Icelandic Minister Would Be World's First Gay PM

Johanna Sigurdardottir, Would Be World's First Gay PM - The Huffington Post

Schools can expel students that seem gay, appeals court rules

NBC rejects anti-abortion Super Bowl ad that features Obama as unborn child

Pedophile ex-priest jailed for 3 years in US

N.B. school stops playing 'O Canada' over complaints

A small elementary school in a small New Brunswick town is at the centre of a big controversy because of a principal's decision to end the daily ritual of singing O Canada.

Judge doesn't ban 'God' in inaugural oath

A federal judge on Thursday refused to order the words "so help me God" taken out of President-elect Barack Obama's oath of office next week

New evidence in Jehovah’s Witness allegations

The Jehovah's Witnesses have settled nine lawsuits alleging church policies protected men who sexually abused children for many years.

Attenborough reveals creationist hate mail for not crediting God

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

More HERE.

Disgraced Rove aide named top lobbyist for Focus on the Family

Being a serial plagiarist may no longer be the professional equivalent of a hair shirt. Look at Vice President Joe Biden. Good thing for ex-Bush administration political operative Tim Goeglein too.

He’s been named the top Washington, D.C., lobbyist for Focus on the Family, according to a little-noticed “comings and goings” political column in the Fort Wayne, Ind., Journal Gazette.

Goeglein was personally recruited in 2001 by political mastermind Karl Rove to work in the Bush White House as chief liaison to conservative religious groups. There Goeglein rubbed elbows with some of the most powerful men in the evangelical movement — Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, convicted Watergate felon Chuck Colson who runs Prison Fellowships Ministries and then-president of the National Association of Evangelicals Ted Haggard.

More HERE.

Missing from the Inaugural Dais: Rabbis and Priests

Despite his theme of inclusiveness and multiculturalism, Obama is continuing a tradition of featuring only Protestant clergy at the Inauguration

After two oaths, Obama is definitely president. Or is he?

US president's retake of the oath of office is not enough to satisfy the conspiracy theorists

Obama backs 'right to choose' on abortion anniversary

Obama Intends to Lift Family-Planning 'Gag Rule'

Obama will restore U.S. funding for family-planning groups, but chose not to act on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.

Vatican attacks US abortion move

Vatican officials condemn President Obama's move to restore funds to foreign family planning clinics supplying abortion services.

Vatican urges end to Amnesty aid

The Vatican urges Catholics to stop donating to Amnesty International, saying it promotes abortion.

Abortion row at Catholic hospital

A Catholic hospital is ticked off by its church bosses over referrals for abortions and contraceptives.

Marty Kaplan: The Science of 44

The Science of 44 - The Huffington Post

Dutch MP to be prosecuted over anti-Islam comments

Right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who has made a short film accusing the Koran of inciting violence, must be prosecuted for anti-Islam comments, an Amsterdam court said.

The court overruled the public prosecutor who had declined to prosecute Mr Wilders, whose film Fitna urged Muslims to tear out hate-filled verses from the Koran.

"The Amsterdam appeals court has ordered the prosecution of member of parliament Geert Wilders for inciting hatred and discrimination, based on comments by him in various media on Muslims and their beliefs," the court said in a statement.

"The court also considers appropriate criminal prosecution for insulting Muslim worshippers because of comparisons between Islam and Nazism made by [Mr] Wilders," the statement said.

Fitna, a Koranic term sometimes translated as strife, intersperses shots of the September 11, 2001 attacks and other bombings with quotations from the Koran.

"This is a very black day for me and for freedom of speech. I am shaken. I had absolutely not expected it," Dutch news agency ANP quoted Mr Wilders as saying in an initial reaction.

- Reuters

Penn has a "Warmed Heart"

Obama first president to acknowledge non-believers

In a myriad of firsts, one of the more striking -- but least noticed -- was President Barack Obama's tip of the hat to religious non-believers.

Obama, of course, is the first African-American to win the presidency, but his inaugural was also the first time a US president has ever explicitly acknowledged not just Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus, but "non-believers" as well.

More HERE.

The Raw Story | Taliban threaten to kill Pakistani schoolgirls: officials

Festivus Pole On Display At Illinois State Capitol

Festivus Pole On Display At Illinois State Capitol - The Huffington Post

Study: 'Virginity pledges' are ineffective - Washington Post- msnbc.com

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence, according to a study released today.

NJ rules against church group in gay rights case

NJ rules against church group in gay rights case - The Huffington Post

Bible No Defense for Abuse

WHNT 19: Huntsville?s news leader. Turn to WHNT.com for breaking news, top stories and local weather forecasts where you live. WHNT Taking Action, Getting Results.

Sue Blackmore: Atheists should be allowed on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day

Sue Blackmore: An online petition is hoping to persuade BBC editors to open up Thought for the Day to non-believers

Calif. gay marriage foes want donors anonymous

Bad Economy May Fuel Hate Groups, Experts Warn

For 20 years, Bart McIntyre has tracked white supremacist movements, even spending two years undercover in Alabama to penetrate a violent young band of criminals who called themselves the Confederate Hammerskins.

Atheists will need martyrs if they are to compete with Christians :: Gerald Warner

Well done Ron Heather, the 62yearold Southampton bus driver who has refused to drive an atheist bus festooned with the slogan Theres probably no God.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Hampshire | Man refuses to drive 'No God' bus

A Christian bus driver refuses to drive a bus with an atheist slogan proclaiming "There's probably no God".

Military Youth Ministry Stalks Students

Bogus `Christian Nation' History

Future of abstinence-only funding is in limbo - Yahoo! News

With the exit of the Bush administration, critics of abstinence-only sex education will be making an aggressive push to cut off federal funding for what they consider an ineffective, sometimes harmful program. News, Headlines and Latest Stories on Yahoo! News

The Raw Story | 350,000 conservatives pledge to block Obama's 'socialistic' agenda

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EDITORIAL

Rick Warren Urges Christians to Be as Dedicated as Nazis

UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza