Religion Roundup from the Eyewitness News Newsroom

CHRISTIAN DECLARATION Conservative Christians issue declaration, warning

WASHINGTON
Conservative Christian leaders are releasing a declaration and warning today on what they're calling "moral issues of great concern."

Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, helped draft the Manhattan Declaration, which affirms the sanctity of human life, marriage as the union of one man and one woman, religious liberty, and freedom of conscience.

Where those values are threatened, the document endorses civil disobedience under some circumstances.

Organizers of today's official release say the Manhattan Declaration sends "a clear and strong call to Christians" and "a warning to civil authorities."

They say it's been signed by more than 125 evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders.

BANNING BLASPHEMY Muslim countries still seeking U.N. blasphemy ban

GENEVA
Islamic nations are continuing to campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery -- essentially a ban on blasphemy.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that Algeria and Pakistan have taken the lead in lobbying to eventually bring the proposal to a vote in the U.N. General Assembly.

If ratified in countries that enshrine freedom of expression as a fundamental right, such a treaty would require them to limit free speech if it risks seriously offending religious believers.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has declared U.S. opposition to measures banning "defamation of religion." At the State Department last month, she said religious "differences should be met with tolerance, not with the suppression of discourse."

FORT HOOD INVESTIGATION Congress, Pentagon focus on Fort Hood shootings

WASHINGTON
Senator Joe Lieberman says the vast majority of American Muslims are law-abiding citizens, but the few who become radicalized can do "terrible harm."

Lieberman, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, hosted a hearing yesterday into how homegrown religious extremism may have contributed to the Fort Hood shootings.

Frances Townsend, who led counterterrism efforts under President George W. Bush, said she worried that investigators may have been reluctant to pursue a military officer who was Muslim.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, said the Pentagon will scour its procedures for identifying volatile troops hidden in the ranks and lapses that might allow others to go undetected.

VATICAN-ANGLICANS Struggling Anglican leader in Rome for papal talks

ROME
The Archbishop of Canterbury is seeking to downplay the Vatican's invitation for Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church.

As he arrived in Rome for a three-day visit, Archbishop Rowan Williams said the Vatican policy was an "imaginative pastoral response" to requests by some Anglicans, but broke no new doctrinal ground.

The Vatican has denied it was fishing for converts in the Anglican pond.

But the move has strained Catholic-Anglican relations and is sure to affect Williams' worldwide Anglican Communion, which is on the verge of schism over homosexuality and women's ordination.

Williams' visit to Rome began yesterday with a lecture and ends Saturday with a papal audience.

GROTTO-HIDDEN COINS Woman leaves $40,000 at Md. shrine for safekeeping

HAGERSTOWN, Md.
Officials at Mount St. Mary's University say they thought they'd been blessed when a groundskeeper found $40,000 worth of rare U.S. coins near a campus shrine while raking leaves.

The two bags stuffed with gold and silver coins were left at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

But Shrine Director William Tronolone says a woman approached him after Mass Sunday, six days after the discovery, to ask whether anyone had found some coins she had hidden beneath fallen leaves.

When he asked why she would have done that, the woman explained that she wanted the Virgin Mary to watch over her life savings while she was out of town.

Apparently it worked. Tronolone says the university's security director returned the coins Monday and persuaded the woman to put them in her bank's safe deposit box.

WITCH LAWSUIT University settles lawsuit over witch's firing

LINCOLN, Neb.
A woman who sued the University of Nebraska last year saying the school fired her because she is a witch has agreed to settle the case for $40,000.

A letter from the woman's attorney confirms the settlement -- $10,000 of which will go toward attorneys fees and legal costs.

The woman, who practices witchcraft as her religion, said in her lawsuit that she was hired by the university in 2007 to direct a youth program, but was fired when it found out that she was a witch.

An attorney for the university says it made the offer without admitting to any of the allegations.

EPISCOPAL PRIEST Priest accused of misconduct gets state job

WILMINGTON, Del.
An Episcopal priest who was relieved of his duties because of alleged misconduct with a female parishioner has been offered a state government job in Delaware.

The Rev. Robert Broesler, pastor of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Wilmington, is scheduled to start working Monday for the Department of Health and Social Services.

Meanwhile, a hearing is scheduled Wednesday in a lawsuit in which Broesler, who denies any misconduct, claims church officials have wrongfully denied him pay and benefits and have tried to dissolve his pastoral relationship without following the required process.

Broesler is seeking a restraining order to prevent church officials from taking further steps to jeopardize his position as a tenured pastor pending the outcome of church proceedings, or using his acceptance of the state job against him.

PASTOR-PLASTIC SURGERY Pastor accused of spending parish funds on plastic surgery gets probation

NEW YORK
A New York pastor accused of using church funds to pay for plastic surgery has been ordered to serve five years probation.

The Rev. William Blasingame also must repay more than $84,000 to St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church on Staten Island.

Prosecutors say he paid for personal luxuries, including tens of thousands of dollars worth of plastic surgery and Botox treatments, with money earmarked for the needy and the upkeep of church grounds.

Blasingame pleaded guilty to felony grand larceny in September. He could have faced 15 years in prison if convicted at trial. His lawyer says Blasingame is "very sorry."

WASHINGTON TIMES-DISCRIMINATION Newspaper denies ex-editor's religious discrimination claim

WASHINGTON
The Washington Times is denying a religious discrimination claim by the newspaper's former opinion editor.

Richard Miniter filed a complaint Tuesday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He says he was coerced into attending a Unification Church event that included a mass wedding. And he says the Times investigated him after he joked about the church to a co-worker.

The paper was founded by the leader of the Unification Church, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, in 1982.

In a note to readers Thursday, the Times' acting president and publisher said the paper doesn't discriminate.