Papal iPhone * Inked Israelis * Dumpster diving : Friday’s Roundup

(RNS) Does your faith compel you to pick through the trash for your next meal? Or does it compel you to embrace unfettered capitalism? Or get a tattoo? Read today's Roundup to find out you're not alone ...

A man dumpster diving.

Here’s a story you won’t find anywhere else: Dumpster-diving as an act of faith. Says twice-weekly diver Micah Holden:

A man dumpster diving.

A man dumpster diving.

“It’s not the norm for your average evangelical suburbanite. Some people wouldn’t want to do it because there’s a stigma with digging through the trash. For some people, it’s too much work or too much time. It’s for people who don’t care what other people think.”

Francis gets down to business

Our own David Gibson reports from Rome on the pope’s first day of candid talks on the complexities of modern family life with the College of Cardinals. Francis wants a “pastoral” approach on issues like divorce and remarriage, adding off the cuff that it should also be “intelligent, courageous and full of love.” Stay tuned.


Get this guy an agent

Speaking of His Holiness, we all know that he tweets and cold-calls the faithful, but now he’s making iPhone videos calling for greater Christian unity. And he doesn’t care much for what caused the disunity in the first place: “Who is at fault? All of us are. We are all sinners. There is only one who is right, and that is our Lord.”

Unfettered capitalism? Not so much

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, speaks to the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday (Feb. 20) in Washington, D.C. The think tank, which advocates for the strengthening of free market capitalism, asked the Dalai Lama to participate in discussions on "Economics, Happiness, and the Search for a Better Life." RNS photo by Lauren Markoe

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, speaks to the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday (Feb. 20) in Washington, D.C. The think tank, which advocates for the strengthening of free market capitalism, asked the Dalai Lama to participate in discussions on “Economics, Happiness, and the Search for a Better Life.” RNS photo by Lauren Markoe

Or the other His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, who declined to give a ringing endorsement of the virtues of capitalism at the American Enterprise Institute, but he did seem to agree with a DIY approach to climbing the economic ladder: “Buddha cannot give you what you want. You must make effort.” POTUS will host the DL at the White House today over China’s strenuous objections.

Well, he did switch from a black cassock to a white one

Nearly a year after Pope Benedict XVI resigned and left the Vatican in a helicopter (he later came back), Jesuit Tom Reese says Benedict’s papacy was colored in shades of gray — neither all white nor all black. Reese knows from personal experience; Benedict had him fired as editor of America magazine. Benedict, he says, should be “respected and honored … while being clear-eyed about his limitations.”

Worth reading:

Tell me how you really feel

A white pastor in Washington DC writes an open letter to the “white Christians of Florida” over the state’s Stand Your Ground law, and doesn’t hold anything back:

“The stench from your houses of worship is wafting its way across this country, polluting citizenship, demoralizing parents and families, mocking accountability and blaspheming the Holy God whom you say you love and worship.”

We’ll keep the cash, thank you very much

Remember that controversial $1 million gift to Catholic University from conservative gazillionaire Charles Koch? CUA’s president, John Garvey, and business school dean Andrew Abela say they’re keeping the cash, and they don’t like the ideological “litmus test” that critics are trying to impose.

Going once, going twice … SOLD!

A lawyer for Martin Luther King’s two sons implies there’s somebody ready to buy their father’s Bible and/or Nobel Peace Prize medal, if an Atlanta judge agrees with them as trustees of the King estate and allows the sale to go through despite their sister’s objections.


Israeli ink

Turns out more and more Israelis are getting inked, despite a ban on tattoos in Jewish law, according to Haaretz:
“But because of the unique cultural and religious backdrop – the legacy of the Holocaust as well as Jewish law – they’ve taken longer to go from taboo to trendy.”

You could always get a bright red RNS tattoo to show your love for the Roundup, or you could just make sure we have your email address in the box below so you don’t miss your daily dose of, well, whatever this is. Happy weekend, y’all.

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