The Obama administration's "preventative services" mandate isn't popular with Catholics.

​A Twin Cities-based dermatologist may close down his business because of the Obama administration's new "preventative services" mandate.

That mandate requires virtually all employers to purchase health insurance plans that cover contraception. Catholics, in particular, believe this requirement violates their faith.

Dr. Michael Ebertz runs five dermatology clinics around the Twin Cities under the name of Skin Care Doctors, P.A. He's reportedly considering closing his business rather than offering his employees health care plans that cover contraception.

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An atheist baby currently presides over Minneapolis' warehouse district.

​Minnesota Atheists suggest that babies are born atheists in new billboards popping up around the Twin Cities.

"We are all born without belief in gods. Learn how to be a born-again atheist," says one of the billboards, which are visible at 725 Washington Ave. N. in Minneapolis and University & Snelling in St. Paul.

Infants that reject religious dogma? Perhaps Minnesota Atheists are giving babies too much credit, but in any event the cute-infant-clad billboards certainly are eye-catching.

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One ad featured a "revelation" given to Warren Jeffs, who is currently in prison for child sexual assault.

​In a baffling move, the Star Tribune today ran two ads on behalf of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a Mormon denomination whose members still practice polygamy.

A prominent ad on page A6 of the Strib's print edition features a "Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ Given to President Warren S. Jeffs." Jeffs is currently serving life plus 20 years in a Texas prison for two felony counts of child sexual assault.

Last summer, the Strib refused to run an ad on behalf of a Presbyterian group that opposed the acceptance of non-celibate gays and lesbians into the ministry. So why in Jehovah's name did  the paper's advertising bosses now decide running a polygamist sect's ad is acceptable?

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Catholic leadership wants local clergy to stay silent if they don't support a same-sex marriage ban.

​The Archbishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul supports banning same-sex marriage, and he wants Twin Cities clergy to avoid publicly discussing the issue.

In a letter addressed to priests and deacons of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, Archbishop John C. Nienstedt writes that "in the movement to protect and defend the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman we are faced with one of the greatest challenges of our times."

"There ought not be open dissension on this issue," he adds.

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Father John Echert via The Eponymous Flower

The discoloration was actually caused by a fungus, not a miracle.

​The mystery behind the discarded communion wafer that ominously turned blood red in a St. Paul church has been solved.

When the strange event occurred at St. Augustine Church in south St. Paul this summer, many believed it to be a miracle, so the church turned it over to the archdiocese to investigate. As it turns out, the discoloration was just the reaction of a fungus, and not divine intervention.

"While the Catholic Church fully recognizes the possibility of miracles and remains open to their possibility, it does so with extreme scrutiny, investigation and care," says archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath in an emailed statement. "This incident was the result of natural biological causes and should not be considered in any other way."

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CMG0220

Lowe's: Let's boycott something together.

​Rep. Keith Ellison has joined the outcry against home-improvement giant Lowe's after the retailer announced that it is pulling its advertising from a reality TV show called "All-American Muslim."

The show, which was intended as a portrait of everyday life for Muslim-Americans living in Dearborn, Michigan, has drawn the ire of the Florida Family Association. In emails to the show's advertisers, the FFA claims that "All-American Muslim" is "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda." They've called on all retailers to pull their ads from the program.

Instead of ignoring all that crazy, Lowe's did what they wanted.

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Keith Ellison was "present" but unimpressed by "In God We Trust" vote.

​"In God We Trust" is our nation's motto, you got it? Well, just so no one forgets, yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives held an essential vote to reaffirm that our national motto is our national motto. 

It was a bizarre bit of patriotic theater, but it worked: A whopping 396 representatives, including all but two of Minnesota's congressional delegation, voted yes. As of this morning, our national motto is definitely our national motto.

Only nine member of congress had the guts to vote "No" to the bill. Keith Ellison, representing you, Godless heathens of Minneapolis, didn't go that far. But he didn't exactly hop on board, either: Ellison simply marked "present," which is the congressional equivalent of shrugging and saying, "Who cares?"
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Today 36 clergy affixed their names to a paid ad and open letter to Village Voice and the classified ad site Backpage.com. The full page ad was published in the New York Times.More >>

You're not gay if you're celibate... nor are you happy.

​On the anniversary of the event that brought this country together, the Star Tribune ran an op-ed column that reminds us of the kind of thing that drives us apart.

In a weird little piece titled, "Some people can make the gay go away," the Star Tribune gives over valuable opinion real estate to a local Catholic priest who encourages people to just ignore their "same sex attraction."

Father Jim Livingston, a local priest and "get the gay out" advocate, was writing in response to another recent opinion piece, in which a man named Ron Bates recounted his years of shame about his own sexuality. Bates, raised a Catholic on a rural farm in Minnesota, fought against his homosexuality for years.

Bates wrote about his fraudulent, nearly sexless marriage to a woman, and the years he spent praying for God to "change" him. It didn't work.
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Mayor Kelli Slavik made sure the crazies didn't take over.

​The proposed mosque that had some Plymouth residents in hysterics at last week's planning commission meeting has been approved.

The Plymouth City Council voted unanimously to sign off on the mosque's downtown site last night. Perhaps more impressive, the meeting went by without any of the bigoted anti-Islamic voices -- not that they weren't out there.

Mayor Kelli Slavik shrewdly explained that the meeting was to be simply about boring land use issues -- parking, noise, and traffic -- and that no other comments would be allowed, blaming the anti-Islamic speakers who hijacked the planning commission.

There was still an underlying suggestion of the heated, sometimes hated debate, with the mayor and other council members making reference to the volume of e-mails, voicemails, and letters they'd received.
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