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    Clay Chiles

    Clay Chiles

    Former Deputy Blog Editor, HuffPost

  • La. Pastor Sentenced For Bilking Katrina Victims

    NEW ORLEANS (RNS) A Louisiana minister will spend two years in prison for his role in bilking Hurricane Katrina victims of more than $350,000. The Rev. Martin A. Denesse of Homeplace, La., was sentenced Wednesday (Oct. 6) by Judicial District Judge Joy Lobrano to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in December to theft more than $500 and unauthorized use of a movable, according to Plaquemines District Attorney Charles Ballay. Lobrano suspended 13 years of the sentence, however, and also ordered Denesse to pay restitution to his victims.

  • Recession Forces A-List Christian Music Stars Onto The Same Stage

    "We're all hunkering down right now," says Toby McKeehan, or tobyMac, the former front man for rap/rock trio DC Talk who's teaming up with megastars Third Day, Michael W. Smith and best-selling author Max Lucado for the tour. "People just aren't spending money on Christian entertainment," she said.

  • Critics Waiting For Action From Faith-Based Office

    WASHINGTON (RNS) Six months after advisers turned in 164 pages of recommendations to the White House's faith-based office, thorny church-state questions remain unanswered and some critics say the office has been used to push the president's health care reform. Much of the work done by the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships has been low profile, and successors to the blue-ribbon advisory panel that ended its work in March haven't been named.

  • Jewish Paper Faces 'Firestorm' Over Gay Wedding Announcements

    TEANECK, N.J. (RNS) After enduring "a firestorm" of criticism from all factions of Judaism, New Jersey's oldest Jewish newspaper says it overreacted in printing and then rescinding its first published same-sex wedding announcement. Janoff said he is discussing how to handle such announcements with rabbis and community leaders in Bergen County, where the paper has most of its readership. The issue arose Friday (Oct. 1), when the 79-year-old paper ran a small unpaid story announcing the upcoming nuptials of Avichai Smolen, 23, of New Milford, and Justin Rosen of Coram, N.Y.

  • Tea Party More Religious Than U.S., Less Than Conservative Christians

    WASHINGTON (RNS) American who identify with the "tea party" are more religious than the general population, but are less religious than conservative Christians, according to a new American Values poll. The survey by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute found that 11 percent of Americans say they are part of the amorphous tea party movement, compared to 22 percent of Americans who identify as Christian conservatives. Nearly half (47 percent) of those who claim the tea party label also consider themselves Christian conservatives or part of the religious right, according to the survey.

  • Mormons Divided On LDS Apostle's Speech On Gays

    SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Scores of Mormons say they felt confused and bruised after Apostle Boyd K. Packer unequivocally condemned same-sex marriage and insisted that gays can change their attractions with enough faith. It wasn't the substance of Packer's speech on Sunday (Oct. 3), and no one expected the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to revise the church's stance. What bothered many, they say, was the style of his presentation that left them feeling Packer's views were at odds with the more nuanced and compassionate recent statements by other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

  • Zacchaeus' Tree Now A Top Tourist Destination

    JERUSALEM (RNS) A huge sycamore tree that some believe was climbed by Zacchaeus the tax collector to get a better view of Jesus is the centerpiece of a new tourism campaign by the Palestinian government. Once the winter home of the wealthy elite thanks to its balmy winter weather, Jericho has seen hard times in recent years, especially since the start of the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s. The West Bank city has been subject to Israeli security closures and subsequently high unemployment.

  • Report Finds Strong Growth In U.S. Orthodox Churches

    The number of Orthodox parishes has reached 2,370, and the Orthodox community in America consists of more than 1 million adherents across 20 different church bodies, according to the 2010 U.S. Orthodox Census.

  • Outside The Court, Phelps Clan Draws A Crowd

    WASHINGTON (RNS) The marble plaza outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (Oct. 6) provided the biggest stage yet for the Rev. Fred Phelps and his message that U.S. deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's punishment for America's lax stance on homosexuality. Inside, the justices heard arguments on whether Phelps' free speech rights extended to picketing outside the 2006 funeral of a Marine who died in Iraq. "We've been here for three hours," one of Phelps' children said.

  • Faith And Fanaticism In South's Football God

    AUBURN, Ala. (RNS) Chad Gibbs has been on a pigskin pilgrimage throughout the South, searching for spiritual truth in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, Gainesville and Fayetteville. For 12 weeks he attended football games involving every Southeastern Conference (SEC) football team.

  • Top Canadian Orthodox Bishop On Leave For 'Misconduct'

    TORONTO (RNS) One of Canada's top Eastern Orthodox hierarchs has resigned his duties and been granted a leave of absence following allegations by police of "misconduct" going back decades. Archbishop Seraphim of Ottawa, who has jurisdiction over all of Canada for the New York-based Orthodox Church in America, requested and was granted a leave of absence. Archpriest Eric Tosi, secretary of the OCA, said he "cannot make any comments" on the matter "at this time because it's an open investigation.

  • Vatican Expresses 'Perplexity' Over Nobel Awarded To IVF Creator

    VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican's top bioethics official expressed "perplexity" after the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday (Oct. 4) to the inventor of in vitro fertilization (IVF). The Vatican characterized Carrasco's statement as a personal one.

  • 9/11 Families 'Shocked' After Supreme Court Rejects Burial Appeal

    WASHINGTON (RNS) Relatives of 9/11 victims who believe debris from Ground Zero contains human remains and should be given a suitable burial said they are "shocked" that the Supreme Court on Monday (Oct. 4) refused to hear their appeal. "Denying our right to present this in court is a denial of justice that is indeed shocking," said Diane Horning, whose son, Matthew, was killed nine years ago in the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. Horning is president and co-founder of WTC Families for Proper Burial, a group that believes the 1.6 million tons of debris left by the collapsing towers in 2001 has not been adequately sifted for remains and should not be dumped in a landfill on Staten Island.

  • Ban On School Christmas Carols Upheld

    By deciding Monday (Oct. 4) not to hear the case, the high court ended a six-year legal battle that started when parent Michael Stratechuk sued the School District of South Orange and Maplewood over a policy that barred religious songs at public concerts. There's no other legal avenue to take," Stratechuk's attorney, Robert J. Muise of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., said. While the 3rd Circuit ruling technically only applies to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Muise worries the high court's rejection of the case could lead to a chilling effect on religious music in school districts across the country.

  • Mormon President Says Church Needs More Missionaries

    SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Despite an impressive number of men and women preaching the Mormon gospel across the globe, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needs even more missionaries, LDS President Thomas S. Monson said. A two-year mission is a universal expectation for every "worthy, able young man," Monson said Saturday (Oct. 2), speaking to more than 20,000 Mormons in the LDS Conference Center and millions more watching the church's 180th General Conference via satellite. Young women don't have the same obligation to serve full-time, but can make "a valuable contribution as missionaries," Monson said.

  • Pope, In Sicily, Denounces Mafia

    Earlier, in his sermon at an outdoor Mass celebrated before some 200,000 people, the pope urged Sicilians to persevere in their war against organized crime. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. In an afternoon speech to priests in the Palermo cathedral, the pope commemorated the "barbarous murder" of the Rev. Giuseppe Puglisi, who was killed in 1993 for preaching against the Mafia in the city's slums.

  • The Profound Beauty and Striking Similarities Between Orthodox Christian And Tibetan Buddhist Art (PHOTOS)

    "Embodying the Holy," a new exhibition at New York City's Rubin Museum of Art, brings to light striking similarities between Orthodox Christian icons and traditional Tibetan Buddhist painted scrolls. Martin Brauen, the museum's Chief Curator, said that the exhibition will "provide points of basic understanding of what connects the so-called East and West on a spiritual level." Elaborating on this spiritual connection, he said that Christian icons and Tibetan painted scrolls are "both representations of a reality that is beyond our human realm. Referring to the aesthetic similarities between the two artistic traditions, Brauen noted, "In both cases the motifs and the general structure are prescribed in a clearly set canon of images.

  • U.S. Muslims Ask: When Will The Blame Game End?

    Whether fellow Americans see them as distinct from Islamic terrorists will no doubt shape the future of generations of American Muslims. Thus, for many Muslims, life in the U.S. requires maintaining a delicate balance between asserting their constitutional rights, getting along with fellow citizens, and distancing themselves from acts of terrorism--without seeming to accept blame for them. For instance, agreeing to move Park51, the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero, is not just a matter of ceding religious rights, but also about accepting guilt for the actions of the 9/11 hijackers and other terrorists.

  • Judge Rejects Suit Against Religious Language At Capitol Visitor Center

    WASHINGTON (RNS) A federal judge has dismissed a suit arguing that engravings of "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center here are unconstitutional. The suit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation was dismissed Wednesday (Sept. 29) by U.S. District Court Judge William Conley of Madison, Wis., due to lack of standing. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

  • Christians Call For Calm After Indian Verdict On Holy Site

    Bangalore, India (RNS/ENInews) Churches in India have joined other faiths and political leaders in calling for calm after a court ruled that a religious site violently disputed by Hindus and Muslims should be split between the two groups. The high court of northern Uttar Pradesh state issued its ruling Thursday (Sept. 30) in the protracted case, which concerns ownership of the site of the former Babri mosque at Ayodhya, about 420 miles southeast of New Delhi. Two of the three judges declared that Hindus have the right of ownership to the main disputed area.