July 8, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
U.S. Seeks Data Exchange
Ellen Nakashima/Washington Post (07/08/2008)
The United States is negotiating deals with European countries to exchange fingerprint and DNA data in criminal and terrorist cases, and in some circumstances to transfer data on race or ethnic origin, political and religious beliefs, or sexual orientation.

Obama Addresses His Faith
Jonathan Weisman/Washington Post (07/06/2008)
ST. LOUIS -- Sen. Barack Obama ended a week's focus on values by giving a conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church a highly personal account of his spiritual journey and a promise that he will make "faith- based" social service "a moral center of my administration."

PHILANTHROPY
Sir John M. Templeton, Philanthropist, Dies at 95
Robert D. McFadden/New York Times (07/08/2008)
Sir John M. Templeton, a Tennessee-born investor and philanthropist who amassed a fortune in global stocks and gave away hundreds of millions of dollars to foster understanding in what he called “spiritual realities,” died on Tuesday in Nassau, the Bahamas, where he had lived for decades. He was 95.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Grassley: Some investigated ministries making changes
Adelle M. Banks/Religion News Service (07/08/2008: pewforum.org)
WASHINGTON - Ministries headed by evangelists Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn are both changing the way they operate even as a Senate probe into alleged lavish spending by six prominent ministries continues, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday (July 7).

Vatican 'regrets' female bishops decision
CNN (07/08/2008)
The Vatican said Tuesday it regrets the decision by the Church of England's governing body to allow the ordination of women as bishops. The move by the Anglican Church's General Synod "is a rift to the apostolic tradition" of ordaining only men as bishops, the Vatican said in a statement, and is another obstacle to reconciliation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics.