Largest Lutheran group affirms traditional marriage in draft statement on sexuality

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A task force drafting a statement on sexuality for the nation’s largest Lutheran group said Thursday that the church should continue defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
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FREEDOM BEGINS HERE aims to combat “crisis of pornography and sexual addiction.” They’re meeting Saturday in Little Rock.
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By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) — The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped in Iraq last month was found just outside the northern city of Mosul, officials said Thursday.
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Talk about audacity….
Sounding like a Windy City incarnation of the Rev. Fred Phelps, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright told his congregation in 2003: “God Damn America.”
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According to numerous press reports, the Vatican has released a new, improved list of the Seven Deadly Sins. But it appears it’s a bit of an exaggeration…
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NEW YORK (AP) — The first openly gay Episcopal bishop announced he will have no official role in a meeting this summer of world Anglican leaders, saying restrictions that organizers wanted to place on his involvement had caused him “considerable pain.”

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By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — In a major shift, a group of Southern Baptist leaders said their denomination has been “too timid” on environmental issues and has a biblical duty to stop global warming.
The declaration, signed by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention among others and released Monday, shows a growing urgency about climate change even within groups that once dismissed claims of an overheating planet as a liberal ruse. The conservative denomination based in Nashville, Tenn., has 16.3 million members and is the largest Protestant group in the U.S.
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The Catholic Church has released a report detailing the number of credible child sex abuse allegations that were made in 2007. According to the report, 689 credible new victims stepped forward last year. Total financial cost: $615 million, including $526 million in settlements.

Most of the abuse occurred in the 1950s-1970s. Eighty-two percent of the victims were boys.

To read the report, click here.

Joe Conason of the New York Observer says John McCain could come to regret embracing anti-Catholic preacher John Hagee.
Click here for more.

Read this extraordinary article by Hussein Kadhim of McClatchy Newspapers about his pilgrimage from Baghdad to Karbala.

HillaryClinton.com has posted audio of Sen. Clinton discussing her views on the Trinity and other theological matters. CBN’s David Brody has a link…

The late Episcopal bishop of New York, Bishop Paul Moore, engaged in “exploitive behavior” and lived a “secret double life” while leading the diocese, the current bishop announced in a Feb. 29 letter to parishioners.

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Academic says it was a long, strange, 40-year-trip to the promised land…

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Two days before the Texas primary, Bill Clinton attends Lakewood Church. [He pops up at about the 2:42 mark in the video, which is posted below...] For some reason, Bill and Chelsea are being dispatched to appear at churches in key primary states — usually without Hillary Clinton. h/t: Greg Wythe

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