Wednesday’s Religion News Roundup: Pope app * Preacher president * Twinkie art

The pontiff gets a fancy new app, the president gets more pulpit props, and Leonardo Da Vinci gets the Hostess treatment. Does he deserve such a fate?

lastsnackWill the surprising Israeli “dead heat” election increase or diminish prospects for peace?

The “Pope App” is live. Only for iPapists right now; Android coming soon, reports CNS.

Lutherans may not be signing up on either platform, and certainly not for the special carve out in the Catholic Church that the Vatican says it could provide for those Lutherans want to return to the Mother Ship.


On the other hand, the Vatican can’t even bring its uber-Traditional Catholic friends back to the fold, it seems.

Maybe Washington has an answer: Pope Obama…

“Unlike any other President that we’ve had, you have the ability to cast vision and inspire people,” United Methodist minister Adam Hamilton told the president at the National Prayer Service. “You should have been a preacher.”

That comes a day after evangelical pastor Andy Stanley called him “America’s Pastor-in-Chief.”

Now on to something less controversial: What do Americans really think about the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion? Lauren Markoe drills down, and her spelunking turns up some intriguing tectonics.

True blue Stanford U. opens a religious freedom clinic for “the 47 percent of the people who voted for Mitt Romney.”

Here’s a related question: “Is atheism a religion?” The New York Times opens the debate.

Right on cue, another obit for the religious right…Anybody buying it this time?

Sex abuse victims in Los Angeles are not satisfied with the so far standard apologies for revelations of hierarchical cover-ups that went beyond even the standard Catholic clergy abuse horrors.

If you didn’t know before, this is not just a Catholic issue: an ultra-Orthodox (unlicensed) therapist was sentenced to 103 years in prison for repeatedly sexually abusing a young woman from the time she was 12. The community had repeatedly targeted the victim and her supporters.


Finally, as you see above, there is in fact such a thing as “Twinkie Art,” and it includes a “Last Supper,” a.k.a. the “Last Snack.” Of course.

The news isn’t always so predictable, so be sure and sign up for our daily morning religion roundup – just enter your email in the box below.

David Gibson

Photo credit: Nancy Peppin’s Twinkie art via the HuffPo.

 

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!