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By Ashly McGlone Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal religious freedom watchdog panel on Wednesday (July 30) asked President Bush to use his trip to the Beijing Olympics next month to speak publicly against abuses of religious freedom and human rights in China. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, joined by the Congressional…

By Nicole Neroulias Religion News Service (RNS) Nine faith leaders have banded together to urge Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain to present a 10-year plan to combat poverty when speaking at their national nominating conventions. The interfaith coalition — led by Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and…

McClatchy-Tribune Information Services In the seclusion of nightfall just days before her wedding, Leah Kahn stepped into the soothing lukewarm waters of a mikvah, drew in a deep breath and plunged into her new life. After seven dunks in the ritual bath, the bride-to-be had symbolically washed away her identity as a single woman in…

United Press International Canterbury, England – A plan before the Lambeth Conference in England would ban consecration of gay bishops and blessings of same-sex relationships in the Anglican Communion. The proposal for a forum to be headed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams would also bar Anglican bishops from intervening outside their own provinces, The…

By Tim Murphy Religion News Service Washington – Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, who heads the nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese, on Monday (July 28) urged presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain to make immigration reform a top-level priority. In a keynote address to the National Migration Conference here, Mahony, whose archdiocese has swelled from…

Michele Chabin Religion News Service Jerusalem – An Israeli yeshiva student has apologized for removing a personal prayer that Sen. Barack Obama inserted into the Western Wall during a visit to Israel last week. “I’m sorry. It was a kind of prank,” the student, identified only by the Hebrew initial “Aleph,” told reporters Sunday (July…

Tim Murphy Religion News Service Washington – A church-state watchdog group has asked the Pentagon to investigate a Missouri Army base that sends trainees to a fundamentalist Baptist church on off days. Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused commanders at Ford Leonard Wood of supporting an event which the group says “promotes…

Associated Press Knoxville, Tennessee – An unemployed man accused of opening fire with a shotgun and killing two people at a Unitarian church apparently targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal social policies, police said Monday. Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said a signed, four-page letter had been recovered from the SUV…

Associated Press Pittsburgh – Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose “last lecture” about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47. Pausch died at his home in Chesapeake, Va., said Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal writer who co-wrote Pausch’s book. Pausch and his…

Associated Press Jerusalem – A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday. “Lord – Protect my family and me,” reads the note published in the Maariv daily. “Forgive me my…
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