More than 82 percent of U.S. evangelical leaders say they and people like them are losing influence over American culture, according to a Pew Research Center report.

Read more about the survey at The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

An Orthodox priest from Pensacola is coming to Orlando to lead a demonstration in support of a group that has faced legal trouble for feeding the homeless in Orlando’s Lake Eola Park.

“The criminalization of public service to the poor is to criminalize poverty itself,” said the Rev. Nathan Monk. “The continued efforts of the City of Orlando to prevent distribution of food to the poor is a violation of the constitution at its highest form. To prevent one human from reaching out to help another human in need is contrary to the decency we have all been taught from our youth.”

Monk, of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, has scheduled the protest for Saturday, July 9 at 4 p.m. at Lake Eola Park. He also plans to distribute a hot meal of bread loaves and fish to the people present at the event.

Monk, a homeless rights activist known to many as “Father Nathan,” has set up a Facebook page for the event and expects a crowd of about 300 people. He once protested an ordinance than banned panhandling in Escambia County by holding a sign bearing the words “Feed the Poor” in the areas where homeless people had formerly gathered.

Several members of the group Orlando Food Not Bombs have been arrested for violating a city rule that prohibits providing food to large groups of people in the city’s downtown parks without a permit.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has called the group’s members “food terrorists.”

Monk said he supports Food Not Bombs.

“We stand alongside Food Not Bombs and any person that wishes to distribute free food to those who are in need,” Monk said. “Beyond this, we are standing up for those who are hungry and forgotten, as it is them who are suffering at the hands of this unjust policy.”

‘Anonymous,’ a computer hacking group, has also hacked three Orlando-related websites — including the site of the city’s Chamber of Commerce — as a protest against the ordinance.

This weekend’s New York Times Magazine will include a cover story about therapists who help gay and lesbian Christians who want to remain in the closet.

An excerpt:

Christians of the kind who earnestly believed that the Bible deplored homosexuality were particularly troubled as they tried to reconcile their faith with their sexual orientation. The more Flanigan studied this conundrum, the more he came to see it as intractable. Some gay evangelicals truly believe that to follow their sexual orientation means abandonment by a church that provides them with emotional and social sustenance — not to mention eternal damnation. Keeping their sexual orientation a secret, however, means giving up any opportunity to have fulfilling relationships as gay men and women.

“When these clash, what do you do?” Flanigan recalled thinking, and when he began to research the topic about a decade ago, he found few answers beyond the obvious. Antigay religious groups would not condone homosexuality; they thought gays should just give up their orientation, and the most extreme among them offered frightening “conversion” practices. Nonreligious gays thought the conflicted should just walk away from churches that won’t accept homosexuals as they are. “Which trumps which?” Flanigan asked himself. “Religion or sexual orientation?”

Read the rest here.

A Muslim civil liberties group is claiming that a woman who works for Air France was sent home from her job earlier this month after she refused to take off her head scarf.

The woman, who works for Air France Passenger Service, was told she couldn’t wear the hijab because of the airline’s dress code, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The organization wants the airline to apologize, a clarification of the airline’s policy for accommodating employees’ faiths, workforce sensitivity planning, and financial compensation for the worker.

Orlando Catholice Diocese Bishop John Noonan will preside over a ribbon-cutting ceremony June 23 marking an expansion of social services in partnership with Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Cocoa.

On July 1, Catholic Charities of Central Florida will start providing social services out of their new location in Blessed Sacrament’s Missions Building adjacent to the Thrift Store. Services include emergency financial assistance, food pantry, counseling, crisis pregnancy services, adoption and foster family services.

The ceremony, blessing and ribbon cutting will take place from 2 p.m.-3 p.m., at  Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church Missions Building, 5145 N Cocoa Blvd., Cocoa.

Those who wish to schedule an appointment for services at the Missions Building at Blessed Sacrament can call 321-636-6144.

To learn more about Catholic Charities of Central Florida, visit its website at: www.cflcc.org.

In addition to Bishop Noonan, those scheduled to attend the ceremony include Father Anthony Quinlivan, pastor of  Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church; Arne Nelson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Central Florida; Beverly Lampley, Catholic Charities of Central Florida; and parishioners of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church.

A rally of hundreds of people in Brazil called on Iran to stop persecuting people of the Baha’i faith and other religious minorities.

About 800 people showed up at the rally on Monday in Rio de Janeiro.

Iran has imprisoned seven Baha’i leaders for the past three years. About 300,000 Baha’i are thought to live in Iran. In August 2010, the seven were sentenced to 20 years in prison on what their supporters say were trumped-up causes.

ReligionLink reports that the U.S. State Department will release its annual report on human trafficking by the end of June, spotlighting the global trade in enforced labor and the selling or prostitution of people – as many as 27 million, mostly women and children – without their consent or benefit. The issue is increasingly mobilizing religious groups.

Many of those groups are based in the United States, spurred by the fact the U.S. itself has come under scrutiny for the level of human trafficking within its borders. Experts say there are forced laborers and sex workers in every U.S. state, and the sex trade alone generates an estimated $42.5 billion annually worldwide.

The 2010 State Department report, which estimated 12.3 million people were subject to some form of bondage, for the first time listed the U.S. among countries faced with the problem. The report gave the U.S. “tier 1″ status, ranking it among the top enforcers of human trafficking laws and prosecutors of those who engage in it.

Nongovernmental organizations and nonprofits are now enlisting the aid of international, national and local religious groups in the fight against human trafficking. Christian and Jewish groups in particular are bringing the issue and its victims into their congregations, exploring sacred texts for direction and solutions. There are now cross-denominational Freedom Sundays and Freedom Shabbats and interfaith conferences dedicated to the issue.

The cable network CNN has been sponsoring a Freedom Project aimed at “ending modern-day slavery,” and on June 26 it will broadcast a one-hour documentary, “Nepal’s Stolen Children,”reported and hosted by actress Demi Moore.

To learn more, click on the resources below:

• As of April 2011, there were 172 bills pending in state legislatures to address the human trafficking issue, according to the Polaris Project. That is an indicator of how this issue has become a regional and local concern.
• The Conference on Religion, Human Trafficking and Modern Slaverywas held March 31-April 2, 2011, at the University of Denver. It was a joint project of the university and the Iliff School of Theology.
• On March 3, 2011, the Appignani Bioethics Center, a project of the American Humanist Association, hosted a panel discussion, “Human Trafficking, Exploitation and Abuse of Sex Workers: Suggested Remedies.” It took place during the 55th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
• The Freedom Summit 2011was held Jan. 21-22 and organized by the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition in concert with Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, Calif. The summit focused on building community awareness and mobilization against human trafficking. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a keynote address.
• Christian recording artists like Natalie Grant and Sara Groves are increasingly using their music to highlight the issue of human trafficking.

Religion News Service writer Debra Rubin reports on In Shifra’s Arms, a Jewish crisis pregnancy organization that has sparked controversy in the Jewish community over the issue of abortion.

Crisis pregnancy group reflects Jewish divide on abortion
By Debra Rubin
      SILVER SPRING, Md. (RNS) Saraleah was 19 and a part-time student when she discovered she was pregnant. She didn’t know how it could have happened — until she flashed back to a party nine weeks earlier where she was given a drink, realized it was vodka and then passed out.
      Saraleah had been raped.
      “I was in shock and felt like my life was over,” she wrote in an email, asking that her full name not be used. “I was very scared because i had nothing and was trying to figure out how i was going to support…

Read the full story

 The Forward weekly newspaper is relaunching the Jewish Daily Forward online at Forward.com.  The redesigned and expanded website provides fresh news, features, arts coverage and opinion every weekday, in addition to the blogs on arts, food, popular culture and women’s issues and the podcasts and videos that readers have come to expect and enjoy.

The Forward’s content offerings also have been expanded to include:

•  “Forward Thinking,” a new blog where Forward editors will discuss and analyze the most important Jewish news of the day – and other stories from a Jewish perspective.
• “The Yiddish Scene,” a new online content channel, in English, focusing on Yiddish culture and translating the best new articles and essays from the Yiddish Forverts.
• Three new columnists:
• Eric Alterman is a professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and professor of Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.  Alterman is also ”The Liberal Media” columnist for The Nation. 
• David Hazony is a writer based in Jerusalem, whose writings have appeared in Commentary, the New Republic, the New York Sun, Policy Review, the Jerusalem Post, and other publications.
• Deborah E. Lipstadt is a professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University and the author of “The Eichmann Trial,” published in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Eichmann trial.

“The new Jewish Daily Forward website completes a transformation that has been underway in our newsroom for several years, as we’ve moved from being a print-only newspaper with a website to a fully integrated news organization in print and online,” said Jane Eisner, editor of the Forward. “The new Forward.com is designed for readers to come to our site every day to receive the latest news and fresh content in the Forward’s well-written, analytical style.”

For more information, please visit http://www.forward.com

Religious leaders from various faith traditions will gather to pray for the plight of refugees on Friday, June 17, from 6 p.m‐9:30 p.m. at the Leu Gardens’ Camellia Room,  920 N. Forest Ave.,  Orlando.

Following the prayer service, there will be a viewing of the film Lost Boys of the Sudan

World Refugee Day is observed every year on June 20 to honor the courage, resilience and strength of refugees.  Tens of thousands of people around the world take time to recognize and applaud the contribution of forcibly displaced people throughout the world. The annual commemoration is marked by a variety of events in more than 100 countries, involving government officials, humanitarian aid workers and faith leaders. The following will participate in Orlando’s World Refugee Day Event:

Among those scheduled to attend the Orlando observance are: 

Imam Muhammad Musri, Islamic Society of Central Florida

Rev. Chau J. Nguyen, St. Philip Phan Van Minh Catholic Church

Rev. Bryan Fulwider, First Congregational Church of Winter Park

Michael Ryugen M., Zen Monk, Orlando Zen Community

Dr. Wayne D. Wiatt, East Central District, United Methodist Church Florida Conference

Reverend Gabriel Tassy, Church of the Holy Family

Reverend Baiju Avittappally, M.S., Good Shepherd Catholic Church

Brother Francis Sebo, Holy Redeemer Catholic Church

Bhai Jaswinder Singh, Sikh Society of Central Florida

Bhai Ravinder Singh, Sikh Society of Central Florida

Surender Singh Panesar, Sikh Society of Central Florida

Jasbir Singh Bhatia,  Sikh Society of Central Florida

Richard Logue. Catholic Charities of Central Florida, Immigration and Refugee Services

Glenda Agosto, MSW, R-CSWI, Catholic Charities of Central Florida, Refugee Resettlement