AP-Religion Roundup
     
Update on the latest in religion news:

OBAMA-CONSCIENCE CLAUSE
      Obama pledges to retain medical conscience exemptions

     
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is pledging his support
for conscience protections for health-care workers that will be as
strong as those they enjoyed during most of George W. Bush's
presidency.
     
Obama reversed a policy that Bush put in place shortly before
leaving office. It required institutions that get federal money to
certify compliance with laws protecting the rights of health-care
workers who object to procedures like abortion. Opponents feared it
could also be used to refuse birth control, vaccines and
transfusions.
     
But Obama assured reporters from religious news organizations
Thursday that when his administration completes its review, "there
will be a robust conscience clause in place" for health-care
workers.
     
He added that "it certainly will not be weaker than what
existed before the changes were made."

OBAMA-DEVOTIONALS
     
Obama says he gets devotionals on his BlackBerry

     
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he gets a
devotional every morning on his BlackBerry.
     
Obama told reporters from religious news organizations that
White House faith director Joshua DuBois (doo-BWAH') sends a
morning devotional every day to his e-mail device.
     
The president added that he may start inviting pastors to pray
with him in the White House.
     
Obama said he's taking his time picking a church because the
congregation he chooses will face heightened security and political
scrutiny as well. He said last year's controversy over his former
pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, left his family a bit shaken.
     
At Camp David, Obama said he enjoys the sermons of Chaplain
Carey Cash, who ministered to troops during the 2003 invasion of
Iraq.

US DIPLOMACY-MUSLIMS
     
American Muslim named envoy to Islamic world

     
WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department's new Special
Representative to Muslim Communities says Islam is as diverse
globally as it is in the United States, where Muslims come from
many ethnic backgrounds.
     
Farah Pandith, an American Muslim who was born in India, told
the diplomatic press that she intends to listen to the concerns of
Muslims in various parts of the world in hopes of improving
relations.
     
She says global Islam is too diverse for there to be a "magic
program to engage with Muslims" everywhere. But through outreach
from U.S. embassies, Pandith says she hopes to learn what the
world's Muslims "are saying and thinking and dreaming and
believing," so that new dialogues can be established.

TRAIN SUICIDE
     
Sheriff: Pastor and wife hit by train committed suicide

     
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (AP) - North Texas authorities say a
Baptist pastor and his wife who were struck and killed by a train
committed suicide together.
     
Clay County Sheriff Kenny Lemons says witnesses on the train
reported seeing the couple standing and embracing on the tracks in
the path of the oncoming train Tuesday night.
     
The train engineer blew his horn and applied the brakes, but the
couple would not get out of the way.
     
Lemons identifies them as Eldon Earl Johnson, the 69-year-old
pastor of Ringgold Baptist Church, and his wife Linda Kay Johnson,
who was 61. They lived in Henrietta, Texas.
     
Authorities did not give a motive for the double suicide.
     
The church was damaged in wildfires that nearly destroyed the
town of Ringgold in January 2006.

MENNONITES-GAYS
     
Gay Mennonites demand acceptance from church leaders

     
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - In a quiet act of defiance, gay and
lesbian Mennonites dressed in pink have protested their exclusion
from membership outside the church's convention in Columbus, Ohio.
     
About 100 ministers and church members prayed, sang hymns and
described feeling ostracized growing up in the Mennonite church,
which does not recognize openly gay people as official members.
     
The "pink Menno" protest brought the deeply divisive issue to
the forefront of the Mennonite Church USA conference, a national
gathering of about 8,000 delegates.
     
The Rev. Cindy Lapp, pastor of Hyattsville Mennonite Church in
Maryland, said her congregation has lost its voting rights within
the church for welcoming gays and lesbians.

MISSION GROUP UNINVITED
     
Texas church choir 'uninvited' by Baptist university

     
WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. (AP) - A Texas church that's been expelled
from the Southern Baptist Convention for affirming gays can no
longer send its youth choir to a Kentucky Baptist mission program.
     
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Broadway Baptist
Church Chapel Choir was told that it's been "uninvited" from the
University of the Cumberlands' Mountain Outreach.
     
The Southern Baptist Convention voted during its annual meeting
last week to sever ties with Broadway Baptist because it said the
Fort Worth church endorses or approves of homosexual behavior.
     
Instead of going to Kentucky, the choir of 25 teenagers now
plans to stay at the First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tenn., and
work with Habitat for Humanity and other charities.
     
The Nashville church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention,
but its pastor says he's happy to offer the teens Biblical
hospitality.

AUSTIN CHURCH-BAR
     
Come to church in a bar and bring your dog

     
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A nondenominational church in Austin,
Texas, is conducting Sunday services in a bar and allowing dogs to
attend with their owners.
     
The City Community Church meets Sunday mornings at La Zona Rosa,
a music venue and bar.
     
Organizers tell the Austin American-Statesman that it takes an
hour and a-half to make the switch from bar to church by cleaning
up beer bottles and installing baby gates.
     
Church members say meeting in a bar and allowing dogs helps them
serve the community and make people feel comfortable.
     
The church's pastor says most dogs are well-behaved, although a
German shepherd recently tried to eat one of the smaller dogs.

LIGHTNING-CHURCH
     
Lightning destroys steeple of historic church

     
MEDWAY, Mass. (AP) - Lightning has struck a historic
Massachusetts church, damaging its roof and destroying its steeple.
     
The Medway Community Church was hit by a lightning bolt Thursday
morning as fierce thunderstorms rolled through the area. Flames
engulfed the steeple and charred the roof. No injuries have been
reported.
     
Firefighters say they saved the rest of the church, which dates
to 1814.
     
Associate pastor Carl Schultz promises that Sunday worship
services will be held inside the church or on its front lawn.
     
The church also offers Sunday school and choir programs for
children and adults.

VATICAN-MICHELANGELO
     
Possible Michelangelo self-portrait revealed

     
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The restoration of Michelangelo's frescoes
in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel may have produced a special prize:
a previously unknown self-portrait of the artist.
     
The Vatican's chief restorer says the face of a man on horseback
in the artist's "The Crucifixion of St. Peter" could well be
Michelangelo's, though nobody will ever know "with absolute
certainty."
     
The frescoes were painted between 1542 and 1549, when
Michelangelo was 75. They were his last works.
     
The Vatican announced earlier this week that the five-year
restoration had been completed at a cost of $4.5 million. The
chapel is used by the pope and is not open to the general public.
     
Pope Benedict will inaugurate the restored chapel with a prayer
service Saturday.

INMATE-RELIGION
     
Inmate, state settle religious access issue

     
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The state of Louisiana and the American
Civil Liberties Union have filed an agreement in federal court that
will allow a convicted murderer to watch Catholic Masses on TV.
     
With the settlement, the ACLU and the Louisiana Attorney
General's Office also have asked the court to dismiss Donald Lee
Leger's lawsuit against the state.
     
Leger, who's sentenced to die for a 2001 murder, claimed in his
lawsuit that prison officials unfairly limited Sunday television
services on death row to Baptist or Pentecostal services.
     
Leger complained that made him unable to participate in Catholic
Mass.
     
Neither side admitted fault in the settlement.

     
     
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
     
AP-NY-07-03-09 0330EDT