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BANGALORE, India — Church officials in Pakistan say the assassination of Salman Taseer, an outspoken critic of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, is a “setback” for the campaign to overturn the law that makes illegal to speak against Islam. “This assassination has made it now extremely difficult for us to campaign against the blasphemy law,” Victor Azariah,…

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court ruled Jan. 4 that a veterans’ memorial featuring a 43-foot cross on California’s Mount Soledad is unconstitutional. “The use of such a distinctively Christian symbol to honor all veterans sends a strong message of endorsement and exclusion,” wrote Judge M. Margaret McKeown for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of…

By DANIEL BURKE c. 2011 Religion News Service WASHINGTON — Mass protests against planned mosques in New York City and Tennessee. An Oklahoma referendum to ban Islamic law. A media circus around a Florida pastor’s threat to burn Qurans. An outbreak of homegrown Islamic terrorists. Two U.S.-led wars in predominantly Muslim countries. There was no…

The International House of Pancakes has dropped its suit against the International House of Prayer after claiming the Missouri-based church had infringed on its trademarked IHOP acronym. Patrick Lenow, spokesman for IHOP Restaurants, said the suit was dismissed on Dec. 21 but negotiations are continuing between the chain and the church. “We are very interested…

By MICHAEL O’MALLEY c. 2011 Religion News Service The recent appointment of an American archbishop to the Vatican office overseeing a wide-ranging investigation of U.S. nuns has the sisters and their supporters breathing a little easier. Archbishop Joseph Tobin has already acknowledged the “anger and hurt” among U.S. nuns caused by the probe in his…

By G. JEFFREY MacDONALD c. 2011 Religion News Service Alix Jules is an atheist, but for years he felt uncomfortable at gatherings of nonbelievers. The reason: He’s black. “I got really tired of going back and forth to free thought events and being the only black person there,” said Jules, 36, who lives in Dallas.…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI denounced the “vile and murderous” New Year’s Day killing of 21 Egyptian Christians, and was rebuked by Egypt’s top Muslim cleric for an “unacceptable interference in Egypt’s affairs.” Benedict made his remarks on Jan. 2 to crowds in St. Peter’s Square, following his weekly public recital of the Angelus…

Why are hundreds of journalists traipsing around rural Iowa, trying to beat each other to the big story of whether farmers and housewives in Appanoose, Emmet and Grundy counties will vote for Newt, Michelle or Mitt? Why does anybody care about Iowa? To folks in California and New York it’s down there somewhere in the “flyover states” between Manhattan…

WASHINGTON (RNS) With three weeks left before the 111th Congress adjourns, faith groups are mounting a full court press on Capitol Hill on a number of bills, including a nuclear treaty with Russia and an immigration bill. Advocates are pressing for action on The DREAM Act, which would allow illegal immigrants to gain citizenship through…

(RNS) As a federal appeals court in California heard opening arguments in a landmark gay marriage case on Dec. 6, a rare coalition of religious leaders released a public letter promoting marriage as “the faithful union of one man and one woman.” Leaders of Catholic, evangelical, Orthodox Jewish, Mormon, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal and Sikh communities,…
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