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My story recently published in the Huffington Post about introverts in church is still getting some traction.

Some of you might remember the classic piece in The Atlantic Monthly about introverts, where Jonathan Rauch wryly described them as “people who find other people tiring.”

Well, my piece focuses on introversion within the church. Specifically the way an introverted personality can sometimes clash with church life, most especially evangelical worship practices. In fact, Adam McHugh, a writer and pastor in Southern California, recently wrote a book on the topic, which is what inspired me to write the story in the first place.

So what do you think: If Jesus were to take a Myers-Briggs personality test, would he rank as an introvert or an extrovert?

Read the story here.

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I went to the press conference today in downtown Los Angeles at the  Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels where Cardinal Mahony introduced his successor: Mexican-born Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of San Antonio.

Gomez hails from Monterrey and was a member of the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei. As Mahony’s replacement, Gomez will lead the largest diocese in the nation.

You can read the entire article here…but I have to say one of the most touching moments of the press conference came when Gomez spoke about San Antonio, and the people he worked with there.

As Cardinal Mahony stood behind him looking on, Gomez said, “I’m sad to be leaving San Antonio.”

He had to stop to take a sip of water because he was almost in tears.

Then quivering, he said, “I will never forget them, and I will never stop thanking God for the privilege of having served them.”

“But the life of a priest or bishop is not his own,” he continued. “The only real home we have is in the love of our people.”

It was a reminder of how difficult the life of a priest can be, forming intense relationships with people only to have to pick up and leave.

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“60 Minutes” aired a segment Sunday night on the Armenian genocide of 1915 that is worth watching. It’s not a subject that gets a lot of media attention and thus, not one a lot of people know about.

Ottoman Turks deported and killed Christian Armenians, a minority in the predominately Muslim region. Moreover, historians argue that the genocide served as an example to Hitler. Turkey, however, has long said that what happened during World War I under the Ottoman Empire does not constitute genocide.

Today, Congress is debating whether the U.S. government should officially recognize the Armenian genocide. It’s something they’ve argued about before, and it’s an issue President Obama himself has taken up, but one that has been left unresolved because of a fear of damaging U.S./Turkey relations.

Here is a peek at the 60 minutes segment…

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Ted Haggard’s wife, Gayle Haggard, has just released a memoir explaining why she chose to stick by her husband. Haggard, of course, is the evangelical megachurch leader who was caught having various affairs with men. The discovery forced Haggard to step down as leader of  New Life Church and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

RNS spoke to Gayle upon the release of her book “Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in my Darkest Hour.”

“The reason I chose to stay with Ted was because I knew that there was more to the story than just the scandal in our lives,” she said Tuesday (Jan. 26) as the book was released, “that my husband was truly a great man on many levels and I wasn’t willing to deny all the good that we’d built in our marriage, in our family and in our church.”

What’s interesting is that in the book she writes that Ted confessed early in the marriage that he struggled with sexual attraction to men. Still, she says their sexual relationship “had always been strong and satisfying, and I didn’t believe for one instant that Ted had been regularly visiting a gay escort.”

So it seems neither she nor he were completely in the dark about Ted’s, shall we say, dual nature.

What has struck me as most heartbreaking about the situation is the way bisexuality or homosexuality is perceived as an illness almost, though of course, I can see how acting on that proclivity in the context of a marriage is wrong.

Haggard’s wife says in the end she chose forgiveness to be their coping method.

“It seemed as though everyone was pulling away from him and he was suffering enough, and I wanted to draw near to him and love him and show him forgiveness.”

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The Los Angeles Times has a heartbreaking snapshot of Haitians turning to God in the midst of the destruction.

In front of the broken churches, which in some cases still harbored bodies, worshipers looked to powers beyond their grasp for help. “Don’t pray for the dead,” boomed Joel St. Amour, preaching outside the Evangelical Baptist Church. “Pray for the living.”

The rest of the article is mostly a summary of the state of the country just days after the earthquake, which has left thousands dead and affected millions of residents. But toward the end, the piece does turn to religion once again and in particular, the problem of evil: If God is benevolent, all powerful, and omnipotent, why does he let bad things like this happen to good people?

One doctor treating children in Haiti tries to offer a response by clinging to hope…

“Just because this happens doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you,” said Mary Marthe Joseph, combing the hair of a 4-year-old girl she didn’t know. “He will help us go on. I have no idea if the foreigners will help. I haven’t seen anything here yet.”

Here, God isn’t blamed for the tragedy but offered as a means to move on. Of course, there are also those — like Pat Robertson and Wiley Drake — who try to get around the problem of evil by blaming the Haitians themselves and their alleged pact with Satan. A theory, as outlandish as it is, that is inappropriate to espouse at this time of pain and tragedy.

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The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is the first to grab my story for Religion News Service on what two law professors are calling “e-marriage.”

The two Michigan State University professors argue that no couple should have to be physically present to be married and that any two adults should have the freedom to take advantage of another state’s marriage laws, whether or not the pair resides in that state.

How exactly? With the help of the Internet, in what Candeub and Kuykendall are dubbing “e-marriage”….

With “e-marriage,” an Alabama gay couple, for example, could easily take advantage of Vermont’s same-sex marriage laws though Alabama itself wouldn’t necessarily recognize that marriage.

It’s an interesting idea, though some might not see the value in getting married when it means returning home only to NOT have that marriage recognized. Still, sites like My Iowa Gay Wedding are proof positive that people are willing to travel to get hitched and want to see the government of at least one state say, yes, your marriage is valid.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if “e-marriage” takes off. It certainly doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility.

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The December issue of The Atlantic had as its cover story a piece about the connection between the prosperity gospel which, as The Immanent Frame puts it, is “a strain of Christian teaching tens of millions of believers strong, which proclaims that an unfaltering faith in God will lead to monetary and other material blessings in this lifetime” — and the economic downturn. Simply put, the story argues that Christianity (or at least certain pastors working with big banks like Wells Fargo) may have played a direct role in the recession in so far as it encouraged Christians, who believed and lived according to the prosperity gospel, to buy homes they couldn’t afford.

Over at The Immanent Frame, scholars and journalists weigh in on the article and Christianity’s connection to the economy.

It’s interesting to read what others make of what was a pretty provocative magazine cover. Here’s a few snippets from the experts…

In September of 2008, I suggested that there was a relationship between the economic excesses of the past few decades and the prosperity gospel…Many wanted to run with this notion that we should lay the blame for the subprime mortgage mess or economic crash at the feet of Christian preachers. But this was never my point. I find it absurd to believe that prosperity preachers have either the influence or intelligence to enact a global economic downturn. The difference, it seems, is whether we interpret the relationship as causal or corollary. Jonathan L. Walton, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of California – Riverside

Over time, the religious aspects no longer served as the reason why people worked long hours; rather, it was simply the acquisition of wealth that motivated people to work hard. Rachel McCleary, Senior Research Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

It seems to me that there is something right about the prosperity gospel. There is a germ of truth to it insofar as the prosperity gospel (rightly!) suggests that the gospel is good news not just for souls, but for bodies—that Jesus came to announce good news not just for the poor “in spirit,” but for the poor. Redemption is also economic. James K.A. Smith, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College

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There’s a lot of  end-of-the-year lists streaming out right about now, including those that involve religion. U.S. News and World Report just released its top religion and politics stories of the year, among those listed is Rick Warren’s invocation at President Obama’s inauguration.

Amy Sullivan over at Time has her own religion list. Those that made the cut?

1. The Catholic Church and its invitation to conservative Episcopalians.

2. Obama’s expansion of Bush’s Faith-Based Office.

3. The controversy over pro-choice Obama speaking at the University of Notre Dame. ( I went to Notre Dame, and was pretty surprised by the controversy.)

4. And the heart-breaking story of a couple’s faith healing turned fatal. When Dale and Leilani Neumann’s daughter became ill, the couple prayed over her but did little else, including taking her to the doctor. Kara died in March of 2008. The couple was convicted of second-degree reckless homicide, and sentenced to six months in jail…

The Religion Newswriters Association lists President Obama’s speech in Cairo, where he pledged a new beginning in U.S./Muslim relations, as its top religion story of the year. Number two is health-care reform and the role religious anti-abortion advocates, particularly the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, played in the debate.

Other newsmakers:

– The Ft. Hood Tragedy, where Muslim Maj. Nidal Hasan is accused of shooting and killing 13 people.

– The murder of abortion doctor George Tiller.

– Life after Prop. 8. Mormons come under attack, some states — Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire — approve gay marriage.

– The Episcopal Church moves to elect gay bishops.

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At least, that’s what Ada Calhoun seems to be doing in her latest piece for Salon. The article, which has been up for a while now, has generated quite a response. Apparently, Calhoun’s admission that she is too embarrassed to tell her liberal New York friends that she is a church-going Episcopalian (?) struck a nerve.

Increasingly, I wonder: When I’m getting a ride from some friends and they start talking about how stupid religious people are and quoting lines from “Religulous,” do I have an obligation to point out how reductive and bigoted they’re being, the way I would if they were talking about a particular race? Increasingly I wonder if I should pipe up from the back seat and say, “Excuse me, but these fools you’re talking about? I’m one of them.”

As a journalist who frequently writes about religion, I get where Calhoun is coming from. Every time I meet someone new, I immediately feel like I have to preface my interest in religion with a long soliloquy about how I don’t actually hate gays or believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God.

Calhuon, however, also says something else that is interesting. She wonders whether politics and religion are moving further apart, not coming together.

Maybe, though, apolitical Christianity is on the rise. The Obamas are now in office — a good Christian family in the truest sense of the term — and the right wing is more marginalized than it was a year ago.

Hmmm…it’s a nice thought, but is it accurate? The right wing is more marginalized than before — for now. But have we really seen less mixing of religion and politics? Healthcare overhaul, anyone?

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I’ve been meaning to post about this recent article in the Los Angeles Times for a while, because I had not read about a priest selling sacraments since studying the Reformation.

Father Raymundo Figueroa at  Santisimo Sacramento church is accused of selling  First Communions, Confirmations, Baptisms, in order to support his parish in Mexico.

According to the article, Father Figueroa or other clergy directed by him, cross the border and charge up to $180 for a quick sacrament. Allegedly that money has been used to build up Figueroa’s church to the point that it now holds thousands of people and 14 Masses each Sunday.

While some view Figueroa as a sort of modern day Robin Hood, others — like Archbishop Rafael Romo Muñoz — are debating whether the priest should be allowed to continue to lead his parish.  Figueroa defends his actions, noting that he is not a pedophile or one of those priests who secretly runs around with women. He, however, stops short of admitting any wrongdoing…

After Mass one Sunday afternoon, Figueroa made what seemed to be a startling admission about simony. “I wish I was the only one doing it. There’s too much competition out there,” Figueroa said during an interview in his cluttered sacristy.

A clutch of aides and parishioners burst into laughter. Moments later, he appeared to back away from his statement, saying his cross-border activity ended years ago.

So is this guy a hero or a charlatan? And just how many other priests are doing the same thing?