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WASHINGTON (RNS) A Wisconsin-based group of atheists and agnostics has filed suit against President Bush over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which urges a strict separation of church and state, also names White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, and National Day of…

(RNS) The Diocese of Pittsburgh voted Saturday (Oct. 4) to split from the Episcopal Church, becoming the second diocese to leave the national church over differences on homosexuality and the Bible. A wide majority of clergy and lay people — 240 voted for succession, 102 against — favored aligning the diocese with the Argentina-based Anglican…

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a murder case in which a jury foreman read passages of the Bible to hold-out jurors who subsequently voted to impose the death penalty. Without comment, the justices declined to consider whether the jury foreman’s conduct violated the rights of Jimmie Lucero, an Amarillo, Texas,…

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican said Friday that no bishops from mainland China will be attending a worldwide meeting of prelates in Rome next week – a clear sign there has been no breakthrough in the Vatican’s efforts to improve relations with Beijing. Officials say 253 bishops will attend the meeting that will discuss the…

PHILADELPHIA – An Episcopal bishop has been defrocked after a church panel found him guilty of covering up his brother’s sexual assaults of a teenage girl in the 1970s. Charles E. Bennison Jr., 64, deserved to be ousted from the clergy because of his “very significant failures to fulfill his responsibilities” and “a fundamental lack…

OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) A couple who tried to heal their gravely ill son with prayer surrendered to authorities on Thursday (Oct. 2), a day after they were indicted by a grand jury on charges of criminally negligent homicide. The couple, Jeffrey Dean Beagley, 50, and Marci Rae Beagley, 46, could not be reached for…

New Jersey – Bert Ellentuck watched the adolescent boys with tzistzis and yarmulkes shooting hoops next door and sighed. “The people who settled this town were Jews; oh, they were socialists, communists and anti-religion, but they were Jews,” Ellentuck said. “I’m a Jew, those kids are Jews, and the biggest problem facing this town in…

New York – With British publication in doubt for Sherry Jones’ “The Jewel of Medina,” the U.S. publisher of her controversial novel about the Prophet Muhammad has moved up the release date from Oct. 15 to Monday. “By speeding up the publication, we wanted to reduce or eliminate the chance of violence,” Eric Kampmann, president…

When the Rev. John Edgar cast his ballot Tuesday (Sept. 30) as part of Ohio’s early voting program, he had two things in mind: his faith and the economy. He checked the box for Sen. Barack Obama. “Particularly with his background as a community organizer, (Obama) will be concerned about what happens to the least…

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. – They are largely invisible, sometimes as simple as a small, plastic marker affixed to a utility pole. There’s one around the White House and one in Manhattan that sprawls from the East River to the Hudson. Now, in a village at the gateway to the Hamptons, the eastern Long Island playground…
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