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By Daniel Burke Religion News Service A transgender man can remain pastor of his Baltimore church, the United Methodist Church’s high court announced late Tuesday (Oct. 30), but the court sidestepped larger questions about whether gender change is acceptable in the church. No law in the church’s Book of Discipline prohibits transgender clergy, the nine-member…

Associated Press Berlin – A vast archive of Nazi-era documents started accepting online requests Thursday for information from victims of Nazi crimes and people tracing relatives – a move meant to speed up an often-slow process. The move by the archive, based in the central German town of Bad Arolsen, should make it easier for…

Associated Press Baltimore – Members of a fundamentalist Kansas church ordered to pay nearly $11 million in damages to a grieving father smiled as they walked out of the courtroom, vowing that the verdict would not deter them from protesting at military funerals. “Absolutely, don’t you understand this was an act in futility?” said Shirley…

Associated Press WASHINGTON – Two prosecutors in the state of Texas, the U.S. leader in executions, said Wednesday they will wait for a Supreme Court decision on lethal injection procedures before asking judges to set execution dates for death row inmates. Roe Wilson, a district attorney who handles death penalty appeals for the Houston area,…

Associated Press YANGON, Myanmar – More than 100 Buddhist monks marched peacefully Wednesday in a northern Myanmar town noted for its defiance of the country’s military rulers, the first large protest since the junta violently crushed a wave anti-government demonstrations. The monks marched for nearly an hour in the town of Pakokku, chanting a Buddhist…

Associated Press The nation’s bishops will vote next month on a political roadmap for Roman Catholics headed into the 2008 election that gives top billing to abortion but also spotlights a wide range of issues, including opposition to torture and killing noncombatants in war. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued similar guides on…

Associated Press TORONTO – Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed the Dalai Lama to Canada on Monday with the red-carpet treatment, risking the anger of China, which has been critical of western leaders who meet with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader. Monday’s meeting is the first time a Canadian prime minister has met with the Dalai Lama…

By Beckie Supiano Religion News Service Two years after Anglicans and Roman Catholics said they had reached a common understanding on the Virgin Mary, there’s still something about Mary that doesn’t quite sit right with some Anglicans. Specifically, some Anglicans remain skittish about Catholic dogmas on the Immaculate Conception (that Jesus’ mother was born free…

Associated Press WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court explored Tuesday whether it could limit the reach of a child pornography law so that it would not apply to legitimate creative expression, vivid adolescent imaginations or innocent e-mails with provocative headings. The court took up a challenge to a provision of a 2003 federal law that sets…

Associated Press Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholic pharmacists on Monday to use conscientious objection to avoid dispensing drugs with “immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia.” In a speech to participants at the 25th International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists, Benedict said that conscientious objection was a right that must be…
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