Some Queens parents who are against vaccinating their kids on religious grounds have sued the city to get rid of the policy which keeps kids with communicable diseases out of school. "It is my opinion that resorting to vaccinations demonstrates a lack of faith in God, which would anger God and therefore be sacrilegious," said Fabian Mendoza-Vaca, the father of two students at P.S. 107, who sued the city last week in Queens Supreme Court to overturn principals’ decisions to send his kids home. more ›

A new book by the Catholic Church's self-proclaimed exorcism expert alleges that Pope Benedict XVI performed an exorcism on two possessed men in St. Peter's Square three years ago. The two men "banged their heads on the ground" waiting for Benedict to work his magic faith. "They were trembling, slobbering, working themselves into a frenzy," Father Gabriele Amorth writes. Hear that, Benedict? Boston needs you. more ›

After decades of focusing their expansion efforts on the suburbs, a growing number of Southern Baptists are flocking to northeast cites for what's known as "church planting," or establishing new congregations in wicked Godless places. And NYC, with its gambling and bars that sell spirits til the ungodly hour of 2 a.m., is a top target for proselytizers, the Times reports today. Years of investing God-capital in NYC seems to be paying off, with some 45 Southern Baptist "church plants" established here since 2001, and another 50 churches planned for the NYC area in the next five years. Which comes as an enormous relief because, as the Southern Baptists point out, NYC really needs Southern Baptists. more ›

In 2007, the Reverend Al Sharpton and celebrated polemicist Christopher Hitchens, who died yesterday of cancer at the age of 62, met for an intellectual debate on the existence and nature of God at the New York Public Library. As the Times happily reported, despite the incendiary and polarizing nature of both men, the debate turned out to be "the public intellectual event of the evening, a bit like Bertrand Russell vs. C. S. Lewis." more ›

Earlier this year, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that New York City public schools can prohibit religious worship services from its premises. The group representing the Bronx Household of Faith said it would appeal, and today the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, allowing the earlier ruling to stand. Jane Gordon of the NYC Law Department told the Daily News, "The Court of Appeals correctly upheld the Department of Education's policy not to allow the City's public schools to be used as houses of worship." more ›

In case you stepped away from Fox News for a few moments over the Thanksgiving holiday, you may have missed the network's outraged condemnation of President Obama for not mentioning God in his YouTube Thanksgiving address. Ever ready to feed conservative America's insatiable hunger for vapid manufactured controversy, Fox derided the president's secular liberal godlessness with their special blend of sanctimony and contempt. And last night, the circle was completed at last when The Daily Show weighed in on this "Much Ado About Stuffing": more ›

A nun who embezzled $850K from Iona college and threw it all into Atlantic City's slot machines was given a lenient sentence by a Manhattan judge last week. According to the Post, Judge Kimba Wood gave Sister Marie Thornton—known as Sister Susie—2,000 hours of community service and three years probation instead of three years in federal prison. We knew Sister Act was a bad influence on the Church. more ›

Back in May, we met the Hipster Church of Flushing, whose Korean pastor proudly proclaimed himself a hipster and bragged about listening to MGMT. Now, the Times has introduced us to a competing hipster church in Williamsburg, and this one totally has the hallmarks of real hipster down pat. more ›

While no one would confuse "McCartney" as a Hebrew name, Sir Paul does seem to have a thing for nice Jewish girls. His first wife, Linda, was a member of the tribe, and apparently Macca had talked about converting after marrying her, but "never got around to it." After a brief stint with shiksa Heather Mills, McCartney has once again fallen for a Jew, current MTA board member Nancy Shevell, whom he married last month. And this time, he's being a real mensch. more ›

This weekend, the who's who of people who think it's their business to tell you how to live your life are meeting in DC for the Value Voters Summit. Somehow, it makes CPAC look like Bonnaroo ("Don't take the brown Werther's, man") but the meeting received a jolt when Robert Jeffress, a Baptist pastor who backs Rick Perry, called Mormonism a "cult." When Politico asked Jeffress if he thought Mitt Romney was a Christian, he replied "No," and said, "Every true, born again follower of Christ ought to embrace a Christian over a non-Christian." OOH Savior fight! Savior fight! So it was Romney's time to shine: “The blessings of faith carry the responsibility of civil and respectful debate. The task before us is to focus on the conservative beliefs and the values that unite us—let no agenda, narrow our vision or drive us apart.” more ›

The atheists aren't the only ones making a stink about the goings-on at Ground Zero; the former Deputy Mayor under Rudy Giuliani is lambasting Mayor Bloomberg for excluding religion from the upcoming 10th anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center. "This is America, and to have a memorial service where there's no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me," Rudy Washington tells the Wall Street Journal. "I feel like America has lost its way." more ›

Every night this month the Gospel Tabernacle Church is holding an old-timey tent revival in a vacant lot in Flatbush, where people are getting RIGHT WITH GOD at very high volumes. But some of the wicked heathens who reside in the neighborhood say all this righteousness is disturbing their sinful, slothful peace. Others, with a little prompting from a local TV news reporter, agree the noisy revival sure beats the sound of gunshots. Here's NBC New York's amusing segment on the Tent Crusade 2011: more ›

Won't someone think of the poor atheists? With no God to appeal to for mercy, they can only rely on the justice of our imperfect court system, where they're suing to stop the famous September 11 Cross from being included as part of the memorial and museum at the World Trade Center site. Some see the cross, which consists of intersecting steel beams found in the Ground Zero rubble, as a symbol of perseverance and faith. But according to a lawsuit filed by American Atheists, the cross's side effects include "dyspepsia, symptoms of depression, headaches, anxiety, and mental pain and anguish from the knowledge that they are made to feel officially excluded from the ranks of citizens who were directly injured by the 9/11 attack." more ›

Atheists are complaining about a new street sign in Red Hook that commemorates firefighters who died on 9/11. On Saturday, a group of Red Hook firefighters, community members, and local politicians, gathered near the Engine 202 and Ladder 101 firehouse to rename part of Richards Street "Seven in Heaven Way." "They are heroes and should be rewarded in a place like heaven,” Tom Miskel of Community Board 6 tells the Brooklyn Paper. Atheists, of course, are making a big stink. more ›

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Sometimes He tells you to kill your son on a mountaintop, other times He commands you to send an army to take out the guy in Iraq who tried to kill your dad. Yesterday God was busy over in Jersey, where He sent an unidentified man on a mission to swim to Liberty Island. Unfortunately, the federal gov'ment stepped in once again to thwart The Almighty's sovereign will. more ›

Look at that old church, getting hip to the know! After forgiving John Lennon a few years back, organized religion today made another attempt to be cool, this time at the hands of a 37-year-old self-described "hipster" reverend who founded something called the Hipster Church, which is a story we are absolutely not making up. more ›

In today's Times, Michael Pollack attempts to answer some people's questions about New York. And, given that it's Easter, most of them are of the religious nature. One reader writes, "Every now and then I hear the contention that New York City is more secular than the rest of the country. Just how religious is New York, anyway?" And the answer is—a lot! Sort of. more ›

A former TSA agent says that she was fired from her job touching people's junk in airports because of her Wiccan beliefs. Carole Smith says that a coworker complained that she had cast a disabling spell on the heater of her car one snowy evening. When her boss confronted her about the allegations, she said: “I was dumbfounded. I told him, that's not what Wicca is. We don't cast spells. That's not witchcraft. That's black magic or voodoo or something else. To put a spell on a heater of a car, if I had that kind of power, I wouldn't be working for TSA. I would go buy lottery tickets and put a spell on the balls.” more ›

A Roman Catholic sales executive is suing her Orthodox Jewish boss for allegedly prohibiting her from wearing her crucifix at work. Jamie Errico, who was the VP of Sales at watch and picture frame wholesaler Concepts in Time near Herald Square, has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company and its owner Saul Jemal, for allegedly treating her and other non-Jewish employees "in a most unorthodox manner," as the Daily News puts it. Errico claims Jemal was "adamant" about keeping the crucifix off company property. We're guessing Jemal also hates garlic. more ›

Yesterday, conservative radio and Fox News host Glenn Beck held his "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington D.C. The Washington Post reports that, from the Lincoln Memorial, "he championed a religious brand of patriotism and called on the nation to recommit itself to traditional values he said were hallmarks of its exceptional past." Beck said, "Something that is beyond man is happening. America today begins to turn back to God." more ›

There's a simple solution to everything if you just pray long enough: Fan of Christ Bill Keller was on his knees the other day praying to THE LORD for guidance after learning that "Muslims would be building a $110 million mosque just a few blocks from where their Muslim brothers perpetrated the greatest act of terror on U.S. soil in history." On his website Keller explains, "I knew God was calling me to do something, but what?" more ›

John Waters has written a memoir. That statement alone may be enough to make those who are familiar with his work lunge towards the nearest bookstore—or to Bryant Park on Monday night, where the inimitable auteur will be having a conversation with Paul Holdengräber as part of the free "LIVE at the NYPL" series. Everything about the cult film director—who has been called the "Pope of Filth," and is responsible for such classics of their own very off-kilter genre as Hairspray, Cry Baby, and Pink Flamingos—begs the question, "how did he get this way?" more ›

Today the City formally rejected an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission panel's finding of discrimination against former Arabic-English school principal Debbie Almontaser. The founder and principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn was asked to step down after making remarks about the word "intifada," but a lawyer for the city called the EEOC's determination "totally unfounded." According to the AP the city claims she resigned voluntarily. Still, The News reports that Almontaser supporters are urging the Justice Department to sue, based on the EEOC's determination that "race, religion, and national origin," motivated her ousting. more ›

In NY and elsewhere Christian science leaders say they're encouraging followers to go see a doctor in grave medical emergencies, despite the religion's century-old conviction in the evils of modern medicine. “In the last year, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called to pray at a patient’s bedside in a hospital,” national spokesman Phillip Davis told the Times, speaking from NY headquarters in midtown. more ›

A Moroccan immigrant claims he has been barred from becoming a police officer because he's a Muslim and because he was not born in America. After passing the police exam in 2006 with a score of 85.6—"well above the passing grade"—Said Hajem's application "has been suspended in bureaucratic limbo," the Times reports. According to Hajem, that's because an officer reviewing his paperwork sabotaged his application because he didn't want people from "other countries" joining the NYPD. more ›

A classic kosher luncheonette may have closed last month, but in grocery stores, kosher is all the rage. According to a Cornell University research project, 40 percent of the food sold at grocery stores is kosher. “It’s keyed into the issues of food safety and consumer fear,” said Larry Finkel of Packaged Facts, a consumer market research company. “The reputation of kosher is stretching beyond chicken, whether there is truth to it or not.” According to a NY Times piece, people think kosher products are healthier, fresher and taste better. There’s also the perception that kosher butchering is less cruel. Fact or fiction, kosher food has found its market. And according to the study, the majority—about 85 percent—of those who shop kosher don’t do it because their religion compels them. more ›

A science teacher at a Sunset Park public school has been reprimanded for selling junior high school students copies of a controversial book about the devil, according to the Daily News. Steven Arizmendi is accused of hawking the evangelical Christian book "He Came to Set the Captives Free" to four of his students at JHS 220 for $5 apiece, and loaning the text to eight other students. more ›

A Rockland County family filed suit against the New York Archdiocese after a Catholic preschool wouldn't accept their child because she has not been fully vaccinated, according to the Post. The couple — who filed the suit anonymously — claim they are the victims of religious discrimination and are seeking a court order so their 4-year-old can attend the St. Margaret School in Pearl River after the preschool rejected their request for a religious exemption. more ›

An Orthodox rabbi is accused of telling a woman he would help her convert to Judaism if she had sex with him and his friends. According to the blog Failed Messiah, Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County told Shannon Orand, a 32-year-old gentile who was interested in becoming a Jew: "If you fulfill my needs, I'll fulfill yours — and you need a conversion." more ›