Here’s wishing our Jewish friends a blessed Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which begins tonight at sundown. Some ultra-Orthodox rabbis are having second thoughts about that whole swinging-a-chicken ritual. (And start stockpiling your palm fronds for Sukkot now; looks like there could be a shortage).
In the spirit of introspection, it’s a good time to note the 10th anniversary of the U.S. war in Aghanistan, which has taken the lives of some 1,765 American servicemen and women. A special salute to our former colleague Sgt. Bill Cahir, who joined the Marines after 9/11 and was gunned down by a sniper in Afghanistan on Aug. 13, 2009.
Christian conservative activists are gathering today and tomorrow in D.C. for the annual Values Voter Summit; the AP says Mitt Romney has an opening if the rest of the GOP field splits the evangelical vote. He’s looking at you, Michele Bachmann.
Talk about going out with a bang: an Alabama company run by two devout Christians will stuff your loved one’s cremains into shotgun shells or rifle cartridges. Meanwhile, gun rights activists told a federal appeals court in Atlanta that a Georgia law banning guns in churches violates their religious exercise.
The Big Easy bid a fond adieu yesterday to former Archbishop Philip Hannan, who died at age 98 after a legendary career as a World War II paratrooper and confidante to the Kennedys.
In the ongoing power struggle between the Catholic bishop of Amarillo, Texas, and anti-abortion crusader Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Bishop Patrick Zurek is trying to tamp down charges that he’s damaging the pro-life cause by putting Pavone on a short leash.
Outside Chicago, gay and gay-friendly alumni of Wheaton College will host their first homecoming celebrations at the nation’s flagship evangelical college (which considers homosexuality a big no-no). Gay rights groups in California won’t try to overturn Prop 8 at the 2012 ballot box, preferring to sit back and let the case works its way through the courts.
From the Dept. of That Doesn’t Happen Every Day, an Ohio sheriff says a feud between rival Amish clans has resulted in a spat of skirmishes involving (of course) one group trying to cut off the other group’s beards.
If you (like much of the Fourth Estate) enjoy a good cat fight, skip on over to Christian Post to see Al Mohler go after Joel Osteen for his “highly therapeutic prosperity theology” that is “beyond mere incoherence. It is moral and theological nonsense.”
A Muslim woman is suing Southwest Airlines on charges of being booted off a plane for Flying While Muslim; flight crews swear they thought her say “It’s a go” into her cell phone; she insists she said “Gotta go” because the plane was about to take off.
Israeli officials have arrested a suspect in the mosque arson case that has sparked an unprecedented show of support from Jewish leaders around the world. Three African women — including Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — will share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is off to Africa this week, and expects to meet with Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, who has locked arms with an excommunicated Anglican bishop in Harare in a high-stakes battle over control of church property and clergy.
Exiled Libyan Jews are keeping a wary eye on their post-Ghadafi homeland, hoping one day to return but doubtful their ex-pat children would ever want to follow. And old terrorists, like old soldiers, never die; they just simply gain new audiences on YouTube.
The Vatican newspaper praises “the talent of Mr. Apple” in a post-mortem tribute to Steve Jobs, which when you think of it, is a pretty big compliment coming from one of the world’s least tech-savvy institutions.
— Kevin Eckstrom
