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

CHURCHES-ISLAM
     
Churches to join in 9/11 webcast on radical Islam

     
WASHINGTON (AP) - Christian speaker and author Joel Rosenberg
says more than 600 churches will take part in a town hall-style Web
cast tomorrow on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
     
Rosenberg will host the event, titled "The Threat of Radical
Islam and the Church's Response."
     
That response, he says, should involve converting Muslims to
Christianity. To that end, he'll urge Christians to befriend their
Muslim neighbors and support evangelism in the Middle East.
     
Rosenberg will be joined at Friday's event by retired Lt. Gen.
Jerry Boykin, who served as the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary
for intelligence. In 2003, Boykin gave speeches at churches in
which he painted the war on terror as a Christian fight against
evil and suggested that Muslims worship idols.
     
Boykin later apologized as conservatives rushed to defend him.

RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES
      Poll tracks changing views on Islam

     
UNDATED (AP) - A new study indicates that Americans are learning
more about Islam, and that the familiarity makes them more likely
to view Muslims favorably.
     
It also makes them less likely to believe Islam encourages
violence.
     
The survey by the Pew Research Center also suggests that
Americans still believe Muslims face far more discrimination than
the nation's other religious groups.
     
But nearly two-thirds of Americans who were surveyed said Islam
is either very different or somewhat different from their own
religion.
     
The poll found 38 percent saying they think Islam encourages
violence. That's down 7 percent from two years ago, but still
higher than the survey found even shortly after 9/11.

NYPD-MUSLIMS
     
NYPD rewords report that some say insulted Muslims

     
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Police Department has revised its
report on the threat of homegrown terrorism in response to
complaints that it was an insult to law-abiding, observant Muslims.
     
A coalition of Muslim groups on Wednesday applauded the two-page
clarification tucked into "Radicalization in the West: The
Homegrown Threat" -- a study first circulated in law enforcement
circles and on the Internet in 2007. The new wording says the NYPD
"understands that it is a tiny minority of Muslims who subscribe
to al-Qaida's ideology of war and terror."
     
The clarification also calls New York's Muslim community an
"ally," and says "the NYPD report should not be read to
characterize Muslims as intrinsically dangerous or intrinsically
linked to terrorism, and that it cannot be a license for racial,
religious, or ethnic profiling."

BILLY GRAHAM-RACE
     
Billy Graham ministry denies discrimination claim

     
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Billy Graham's ministry denies that it
discriminated against a black employee and argues that her lawsuit
should be dismissed.
     
Former employee Kimberly McCallum claims she was abruptly fired
by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 2007 after
complaining that the ministry was not reaching out enough to black
churches.
     
The ministry filed court papers yesterday claiming that McCallum
fails to prove that her job remained open or was given to another
person. That's often a key element to work discrimination cases.
     
They also argue that the lawsuit should be dismissed because it
would interfere with the internal affairs of a religious
organization.
     
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association emphasizes its efforts
over the years to increase diversity, including an event recently
led by two prominent black pastors in the Minneapolis area.

ACLU-ABSTINENCE ONLY
     
ACLU sues over religion at abstinence summit

     
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union is
suing a Mississippi agency, claiming that religious music and Bible
teachings were part of a state-sponsored event discouraging
premarital sex.
     
The federal lawsuit says taxpayer dollars were spent on the teen
abstinence summit organized by the state Department of Human
Services this past May at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.
     
The summit was conducted by the DHS "Just Wait" Abstinence
Unit. The lawsuit says the program began with a minister's prayer
and included religious themes and Christian messages throughout.
     
The lawsuit says then-DHS Executive Director Don Taylor
introduced Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant as someone who was "not ashamed of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
     
The lawsuit asks a federal judge for an injunction to prevent
future summits with religious activity and require the state to
refund any federal funding used to pay for the event.

DISGRACED MINISTER
     
National Baptist presidential vote moves forward

     
WASHINGTON (AP) - A judge has refused to halt the presidential
election of the National Baptist Convention USA.
     
Wednesday's decision came in a lawsuit filed by the former
leader of the affiliation of black Baptist churches, the Rev. Henry
J. Lyons of Tampa, Florida.
     
Lyons is running for the office after being imprisoned for
stealing millions from the denomination. His lawsuit claims that
new bylaws on voting for the president violate the denomination's
constitution.
     
D.C. Superior Court Judge Jeanette J. Clark denied two motions
that would have blocked the election by the denomination. The
election is scheduled to take place today (Thursday) in Memphis,
Tennessee.

EPISCOPAL SPLIT
     
Former Episcopalians look to US Supreme Court

     
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court could decide
next month whether to hear an appeal from former Episcopal
congregations fighting to retain ownership of their parish
buildings and property.
     
The Episcopal Church maintains that individuals can leave the
denomination, but must leave church property behind, even if it was
built with their donations.
     
California courts have sided with the Episcopal Diocese of Los
Angeles against the breakaway congregations throughout the
five-year legal case.
     
A Supreme Court decision in the case could also affect property
in the Diocese of San Joaquin, which is one of 4 dioceses that have
left the Episcopal Church.

STOCKBROKER-PRIEST
     
Priest-stockbroker at center of inquiry quits Episcopal
priesthood

     
DALLAS (AP) - The priest whose activities as a stockbroker drew
the scrutiny of the bishop of the Dallas Episcopal diocese has quit
the priesthood.
     
Officials of the diocese tell The Dallas Morning News that the
Rev. William Warnky has renounced his vows. The No. 2 official of
the diocese, Bishop Suffragan Paul Lambert, told the newspaper that
Warnky "made the decision that could have been made for him."
     
Last month, Bishop James Stanton suspended Warnky, citing
financial regulators' ruling that Warnky defrauded an
ex-parishioner of $50,000. Stanton also implemented a new policy
that Dallas Episcopal priests may not sell to parishioners.
     
The part-time priest in charge of Good Samaritan Episcopal
Church of Dallas told The News that he was exhausted by the recent
pressures, saying, "I feel like I've been rode hard and put up
wet."

FIGHTING MEN-DEAD TODDLER
     
Girl killed in church bat attack remembered

     
WHEATON, Minn. (AP) - A 14-month-old girl who was fatally struck
by a baseball bat during an attack on her father at a church in
Wheaton, Minnesota, has been remembered as a bright and bubbly
child.
     
About 50 people gathered at Thy Kingdom Come World Ministries to
mourn Aundrea Brownlow, who died of a blow to her head from a bat
that was aimed at her father, Claude Hankins.
     
David Collins of Wheaton has been charged with murder in the
attack last week, which prosecutors said was over $20 Hankins owed
Collins and a dispute over a washer and dryer.
     
Investigators have not said whether Collins had been drinking
before the attack, but the girl's father and the pastor at the
church, the Rev. Danny Barnes, both said it appeared Collins was
drunk.
     
Claude Hankins has said he forgives Collins. He called his
daughter "a little ray of sunshine."

POLYGAMY TRUST-APPEAL
     
Polygamous bishops appeal ruling to Utah Supreme Court

     
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Two polygamous church bishops are asking
the Utah Supreme Court to overturn a district court's decision that
they say denies them their constitutional right to carry out their
ecclesiastical duties.
     
Attorneys for Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints Bishops Lyle Jeffs and James Oler filed a notice of
appeal with the court Aug. 26.
     
Jeffs and Oler had sought to intervene in a 3rd District Court
dispute over the United Effort Plan Trust, which has been under
court control since 2005. A judge denied their request.
     
The trust holds most of the land and homes in a church enclave
in Bountiful, British Columbia, as well as in Hildale, Utah, and
Colorado City, Ariz., the twin towns where most church members
live.

     
     
     
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
     
AP-NY-09-10-09 0332EDT