by John Caniglia | Jan 13, 2012 | News
CLEVELAND (RNS) A federal judge Wednesday (Jan. 11) refused to release the leader of an Amish splinter sect from jail on charges he orchestrated the cutting of beards of Amish men over longstanding religious disagreements. Samuel Mullet Sr. and 11 others pleaded not...
by Bob Considine | Jan 13, 2012 | News
RUTHERFORD, N.J. (RNS) An attack early Wednesday (Jan. 11) on a New Jersey synagogue—the fourth such incident in a month—is being investigated as an attempted murder and a bias crime, leading to increased concern and security measures from Jewish leaders and law...
by David Gibson | Jan 13, 2012 | News
(RNS) A coalition of nearly 40 religious leaders has published an open letter that seeks to recast the battle against same-sex marriage as a fight on behalf of religious freedom. The religious leaders, predominantly from conservative Christian churches and Orthodox...
by Daniel Burke | Jan 12, 2012 | News
(RNS) Seven congregations that broke with the Episcopal Church in 2006 over its liberal policies on homosexuality are not entitled to keep parish property estimated to be worth millions, a Virginia judge ruled on Tuesday (Jan. 10). The ruling by Fairfax County Judge...
by Adelle Banks | Jan 12, 2012 | News
(RNS) At 87, the Rev. C.T. Vivian can still recall the moment, decades after the height of the civil rights movement. As he stood to conclude a meeting in his Atlanta home, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. joined his activist colleagues in song, his eyes closed,...
by Lauren Markoe | Jan 12, 2012 | News
WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (Jan. 11) unanimously threw its support behind a church school that fired a teacher, using a widely watched church-state case to bolster a legal doctrine that exempts religious institutions from some civil rights...
