Links

- These Are America’s First Churches — and They’re Still Worshipping. I didn't realize before reading this that the United Church of Christ has some of the oldest churches, like the First Church in Windsor pictured above. There's a Wikipedia page with a larger list of the oldest churches plus photos.

- 100 Faith Leaders To Obama: Religious Liberty Shouldn’t Be Used To Discriminate Against LGBT People

- The confidentiality of confession vs the reporting of sex abuse has been in the news. Today I saw a blog post at The Tablet - Why I agitated for confessions in the Australian Anglican Church to no longer be bound by confidentiality - about how the Anglican church in Australia has decided that the fundamental theological principle at stake is that the safety of members of the Church and the public should be of paramount concern in relation to the confidentiality of confessions. I think the Catholic church should also give priority to mandatory reporting of abuse over confidentiality of confession.

- Memo to the Supreme Court: Morning-After Pills Don't Cause Abortion, Studies Say ... whenn it comes to Plan B, there is now fairly definitive research that shows the only way it works is by preventing ovulation, and therefore, fertilization .... ella, like Plan B, doesn't prevent pregnancy if a woman has already ovulated.

- Also at The Tablet: Stopping the rot by Jason Berry. What's scary to me is that everyone believes Cardinal Pell is the guy to rely on to fix the banking problems. See what I think of him ... Cardinal Pell and Cardinal Pell and the Ellis sex abuse case and Pell, sex abuse, church money

- Israel, unlike Hamas, isn’t trying to kill civilians. It’s taking pains to spare them.