Here's hoping all of our Christian friends had a happy Easter, and our Jewish friends continue to celebrate a blessed Passover.
President Obama attended an Easter service at St. John's Episcopal Church across the street from the White House. Obama also focused on Easter during his weekly address, saying:
“Christ’s triumph over death holds special meaning for Christians. But all of us, no matter how or whether we believe, can identify with elements of His story. The triumph of hope over despair. Of faith over doubt.The notion that there is something out there that is bigger than ourselves.”
At St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI implored the Syrian regime to end the bloodshed and expressed hope that the joy of Easter will comfort Christians suffering persecution.
Benedict also spoke of Nigeria, where 38 were killed in a suicide car bomb on Sunday.
Nearly 15,000 people, including some that drove hundreds of miles, came to see Tim Tebow speak at an Easter service in Texas. “In Christianity, it's the Pope and Tebow right now,” Celebration Church pastor Joe Champion said. “We didn't have enough room to handle the pope.”
Some Jewish Bruce Springsteen fans held a Passover seder in a restaurant above Madison Square Garden in NYC, where the Boss played later that night.
The Vatican wrote to Austrian bishops demanding that they take action against a group of priests whose “Call to Disobedience” was criticized by the pope on Holy Thursday.
Benedict is planning to cut down on foreign travel as he prepares to celebrate his 85th birthday, said his brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops stopped funding a Colorado immigration group that had partnered with LGBT activists, the NYT reports.
Some Southern Baptists say they are embarrassed by Richard Land's comments on the Trayvon Martin shooting and its aftermath.
The theology of “imprecatory prayer” may be a matter of debate, but a Dallas judge has ruled it is legal as long as no one is actually threatened or harmed.
The Oklahoma state Senate voted down a bill that would have prohibited state judges from considering foreign laws, including religious laws, in their decisions.
Hundreds of Tibetans who attended a Buddhist ceremony in January in India have been detained by Chinese security officers on their return to Tibet, the NYT reports.
Before he moved to Queens, Muhammad Rashid thought yoga was a sin. Then he got religion NYC-style, in which yoga is basically required.
Cathy Lynn Grossman talks to 9 percent – the reverters who go back to their childhood faiths.
Ross Douthat says Americans got along better when everyone was a either a mainline Protestant or a Catholic.
His liberal counterpart, Nicholas Kristof, welcomes the new tide of religion-friendly atheists.
An autopsy is planned for the Christian painter Thomas Kinkade, whose gauzy landscapes of glowing cottages and churches lined a thousand Christian bookstores.
Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” died over the weekend as well. Here's a clip of Wallace in full-force, bringing the Nation of Islam into American living rooms.
Yr hmbl aggregator,
Daniel Burke
Image courtesy of ThomasKincade.com
