In response to the new gay marriage law in Washington, Catholic Charities closed its adoption and foster care programs and cut spousal benefits to future employees—to avoid providing services to homosexual couples. If a church or other religious charity receives government funding, should it follow all government rules, including those against discrimination based on sexual orientation? Or should government exempt such organizations from requirements that violate particular religious beliefs?

The faith council advising the White House on policy prescriptions for a range of social issues submitted its final report Wednesday. Abortion reduction and religious hiring issues, two of the most contentious issues where faith and government intersect, was left off the table. The next council will be named in late spring/early summer, according to Faith Office Director Joshua Dubois. He said he doesn’t expect the next council to address the same issues this one did.

Budgeting for information technology resources is a given for many churches. The question becomes how to use computers and the Internet effective and keep its focus on extending the church’s presence and ministries. This may include establishing wireless networks and streamlining operations so everyone from the lead pastor to volunteers is able to use and share information effectively.

Tensions in Nigeria remain high in the aftermath of the killing of nearly 400 Christians by Muslim gangs armed with machetes. This latest conflict continues ongoing violence between Christians and Muslims in Africa’s most populous and most diverse country. The dead, in a freshly dug mass grave, included a pregnant woman and at least one infant. A few miles away in Jos, a city of a half-million at the crossroads of Nigeria’s Muslim north and predominantly Christian south, troops patrolled the outskirts and set up checkpoints.

Calling all history buffs, amateur detectives and people who just like to snoop: An Irish-American benevolent society is looking for help in tracking down stained-glass windows it donated to churches between 1870 and 1920. The Ancient Order of Hibernians gave the windows to Roman Catholic churches, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only place to look. As buildings were sold, torn down or remodeled, Hibernian windows are turning up in all kinds of places—warehouses, garages and even Protestant churches.

A third suspect has been arrested in the shootings of a man and a boy during a Richmond, Calif., church service on Valentine’s Day. Richmond police this morning took into custody Marcel Buggs, 18, on charges including assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm. The Richmond resident had been under surveillance for more than a week, according to Richmond police Sgt. Bisa French.

The ongoing trend of faith-based films is sparking retailers’ hopes that DVD sales and marketing of related products will aid their bottom lines. For example, Family Christian Stores is offering a pre-buy special for the March 23 DVD release of “The Blind Side”, with the chain announcing that it will give a portion of proceeds from sales to provide tuition assistance for Christian education to foster children.

A U.S. missionary held for more than a month in Haiti on kidnapping charges flew back to the United States on Monday after being released from prison, while the leader of her Baptist group remained in custody. Charisa Coulter, 24, was freed Monday and whisked from her jail cell to the airport by U.S. Embassy staff. Wearing a red tank top and sunglasses, she declined comment as she quickly got into an SUV that took her to the Haitian airport, where she caught a flight back to the United States.

Kentucky Baptists on Saturday kicked off their largest-ever evangelism campaign, seeking to share the Gospel with 1.5 million households in the state by Easter. “We are praying for a breakthrough,” said Stan Lowery, director of missions for the Nelson Baptist Association, in a promotional video on the Kentucky Baptist Convention Web site.

The Oscars have come and gone for another year leaving behind them discussions of snubs and upsets -- particularly if you’re really tall, blue and have a long tail. It also is an annual exercise in …