Religion news around the world

Assemblies of God, LDS, Catholic gain

NEW YORK (AP) — An annual tally of church membership in the U.S. found gains by the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon church and the Assemblies of God last year, while mainline denominations continued their decades-long decline.

The data was published in the latest Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, released this month by the National Council of Churches, based in New York.

Membership in the Catholic Church rose nearly 1.5 percent to more than 68 million, the largest denomination by far in the country. The church rebounded from a slight drop last year.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints saw a 1.7 percent increase in its U.S. membership to just under 6 million, while the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal faith group, recorded a nearly 1.3 percent jump, to 2.9 million members.

Facebook post gets teacher suspended

APEX, N.C. (AP) — A middle-school teacher was suspended after she posted an angry entry on her Facebook page saying she was the target of a "hate crime" by Christian students.

Melissa Hussain, an eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School, was suspended with pay while investigators reviewed her case.

Hussain wrote that it was a "hate crime" that students anonymously left a Bible on her desk, and she said she "was able to shame her kids" over the incident.

Hussain's Facebook page does not mention her religious affiliation and she did not respond to phone and e-mail messages.

Greg Thomas, spokesman for the Wake County schools, said parents objected to comments on Hussain's social-networking site about her conflict with Christian students.

Parents said classroom tensions escalated after a student put a postcard of Jesus on Hussain's desk that she threw in the trash.

Catholic diocese, hospital part ways

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A Roman Catholic bishop is ending the diocese's relationship with St. Charles Medical Center, largely over a surgical birth-control technique forbidden by the church.

Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Baker said the hospital should no longer be considered Catholic. The main point of contention was tubal ligation, which leaves women unable to get pregnant and does not comply with church teaching against artificial contraception.