Former Bush faith-based chief heads to Baylor
WACO, Texas -- Jay Hein, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, is joining Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.
Hein will hold the posts of distinguished senior fellow and director of the Program for Faith and Service, the school announced Monday.
As deputy assistant to President Bush, Hein directed the faith-based office from August 2006 until September 2008. Among his many other previous positions, he worked as a policy director for the State of Wisconsin, helping design and implement its welfare reforms.
Bishop chastises Mich. Catholic governor over stem cell referendum
LANSING, Mich. -- The Roman Catholic bishop of Lansing chastised Gov. Jennifer Granholm for speaking in favor of a ballot proposal expanding embryonic stem cell research in Michigan.
The governor said Oct. 26 "as a Catholic, I can say to be pro-cure is to be pro-life."
Bishop Earl Boyea said in a statement Tuesday that Granholm's argument that Proposal 2 is a valid expression of Catholic principles is "shocking."
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said Tuesday the governor was speaking for herself in Grand Rapids, not remarking on church policy.
Michigan's Catholic bishops have taken a strong position against Proposal 2. The Catholic Church teaches that is it is always immoral to destroy a human embryo.
Granholm supports the proposal, saying it will help find cures for diseases and create jobs.
Head of European Jewish Congress says Turkey key in interfaith dialogue
ANKARA, Turkey -- The head of the European Jewish Congress said Turkey has a key role in promoting tolerance and dialogue between the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths.
Moshe Kantor said Turkey represents a "moderate and tolerant Islam" which puts the country in position to help fight xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism.
Kantor made the comments in an interview Tuesday after he met with Turkey's president, prime minister and foreign minister. He said he invited Turkey's leaders to participate in the newly formed European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.
Kantor said he was assured there is no state anti-Semitism in Turkey. He welcomed the Islamic-rooted government's effort to combat anti-Semitism within the public.
Appeals court upholds prayer at Cobb County commission meetings
ATLANTA -- A federal appeals court has upheld a suburban Atlanta county's practice of allowing clergy to open meetings with Christian prayers.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 2-1 ruling Tuesday allows Cobb County officials to open meetings of its Board of Commissioners and planning commission with the prayers.
Cobb County officials said clergy from all faiths are allowed to participate, but lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union contended the invocations are "overtly Christian" and they send a message that the county backs the faith.
Egypt's first female marriage registrar starts work despite complaints it is against Islam
CAIRO, Egypt -- The country's first female marriage registrar has started work despite complaints by some conservative clerics that the move is against Islam.
MENA, Egypt's official news agency, reported that during her first day on the job, Amal Suleiman Afifi married a couple in a mosque in the Delta town of Zaqaziq, some 45 miles north of Cairo.
The couple moved up their wedding ceremony, attended by hundreds of people, so they could be married Oct. 25 by the 34-year-old Muslim woman.
Many conservative clerics believe Islamic law, or Sharia, bars a woman from becoming a registrar because the legal code states the testimony of two women is equivalent to one man in court. Therefore they believe a marriage contract signed by a woman would be illegal.
Guns-for-cash church effort brings in 500 in a day, 5,000 over six years
NEW YORK -- Five Harlem churches collected hundreds of weapons -- in exchange for cash.
Rifles, handguns and shotguns were handed over Oct. 25 -- no questions asked. Each person who brought a firearm was handed a $200 bank card.
By late in the day, more than 500 were collected.
It's part of a program sponsored by the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney's office to remove weapons from city streets following recent spikes in violence. BB guns and air pistols are accepted in exchange for a $20 bank card.
So far, the buyback program, started a half dozen years ago, has succeeded in removing about 5,000 guns from New York streets. The city has $100,000 in funding left to finance the effort.
Two weeks ago, churches in Brooklyn collected more than 400 firearms.
Shippensburg, religious student group settle speech code lawsuit
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- Attorneys for Shippensburg University and a religious student group have settled the group's claim that the school had violated free speech rights.
The Christian Fellowship of Shippensburg University claimed in a federal lawsuit that it had been threatened with being shut down because it requires members to be Christians and its president to be a man. The group said the state-owned university had violated a 2004 settlement of a separate lawsuit over the school's student code of conduct.
In the 2004 case, a civil liberties group sued the university over a student code barring "acts of intolerance" including racist, sexist and homophobic speech. University officials eventually said they would revise the code.
The Washington-based Alliance Defense Fund said the latest lawsuit stemmed from Christian Fellowship's expulsion from campus by the university's Student Senate in February in a dispute over its membership and leadership requirements.
The group, which has been recognized by the university since the early 1970s, was later told it could resume operations but said it feared the possibility of further sanctions.
The ADF said last week that the university "has agreed to correct the policies and respect the constitutional rights of its students." Shippensburg confirmed the suit has been settled.