arrived in stores Tuesday (March 15). Critics pounced before the book was even…

(RNS) The Justice Department has filed suit against California prison officials on behalf of a Sikh inmate who says his religious freedom was violated when officials punished him for not cutting his beard. Sukhjinder Basra, incarcerated at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo on a drug offense, was punished for refusing to shave…
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