More than 2,000 Christian U.S. military chaplains have joined their Catholic colleagues in refusing to perform wedding ceremonies for homosexual soldiers who want to “marry” their partners. According to CNSNews.com, the evangelical and Orthodox chaplains are part of the newly formed Chaplain Alliance for Liberty, which will not allow member clergy “to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies under any circumstances.”

Three months after a change to its denominational constitution went into effect, the Presbyterian Church-USA (PCUSA) ordained its first openly homosexual minister. Scott Anderson, 56, who had left the Presbyterian ministry back in 1990 after revealing to his California congregation that he was homosexual, “was welcomed back into the church leadership [October 9] as its first openly gay ordained minister,” reported the Associated Press.

Genetic scientists at the New York Stem Cell Foundation lab claimed a major breakthrough in early October, reporting that for the first time they had used cloning techniques to produce embryonic stem cells which contain the genes of specific individuals. “The cells weren’t normal,” the Los Angeles Times explained — ”they contained three sets of chromosomes: two from the adult cell and an extra from the egg. They would not be fit for use in stem cell therapies.” Nonetheless, continued the report, the controversial creation “marked a first in stem cell research and may point the way toward treatments for diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.”

Following a full-tilt campaign by a coalition of pro-family, anti-porn, and decency organizations, NBC made the decision to pull the plug on its highly promoted fall drama The Playboy Club. In its first cancellation of the season, the network made its move “less than 24 hours after the new series drew only 3.5 million people for its third episode,” reported Access Hollywood. The industry insider report noted that the ill-advised series “started weak, with 5 million viewers for its first episode, and didn’t improve.”

The answer is Yes — and No. Yes, the Pentagon said, despite the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for federal purposes as only between a man and a woman, military chaplains may still perform “marriage” ceremonies between homosexual partners. Barely two weeks after the dropping of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which effectively prohibited homosexuals from serving in the armed forces, the Pentagon has issued a new policy that will allow military’s chaplains to officiate at same-sex wedding ceremonies.

The UK’s BBC media giant has found itself in the middle of a cultural conflict after its decision to drop the use of the traditional Christ-centered dating method which uses the initials B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, or Year of the Lord), replacing them with the secular terms B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) in many television and radio broadcasts.

The U.S. Census Bureau has admitted that it overestimated the number of households with same-sex couples in its 2010 Census report. In a press release, the bureau announced that, according to its revised estimates, there were approximately 131,729 same-sex “married” couples in the United States, and around 514,735 same-sex unmarried partners. The new estimate was revised down from the original “summary file count” of an improbable 349,377 homosexual “married couple” households and 552,620 same-sex unmarried partner households.

Following complaints by a homosexual student who was allegedly dismissed from a Christian fraternity at the school, Vanderbilt University has launched a crusade aimed at forcing Christian groups that receive school funding to follow an official policy that conflicts with some of the groups’ own faith-based bylaws and policies.

Concerned that their group’s name may sound too “regional” for effective outreach throughout the U.S., officials of the 166-year-old Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) have announced a task force assigned to study the possibility of changing the name of the 16.16-million member evangelical Christian denomination, the nation’s largest.

An honors student at a Fort Worth, Texas, high school was sent to the principal’s office after he told a fellow student that he thought homosexuality is wrong. Fourteen-year-old Dakota Ary was in his German class “when the conversation shifted to religion and homosexuality in Germany,” reported Fox News. “At some point during the conversation, he turned to a friend and said that he was a Christian and ‘being a homosexual is wrong.’”