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

HUCKABEE-CHRISTIAN PROFESSIONALS
     
Huckabee: Christians can keep professions from spoiling

     
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Former Republican presidential candidate
Mike Huckabee says professions like politics, media and finance are
likely to go bad unless Christians get involved.
     
The former Arkansas governor, who now hosts a weekly TV show,
says he believes that's what Jesus meant when he said, "You are
the salt of the Earth."
     
In Jesus' time, salt was used less as a seasoning than as a
preservative, so Huckabee says it's important to enter troubled
professions to preserve their integrity.
     
Huckabee spoke at this week's National Religious Broadcasters
convention in Nashville, Tenn.

DC GAY MARRIAGE-CHURCH
     
DC Archdiocese changes health care policy

     
WASHINGTON (ap) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington
is changing an employee health care policy because of a same-sex
marriage law expected to take effect this week in the nation's
capital.
     
The archdiocese has told employees of its Catholic Charities
that they can no longer add spouses to their health care coverage.
     
Catholic Charities, which provides services such as substance
abuse treatment programs and shelters, employs some 850 people.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs says about 10 percent of them
currently have spouses covered by their health care plan.
     
That won't change, but new spouses can no longer be added so
that Catholic Charities won't be forced to extend coverage to
same-sex spouses.

SUPREME COURT-DC GAY MARRIAGE
     
Supreme Court is asked to block DC gay marriage law

     
WASHINGTON (AP) - Opponents of gay marriage are asking the U.S.
Supreme Court to put a hold on the District of Columbia's new law
that allows same-sex couples to wed.
     
The new law, passed in December, is supposed to take effect
Wednesday. Court papers filed Monday with Chief Justice John
Roberts argue that Washington residents should be able to vote on
the matter. Local courts have rejected the opponents' arguments.
     
The gay marriage opponents include a Baptist minister, Walter
Fauntroy, who was Washington's delegate in the U.S. House of
Representatives for nearly 20 years.
     
The city has said Wednesday probably will be the first day
same-sex couples can apply for marriage licenses, but couples will
then have to wait three full business days before exchanging vows.

SUPREME COURT-TEN COMMANDMENTS
     
Supreme Court declines new 10 Commandments fight

     
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has declined to get involved
in a new dispute over a Ten Commandments display on public
property.
     
The justices on Monday left in place a lower court decision that
a Ten Commandments marker in Haskell County, Okla., must go.
     
The 8-foot-tall stone monument has been on the county courthouse
lawn in Stigler, Okla., since 2004. A federal appeals court ruled
last year that it amounts to an unconstitutional endorsement of
religion by the county commission.
     
In 2005, the high court said in two cases that determining
whether the Ten Commandments could be displayed on government
property was a case-by-case affair.

BILLY GRAHAM-STILL WORKING
     
Son says Billy Graham still writing, counseling

     
BOONE, N.C. (AP) - The Reverend Billy Graham has retired from
preaching, but the 91-year-old evangelist is still writing books
and offering spiritual counsel to callers and visitors.
     
The Reverend Franklin Graham says his father has spoken on the
phone in recent months with President Barack Obama and former
President George W. Bush, and was visited by former Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin.
     
The younger Graham says his father recently finished updating
his 1992 book "Storm Warning," and is currently working on
another book, but slowly -- typically an hour of work followed by a
nap.
     
Billy Graham's glib father-son advice, according to Franklin,
was: "Don't get old."

CROSS VANDALIZED
     
Monterey to move beach cross to Catholic cemetery

     
MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) - A giant redwood cross has stood on a
California beach for decades, but officials now plan to move it
amid complaints about having a religious symbol on public property.
     
Monterey officials said Monday that the cross built for Del
Monte Beach will be placed in San Carlos Cemetery, owned by the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey.
     
The controversy began after city officials vowed to replace the
beach cross after vandals cut down the 20-foot monument last
September. It was erected in 1969 to mark the spot where a colonial
expedition led by Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portol is believed
to have arrived in 1769.
     
The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the cross being
replaced.
     
City officials say the diocese offered to erect the replacement
cross in a prominent location at its cemetery to quell the
controversy.

COLLECTION PLATE STOLEN
     
Police: Thief stole collection plate from usher

     
DREXEL HILL, Pa. (AP) - Police are searching for a man they say
swiped a collection plate from a teenage usher at a suburban
Philadelphia church.
     
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood says the
robbery happened Sunday morning during Mass at St. Andrew's Roman
Catholic Church in Drexel Hill.
     
Chitwood says a man wearing a ski mask and sunglasses approached
the usher as he was carrying the offering to the rectory and
demanded the money. The usher handed the money over and the suspect
took off.
     
Police found the ski mask and glasses in the trash at a nearby
trolley stop.
     
Chitwood says the money in the offering had not yet been counted
so it's unclear how much was lost.

HAITI-DETAINED AMERICANS
     
Haiti judge expects to release U.S. missionaries

     
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A Haitian judge says he will likely
order the release of the last two Americans detained for trying to
take 33 children out of the country after the earthquake.
     
Judge Bernard Saint-Vil tells The Associated Press he expects to
resolve the case after a hearing Tuesday. Saint-Vil said Monday he
plans to have missionaries Laura Silsby and Charisa (kah-RIH'-suh)
Coulter in court for the closed hearing. He will also take
testimony from people who were helping them set up an orphanage in
the Dominican Republic.
     
The judge says he's close to being able to resolve the case and
will probably order the release of Silsby and Coulter.
     
Eight other Americans detained with them have already been
released.

IRAQ-CHRISTIANS
     
Iraqi Christians protest attacks, demand security

     
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi Christians in Baghdad and in the northern
city of Mosul have rallied to protest attacks on Christians and to
call for government protection.
     
International Christian Concern reports that hundreds of Iraqi
Christian families have fled Mosul in recent weeks to escape
"targeted killings" there.
     
Insurgents have often targeted Iraqi Christians. Last week,
Iraq's government promised to provide extra security to Christians
in Mosul.
     
On Monday, the United Nations Special Representative in Iraq
expressed concern about attacks on Christian and minority
candidates in the run-up to Sunday's election in Iraq.
     
The U.S. hopes the election will produce a stable government
that could ease withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the end
of next year.

PALESTINIANS-HAMAS SPY
     
Hamas leader disowns son who converted to Christianity

     
JERUSALEM (AP) - A Hamas leader has disowned his son after the
younger man became a Christian and claimed he spied for Israel.
     
Hamas Web sites quote a letter by Sheik Hassan Yousef disowning
the son. Hamas says the letter was smuggled out of the Israeli
prison where he's being held.
     
The elder Yousef, who helped found the militant Islamic group
two decades ago, was humiliated last year when his son Mosab
announced he had converted to Christianity. Then the son told an
Israeli newspaper that he had helped Israeli intelligence foil
militant attacks and hunt down Hamas leaders.
     
Mosab Yousef, who fled to the U.S., is publishing a memoir.
Monday's announcement means he loses his inheritance and the family
will never speak to him -- or about him -- again.

     
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
     
AP-NY-03-02-10 0318EST