NSFW

A group of Ohio women in their nineties are planning a bat mitzvah for themselves just for the fun of it. (N.Y. Times)

Time to end faith based community groups funded by the U.S. government? (N.Y. Times)

The Pope repudiates Bishop Williamson, the Holocaust denier, with whom the church had earlier attempted to reconcile. (N.Y. Times)

In response to an Op-Ed piece espousing a compromise on gay marriage, Daniel Rein offers the best idea (halfway down the page): Completely remove government from the religious aspects of marriage. Let religion confer the sacrament of marriage (or choose not to), and let the government offer the contractual rights and responsibilities of civil unions to any couple who wants them. This has the added benefit of strengthening the Constitutional separation of church and state. (N.Y. Times)

Under economic strain, some states are looking to save $500,000 to $1.9 million per murder case by not seeking the death penalty. (N.Y. Times)

If we can’t do it for moral reasons, maybe we can end the death penalty for economic ones.

Muslims in India refuse to bury the bodies of the Mumbai terrorists. (N.Y. Times)

The Pope calls the Holocaust a “terrible crime… against humanity” in the face of controversy over trying to bring excommunicated Bishop Williamson, a holocaust denier, back into the Catholic Church. The Pope also prayed for forgiveness.

So far Williamson has not renounced his position on the Holocaust saying that he needs more time to review the evidence. (Reuters in the N.Y. Times)

The Vatican is finally doing the right thing in demanding that recently rehabilitated Bishop Williamson, “must absolutely, unequivocally and publicly distance himself from his positions on the Shoah.” (N.Y. Times)

The Pope should be ashamed for the way he’s pushing the Church towards the right. This time the Pope has promoted a pastor, Gerhard Wagner, who wrote in the parish newsletter in 2005 that Hurricane Katrina was “divine retribution” for the sins of New Orleans including abortion, prostitution, night clubbing, and tolerance of homosexuality. In 2001, Wagner warned against the “satanism” of the Harry Potter books.