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DEAL, N.J. — This wealthy seaside town might not have a Syrian Jewish community at all if it hadn’t developed as a summer escape for Brooklyn’s Syrian Jews, more than 10,000 of whom visit each summer. Indeed, in the Syrian Jewish community, Deal is known as “Brooklyn South,” and the approximately 1,000 who stay here…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The federal government used taxpayer dollars to rebuild mosques in Iraq and teach Bible-based abstinence in Africa, violating a prohibition on funding “inherently religious activities,” according to a recent audit of the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID). The report by the agency’s inspector general, released Wednesday (July 22), said “some USAID funds…

OREGON CITY, Ore. — Jurors on Thursday (July 23) acquitted two parents accused in the faith-healing death of their infant daughter on all but one count, a stunning legal victory in a case that pitted religious freedom against parental responsibility. Carl and Raylene Worthington were charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment after their 15-month-old…

WASHINGTON — When President Obama named his choices for his administration’s two top medical posts, he chose people of private faith and public acclaim whose positions may put them out of lock step with fellow believers. Dr. Francis Collins, 59, Obama’s nominee to head the National Institutes of Health, has differed from fellow evangelicals by…

WASHINGTON, Jul 23, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) — A secretive religious group paid for trips to Japan and the Middle East by U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., now under fire for an adulterous affair, records show. The travel in 2003 and 2004 did not violate the Senate ethics rules then in force, the Las Vegas…

JERUSALEM – For centuries, people have stuffed prayers written on scraps of paper into the ancient cracks in the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. In recent years they could fax or e-mail their prayers – and now they can tweet them, too. The Western Wall now has its own address on the…

(RNS/ENI) Turkey’s government has agreed to extend indefinite permission for Christian worship at an historic church in Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul, says the head of the country’s Roman Catholic bishops’ conference. “I’m confident the church in Tarsus could soon change from being a museum to a center of spiritual pilgrimage,” said Bishop Luigi…

WASHINGTON – Days after his return from an unannounced pilgrimage to the Islamic holy site of Mecca, Rep. Keith Ellison talked about it as a transformational personal experience, saying “I didn’t want to turn it into a politics thing.” Nearly eight months later, the Minnesota Democrat faces a House Ethics Committee review of his decision…

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to the Vatican, Miguel Diaz, told senators Wednesday (July 22) that his socially conscious scholarship gives him common ground with fellow theologian Pope Benedict XVI, which could further U.S. policies and interests in Rome. “My commitment to creating dialogue related to cultural diversity, immigration, poverty and the role…

WASHINGTON — While the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a cool response to many of President Obama’s policies, the one area where the two sides seem to be finding fragile common ground is on the need to reduce the number of abortions. Just how to do that, however, has gotten tricky. Obama and…
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