January 16, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Mitt wins Michigan primary, sets up Super Duper Tuesday GOP free-for-all
Thomas Burr/Salt Lake Tribune (01/16/2008)
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - Michigan voters rocketed Mitt Romney back into the front row of the presidential race Tuesday, giving the native son his first high-profile victory

9 Jewish Leaders Say E-Mail Spread Lies About Obama
James Barron/New York Times (01/16/2008)
The leaders of nine Jewish groups released an open letter on Tuesday condemning what they called “hateful e-mails” that they said spread lies about Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and his intentions.

In Heart of Islamic World, Bush Puts Forth His Faith
Steven Lee Myers/New York Times (01/15/2008)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Bush’s Christianity is so central to his life that it is not surprising that it would figure prominently in a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Super Sabbath?
Manya Brachear/Chicago Tribune (01/16/2008)
Nevada’s Democrats and Republicans have scheduled their presidential caucus on a Saturday morning, otherwise known as the Jewish Sabbath. Is that American? The Interfaith Alliance doesn’t think so. On Tuesday, the non-profit watchdog group criticized both parties for forcing observant Jews to choose between religion and democracy.

Obama takes heat over Farrakhan link
Lynn Sweet/Chicago Sun-Times (01/16/2008)
LAS VEGAS -- Following a column in Tuesday's Washington Post noting that a magazine linked to Obama's minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, honored Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Barack Obama said he condemned "the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan" and disagreed with a decision to honor him.

King's son says Clinton erred
David Abel/Boston Globe (01/16/2008)
Martin Luther King III, in Boston for an announcement that the city will build a statue to honor his parents, said yesterday that Senator Hillary Clinton made a mistake by saying his father's call for racial equality was realized only with a president's action. King, son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, said he thought the controversy had been blown out of proportion. However, he also said that Clinton's words were potentially denigrating.

Fault line for black Democratic leaders
Mike Dorning and Christi Parsons/Chicago Tribune (01/16/2008)
Many civil rights-era power brokers go against Obama even as rising-star politicians show their support

Obama's spiritual mentor
Michael Hill/Baltimore Sun (01/16/2008)
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is well-known in Chicago and in the black church world for taking over a small United Church of Christ congregation in 1972 and turning it into an 8,000-member powerhouse. More recently, his name has become familiar as the longtime spiritual mentor of Barack Obama, who joined the church in 1988 - a move Obama says was important to shaping his identity as an African-American.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
U.S. religious freedom is being eroded, advocates say
Jane Lampman/Christian Science Monitor (01/16/2008)
Although the US is home to the greatest experiment in religious freedom ever, and the great majority of Americans support that principle, surprising gaps in knowledge and understanding remain when it comes to practicing that freedom. And support for it seems to rise and fall.

S.F. Presbyterians back lesbian's ministry try
Associated Press (01/16/2008: usatoday.com)
RICHMOND, Calif. — A Presbyterian deacon who has twice been denied ordination because of her sexual orientation can move forward with her bid to join the clergy. The regional body of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted 167-151 Tuesday night in support of Lisa Larges' application, despite the denomination's long -standing ban on openly gay ministers. Larges, 44, still must submit to an interview with the regional body as soon as April, church officials said.

SPORTS
When the Rules Run Up Against Faith
Alan Goldenbach/Washington Post (01/16/2008)
Juashaunna Kelly, a Theodore Roosevelt High School senior who has the fastest mile and two-mile times of any girls' runner in the District this winter, was disqualified from Saturday's Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet after officials said her Muslim clothing violated national competition rules.

ARTS AND MEDIA
Tom Cruise lauds power of Scientology in Web video
Michelle Nichols/Reuters (01/16/2008)
NEW YORK - A video of actor Tom Cruise touting himself and fellow Scientologists as 'authorities on the mind' has appeared on the Internet, coinciding with a new biography that examines his role in the movement.

Nuns to soul sisters: Come check us out
Susan Hogan/Albach/Chicago Sun-Time (01/14/2008)
Body+Soul and Ode are mainstream magazines for readers interested in "conscious" living: peace, health and going green. That's the audience the Sisters of Providence, a Catholic religious order, want to reach. They're running ads in the magazines alongside eco-minded companies, such as Endangered Species organic chocolates.