JERUSALEM — Anglican conservatives, frustrated by the continuing stalemate over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion, declared on Sunday that they would defy the church’s historic lines of authority and create a new power bloc within the church led by a council of predominantly African archbishops.

The announcement came at the close of an unprecedented week-long meeting of Anglican conservatives in Jerusalem, who contend that they represent a majority of the 77 million members of the Anglican Communion.

They depicted their efforts as the culmination of an anti-colonial struggle against the church’s seat of power in Great Britain, whose missionaries first brought Anglican Christianity to the developing world.

The conservatives say many of the descendants of those Anglican missionaries in Britain and North America are now following what they call a “false gospel” that allows a malleable, liberal interpretation of Scripture.

Jindal, the 37-year-old son of Indian immigrants, is considered to be on John McCain’s short list for vice presidential candidates. Jindal said media speculation touting him as a potential running mate for McCain was “flattering”, according to an article by the Agence France Presse

The moderator in the video below asked Jindal if he has doubts about evolution since Jindal was a biology major in college.

“I’m a Christian,” Jindal said. “I do think that God played a role in creating not only the earth but mankind. Now the way that he did it, I’d certainly want my kids to be exposed to the very best science. I don’t want any facts or theories or explanations to be withheld from them because of political correctness.”

Jindal said that local school districts should decide for themselves what theories to teach and that federal and state governments should stay out of the equation.

Sit down and shut up?  Easier said than done, a Kern car dealer and the Oklahoma writer of the company’s controversial radio ad are finding.
The spots have already finished a three-month run in eastern Kern and the Antelope Valley, but renewed interest prompted even the Ford Motor Co. to weigh in Wednesday.

Kieffe & Sons Ford’s ads suggesting Christians “just tell the other 14 percent to sit down and shut up” had been Internet fodder for months, blog posts indicate.
In recent days the topic suddenly resurfaced, said Tehachapi resident Dave Salyers. Numerous e-mails with the ad attached popped up again seemingly out of the blue.

On Wednesday, Salyers dropped an electronic note to the automaker.
“Is this the image that Ford wishes to present — that it willingly discriminates against nonreligious people in the United States?” Salyers wrote.

He got a reply the same day from Christie — no last name given — in Ford’s customer relationship center.
“Our investigation has determined that the advertising was placed in error,” Christie’s e-mail said. “Corrective actions have been taken to prevent this from happening again.” Ford spokesman Mark Truby confirmed in an e-mail Christie’s response was “legitimate.”

Truby did not immediately respond to questions about what actions had been taken or how the ad was placed in error.

The morning routine at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire will be 10 seconds shorter Friday after a federal judge banned the moment of silence mandated in public schools in Illinois.

Like many of their counterparts, Stevenson students have been asked to reflect or pray at the same time each day since last October, when Illinois passed the law. On Thursday a judge halted that requirement while he figures out if the law passes constitutional muster.

Not all Illinois schools heeded the law. Administrators for districts that did comply said they didn't foresee much impact from dropping the moment in the school year's waning days.

Stevenson junior Aliya de Grazia welcomed the change, saying she looked forward to a moment-free start of the day

From the grave, Albert Einstein poured gasoline on the culture wars between science and religion this week.

A letter the physicist wrote in 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, in which he described the Bible as “pretty childish” and scoffed at the notion that the Jews could be a “chosen people,” sold for $404,000 at an auction in London. That was 25 times the presale estimate.

The Associated Press quoted Rupert Powell, the managing director of Bloomsbury Auctions, as describing the unidentified buyer as having “a passion for theoretical physics and all that that entails.” Among the unsuccessful bidders, according to The Guardian newspaper, was Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, an outspoken atheist.

The Rev. Tom Suss spent a recent afternoon at the McNeil Island prison near Tacoma, Wash., loading the contents of his office into his Hyundai Elantra.

For more than 15 years, he served inmates of all faiths as prison chaplain. But the 63-year-old Catholic priest chose to retire a year and a half early rather than work with a troubled heart.

He's leaving because he disagrees with new rules that allow state inmates to simultaneously choose multiple religious affiliations with the flick of a pen.

The most recent figures available show that 39 inmates at the McNeil Island Corrections Center had designated multiple religions as of Feb. 21, and officials say that number has gone up since. The combinations include Protestant/Catholic, Jewish Orthodox/Seventh-day Adventist, Buddhist/Protestant/Sikh, Asatru/Catholic.

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Courtesy Scripps news

A campaign to repeal the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel, which made it illegal to insult Christianity, was proposed in January by the Liberal Democrat Evan Harris.
It was supported by public figures including the author Philip Pullman and the academic Richard Dawkins.
They claimed the little-used laws served no useful purpose, while allowing religious groups to try to censor artists.
Evangelists had tried to prosecute the director-general of the BBC over the controversial musical Jerry Springer – The Opera.

MPs voted to support the abolition of blasphemy in an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.
This has now received Royal Assent, condemning the laws to history.
Maria Eagle, the junior justice minister, said in the debate: "These offences have now largely fallen into disuse and therefore run the risk of bringing the law into disrepute.
"Given that these laws protect only the tenets of the Christian Churches, they would appear to be plainly discriminatory."
But Edward Leigh, a Conservative MP, claimed their abolition would encourage more people to make fun of Christianity.
"Getting rid of the blasphemy law sends a message that that is OK, but it is insulting to many Christians," he said.

The last successful prosecution for blasphemy was in 1977, when the publisher of Gay News, Denis Lemon, was given a suspended sentence for printing a poem about a Roman centurion's love for Jesus.

AUSTIN — A bid by the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research to train future science teachers — focusing on creationism instead of Darwin’s theory of evolution — was flatly rejected by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board members on Wednesday.

The decision to turn down the proposal, subject to final action by the full board on Thursday, came despite arguments from ICR officials and faculty that teaching of creationism to students would not hurt their future effectiveness as science teachers.

A lawyer for the Bible-based group also warned that the coordinating board could eventually face legal action for suppressing the free-speech rights of the institute.

Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes paved the way for the board action by recommending rejection of the ICR request for a state certificate of authority to offer an online master’s degree in science education.

As the Televangelist Kenneth Copeland continues to defy a Senate Finance investigation, internal ministry documents shed new light on how Copeland runs his $100 million church.

Church bylaws obtained exclusively by CBS News say Copeland is “empowered to veto any resolution of the Board” concentrating all key decision-making power in the televangelist.

The bylaws indicate the president of the board is Copeland but Copeland’s family members also play a critical role. His wife is the vice president. The senior pastor, secretary and treasurer roles are filled by Copeland’s son-in-law. The operations vice president and CEO slots are both filled by Kenneth Copeland’s son, John. Other documents previously obtained by CBS indicate in addition to family members there are ten other members of the church’s board.

“My first reaction was that Kenneth Copeland was a control freak,” says William Josephson, the former head of New York State’s Charities Bureau after reviewing the Kenneth Copeland Ministries bylaws.

Police have stepped up patrols of an elementary school in Minnesota after it received threats in the wake of accusations that it was using public funds to teach Islam.

The threats came after a local columnist wrote that the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a suburban Minneapolis charter school run by an Islamic charity, appeared to be violating a ban on teaching religion in public schools.

Charter schools are public schools run by private organizations with public funds.

While many have been started by religious groups, they are bound to US rules that public schools must accommodate the religious needs of their students but are not allowed to promote religious views or lead prayer services.