A few random bits of odd religious news for you:
South Park is taking on the Church of the Latter Day Saints through Broadway. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with the co-writer of Avenue Q Robert Lopez, are creating a musical with the working title, Mormon Musical "on the lives and loves of Mormons," the New York Post reports. "It offends everybody but does what 'South Park' does best, which is by the end it comes around and has something great to say," star Cheyenne Jackson says. This comes on the heals of the Prop 8 decision banning same-sex marriage in California, The Independent notes. Gay-rights activists in California have been protesting at Mormon churches and businesses, as Mormons were seen as a huge force behind Prop 8. Jackson is an activist for gay rights, and the musical, due out sometime in 2009, is sure to be offensive. I'm sure it'll be funny, too, but then again, I think South Park's digs at the Catholic Church are also funny.
If Hollywood wasn't far enough from God already, new billboards in California are asking people to "Imagine no religion." This is the Freedom from Religion Foundation's response to all those "Jesus saves" billboards around the country. They have gone up in cities across the country. A new one for the "holidays" is coming out to: "Reason's Greetings." I'd say they are as likely to change somebody's mind as a "Jesus saves" billboard.
But there is hope for religion in our world. Her name: Jessica Simpson. "I've been contemplating taking a college course in religion. I love religion. I remember whenever the book The Da Vinci Code came out, the Discovery Channel did this three-night piece on it that I Tivoed and then watched eight times," she told Marie Claire, which portrays Simpson as a saint who rarely has to wash her hair and doesn't sweat.
