Methodists name new bishop

B. Michael Watson has been chosen to succeed Bishop Lindsey Davis, who will end his 12-year tenure with the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The announcement came last week during the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church in Lake Junaluska, N.C.

The outgoing Bishop Davis has been appointed to serve the Kentucky and Red Bird Missionary Conference in the Louisville area.

Bishop Watson, 59, takes the post Sept. 1. The Macon resident has served the South Georgia Conference for eight years.

In the United Methodist Church, bishops serve as general superintendents charged with overseeing the General Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking body.

Bishop Watson will lead the conference's 12 districts, which include more than 900 churches with an estimated 350,000 members.

Bible Deliverance Temple was founded in 1963, the result of a summer revival preached by the Rev. H.K. McKnight. For most of the years since, his wife, Margaret McKnight, played the church organ and worked in the office.

On Sunday, a memorial garden will be dedicated in honor of Mrs. McKnight, who died in March.

The dedication will follow a 46th anniversary service and concert featuring Southern and newgrass gospel music by Restoration Praise and Eryn Eubanks and the Family Fold.

The service will begin at 11 a.m. at the church at 1857 Fenwick St. Call (706) 736-1600.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Conservative Christian broadcaster James Dobson beat out shock-jock Howard Stern and others in national online balloting for induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Dr. Dobson's Focus on the Family program is the first religious program to receive the honor, started in 1992 by the Chicago-based Museum of Broadcast Communications.

He joins a class of eight that includes Art Bell, the host of a paranormal-themed AM radio show. Those who did not make the cut, besides Mr. Stern, included Laura Schlessinger and Bob Costas.

Dr. Dobson was chosen in the "national active" category, which required a national broadcast contribution of at least 10 years. Orson Welles, Jack Benny, Paul Harvey and Rush Limbaugh are among the past recipients.

COLUMBUS, Ohio --- The inmates say they're Jewish, but the prison considers them Protestant.

A long-running debate over defining the term "Messianic Jew" has spilled into a dispute over self-described Messianic Jews at a prison claiming discrimination in their attempts to keep kosher.

Messianic Jews say they can be Jewish while believing that Jesus is the Messiah foretold in Jewish scriptures -- an idea contrary to traditional Judaism.

At least four Messianic Jewish prisoners at Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield, Ohio, have filed grievances, alleging discrimination. Federal law says the government cannot impede the religious exercise of an inmate unless those restrictions support a compelling governmental interest.

The Rev. Gary Sims, the religious-services administrator for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said he revoked kosher privileges for Messianic Jews in 2004 after consulting with Messianic Jewish rabbis who told him the meals weren't essential. The meals also are prohibitively expensive, he said.

PARKERBURG, Iowa --- A cross that was bent when a tornado swept through town will remain that way atop Parkersburg United Methodist Church, a symbol of the town's strength.

Church members said the gesture shows the town might bend but won't break.

The cross is one of three atop the church. Two point skyward. The third is bent eastward at an angle -- the same direction as the path of the tornado that hit two months ago.

Eight people in the area died, and nearly half of Parkersburg was leveled by the twister.

Twenty-two members of the church lost their homes, but their church was spared. Except for the bent cross, the church was missing just one stained-glass window.

DEARBORN, Mich. --- Two Muslim women said they were denied jobs at a McDonald's because they wore head scarves, according to a discrimination lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Toi Whitfield, 20, and Quiana Pugh, 25, said they applied for jobs at the fast-food restaurant but were told by the manager, "You're not going to work here if you don't remove" the head scarf, known as a hijab .

A McDonald's spokeswoman did not comment.

The Dearborn restaurant is one of only two McDonald's in the United States that sells Chicken McNuggets that are halal, the Muslim equivalent of kosher. In recent years, a number of corporate restaurants in Dearborn have started selling halal meat to tap into the growing Muslim customer base.

Dawud Walid, the head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said it's upsetting that a restaurant with such a large Muslim community around it would discriminate against Muslim women seeking jobs.

"They'll take Muslim dollars, but won't hire Muslim female employees," Mr. Walid said.

Nabih Ayad, the attorney representing the women, said the incidents occurred to Ms. Whitfield in November 2006 and to Ms. Pugh this month.

The lawsuit claims the restaurant violated a state civil rights law.