Three in ten Americans believe the Bible is the word of God and ought to be understood literally. The survey did not ask which translation one should take literally. Speaking of translations, in a new Bible translation Jesus changes from the “Son of Man” to “the Human One.” Archaeologists in Israel are digging up biblical bad boy Goliath’s hometown.
Joe Levin is Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish private eye. A four-alarm fire engulfed a 110-year-old synagogue on New York’s Upper East Side Monday night. The building was empty and under renovation at the time and the cause was unknown. A Manhattan judge threw out an ex-firefighter’s lawsuit attempting to stop the building of an Islamic center blocks away from Ground Zero.
Facon offers Jews an option for making it through America’s “Bacon Boom.” Israeli “Freedom Riders” are women exercising their right to sit wherever they want on the bus. Mark Silk asks if Eric Cantor should get the same questions as Paul Ryan, only about Jewish social teachings.
Some religious leaders are raising criticisms of natural gas fracking in Pennsylvania. Churches are on the frontlines of protests against Alabama’s new anti-immigration law.
The US House used a defense spending bill to defund training for military chaplains after the repeal of DADT, the goal being to prevent any gay marriages from being performed on military bases. An Ohio Bishop put a stop to parishes and schools in his dioceses supporting the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation because the foundation might someday support stem-cell research.
American Sikhs continue to be mistaken for terrorists and attacked.
The New York Times profiles the International House of Prayer and its recent growth into a full blown religious movement. The leader of IHOP, Mike Bickle, claims that Oprah is the Antichrist. IHOP is one of the sponsors for “Prayin’” Rick Perry’s day of prayer in Texas. An atheist group in Texas is suing Governor Perry for his involvement with the prayer event.
An Austrian man convinced authorities to let him take his driver’s license photo wearing a pasta strainer on his head as the religious headgear of his Pastafarianism. The Church of England may sell its $6 million share in the scandalized News Corp.
Controversy continues to surround a south Indian temple and its billions in hidden treasure. In the U.S., second-generation Indian Americans are working to Americanize Hinduism.
The Hill Cumorah Pageant wraps up this weekend in New York. The festival takes place on the site where Mormon founder Joseph Smith discovered the golden plates that became the Book of Mormon.
