Religion

> Nine women, including one Canadian and one American, plan to defy the Vatican and become the first female Roman Catholic priests and deacons ordained in North America during a ceremony on a boat on the St Lawrence River next month. . . > The location for the ceremony was chosen because

Has anyone else noticed the glut of stories from India involving spiritual con games? > Police in India have arrested a couple who claimed they could cure ill people through 'ghost therapy'. > Kohinoor Bibi and her husband Majid Mandal claimed two ghosts helped them treat their patients,

Celebrate it, claim it's normal, and later we'll somehow institutionalize it. Link [http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/06/08/health/c01060705_01.txt]. Excerpts: > They call her ''Ana.'' She is a role model to some, a goddess to others - the

Prosperity theology fails yet again: > A man posing as a government employee approached a business owner and said he needed to take soil samples from the property. > The next day, the suspect returned with a metal detector claiming he found gold or silver in the soil. > The

> A new edition of the Gospels of the Bible for the first time shows Christ as a woman, named Judith Christ of Nazareth, and God as female. In all other respects, the classic texts of the Gospels remain unchanged. > The publisher, LBI Institute, has released this new Bible

> Hospital bosses in Britain were meeting on Friday to discuss a controversial move to ban Bibles from patients' bedsides after they were decreed not only insensitive to other religions but also a health risk. . . > . . . The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, which runs the three main hospitals

> The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst. > Staphorst, in the so-called Dutch "bible belt" of eastern towns where religion holds sway, approved a ban on swearing by 13-4 council votes. Link [http://news.

Get Religion wrote a nice piece about an Indiana judge who entered an order that prohibits a Wiccan couple from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." Get Religion responds: > This is an important parents' rights case and is, in a strange way,

> Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple, police and newspapers said Tuesday. > The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures