Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network is reporting that Rick Warren will give a prayer during Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20.

With “America’s Pastor”, Billy Graham, now 90 years old, it’s been suggested that Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren is a leading candidate to take up Graham’s mantle. Also scheduled to appear: the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Aretha Franklin and Yo-Yo Ma.

Yeshiva University, like a lot of other institutions, trusted Bernard Madoff with its money. Now, the school is among Madoff’s victims, losing perhaps $110 million — eight percent of the school’s endowment. (Click here for a story from the Jewish Telegraph Agency.)

As bad as the alleged embezzlement is, it’s hardly the institution’s largest blow this year. Thanks, primarily, to the plunging stock markets, Yeshiva University’s endowment reportedly has dropped from $1.7 billion to $1.2 billion.

Maybe they should call it Opionsweekly. Biasweekly. Or, my favorite, ToHeckWithObjectivityweekly.

Newsweek Magazine is using its dwindling bully pulpit to promote gay marriage and to mock the vast majority of Christians who believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

And the magazine is heaping scorn, especially, on conservatives who are leaving the Episcopal Church due, in large part, to its support for gay ordination.

In its Dec. 15 issue, editor Jon Meacham accuses members of the conservative wing of “the worst kind of fundamentalism.” The Newsweek piece omits the fact that Meacham has a dog in this fight — he’s a prominent member of the denomination’s liberal wing.
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Blaze at Wasilla Bible Church causes an estimated $1 million damage, may have been arson, officials say.

The Anchorage Daily News has all the latest.

The RNC’s been promising to donate Palin’s $150,000 campaign-funded wardrobe and accessories to charity. Perhaps they can give some of it to Wasilla Bible Church, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, for an online auction fundraiser.

If a fund is set up to help the congregation rebuild, I’ll post details.

Richard Cizik, a longtime target of the Religious Right, made the mistake of appearing on NPR this week with Terry Gross. Then, he got “off message.”

First, Cizik told Gross he had voted for Barack Obama in the presidential primaries. And when asked if he had “changed” his anti-gay-marriage views, he said: “I am shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say that I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.”

I’m struck by the following terms: “shifting”, “have to admit”, “willingly say”, “officially support” and “I don’t think.” All of the above qualifications suggest, to me at least, that Cizik’s mind is further to the left than his mouth is on this issue. Or perhaps I should say, they suggest Cizik is further “to the center” on this issue. While polls show a majority of Americans still gay marriage, a very slight majority support either civil unions, according to pewresearch.org. However, evangelicals still strongly oppose gay marriage or civil unions.

Click here to read a Christianity Today story regarding Cizik’s resignation.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, wants to defrock Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker. So she’s accepted his “renunciation” pursuant to Title III, Canon 12, Section 7 of the Episcopal Church constitution and canons.

There’s only one glitch: Iker apparently hasn’t renounced his vows to Jefferts Schori — at least in a fashion that complies with Title III, Canon 12, Section 7, the passage the presiding bishop cites as empowering her to “accept” his renunciation.

Under the constitution and canons, if a bishop wants a presiding bishop to remove him, he “shall declare, in writing, to the presiding bishop a renunciation of the ordained ministry of this Church and a desire to be removed…”

If the “request” is made, the bishop must accept it. Otherwise, under the canons, the bishop has 60 days to recant his actions. There is no evidence that Iker has asked the presiding bishop, in writing, to remove him.

In a statement to the Episcopal News Service (see link below), Jefferts Schori says she is short-circuiting the deposition process — and not giving him 60 days to recant as required by the church’s constitution and canons — because it’s a more “pastoral” response.

But it’s also, almost certainly, a move that has been recommended by the church’s legal team.

Click here for the latest from the Episcopal News Service.

So how can Jefferts Schori ignore the church’s constitution and canons? Easy. No one has the power — or the will — to overrule her. The courts won’t want to touch it. Even if they did, it’s highly doubtful that they’d have the authority, under the first amendment, to

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church died Friday in Moscow.

Millions of Californians — and thousands of Mormons — voted for Proposition 8, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. But its Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) who have been disproportionately targeted by protesters. Vandals have defaced LDS buildings. Felons have mailed mysterious white powder to California Mormons intended to raise the specter of Anthrax.

Now leading evangelical and Catholic activists are speaking out, decrying these hate crimes, and vowing to stand shoulder to shoulder with any religious group that is similarly targeted. The coalition took out a full-page ad, I’m told, in today’s New York Times, but you can view the advertisement by clicking here. The group’s website is titled www.nomobveto.org

Theologically conservative evangelicals, primarily [but not exclusively] ex-Episcopalians, claiming to represent more than 100,000 people unveiled the constitution for a new religious group. But the press isn’t quite sure what to call the new body, which hopes to eventually be recognized as an Anglican province by the Archbishop of Canterbury or two-thirds of Anglican primates. In the meantime, is it a province? A denomination? A branch? A fellowship? A splinter group? Is it even Anglican?

Outstanding religion columnist Terry Mattingly takes a look at the way the media is covering this new somewhat amorphous fellowship. Mattingly, a college professor who previously worked at the Charlotte Observer and Rocky Mountain News, sympathizes with the reporters who must sort it all out.

(Click here to read Mattingly’s latest.) And how should reporters refer to the Episcopal Church? As liberal? Progressive? Open and Affirming?

A half-century ago, the Episcopal Church [with its massive trust funds and its disproportionately upper-crust membership] was known as the Republican Party at Prayer. Not any more. These days, Mattingly says, the church could be known as NPR at Prayer.

It’s unclear if this group will be recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury or that it will be admitted into the Anglican communion by a two-thirds vote of the primates. But the new structure might place Virginia’s breakaway Episcopal parishes in a stronger legal position as they sue to retain their property. And it will probably make the nation’s judges even more reluctant to get into the middle of this dispute.

Conservatives form rival group to Episcopal Church
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American province Wednesday, in a long-developing rift over the Bible that erupted when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop.
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A public university in Ohio supports academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas, as long as the people exchanging views don’t say anything too offensive or unpopular…

By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press Writer
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The firing of a college administrator over her criticism of gay rights has sparked a debate about free speech and whether universities have the right to regulate what employees say outside of their jobs.
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Rastafarian can sue over Jiffy Lube hair policy

By DENISE LAVOIE
BOSTON (AP) — A Rastafarian man who refused to shave off his beard or cut his hair to comply with a Jiffy Lube employee grooming policy can take his religious discrimination case to trial, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Tuesday.
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A group of atheists has filed a lawsuit in Kentucky seeking to remove God from the state’s homeland security detail.

American Atheists Inc. filed the lawsuit in Frankfort on Tuesday, claiming Kentucky violated the Constitution by enacting a law in 2006 that stresses God’s role in protecting the state.

Attorney Edwin F. Kagin called the law “one of the most egregiously and breathtakingly unconstitutional actions” that he has ever seen.

Kentucky Homeland Security Director Thomas Preston declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Of particular concern to American Atheists is a clause that requires the Office of Homeland Security to post a plaque that says the safety of the state “cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”

The group seeks unspecified financial damages and legal fees.