According to the Los Angeles Times, the United Methodist University Senate has restored funding to Claremont School of Theology. Why the about-face? Claremont has promised the UMC that the $800,000 or so they receive from the denomination will not support a school that trains students for religions other than Christianity. How did they get around this? By creating a university of multiple colleges rather than a single school. So on paper, they’re alleviating denominational concerns, but in reality, I doubt much will differ from the original proposal. So it looks like Claremont gets an A for shrewdness and wins the “letter of the law but not the spirit of the law” award.

Following this trend, the nation’s oldest graduate seminary, Andover-Newton Theological School, is combining with a Unitarian-Universalist school in Chicago to educate people of all religions. In other news, Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly have announced that their shows are merging, McDonald’s will be training Burger King managers at Hamburger University, and oil and water will now mix.

The Seattle Times won a Pulitzer Prize this year, but I doubt it was for stories like this one. “Independence Day Will Thin Church Crowd” is the earth-shattering headline. In case you weren’t aware that church attendance drops on holiday weekends (except for Christmas and Easter), now you know.

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