Francis’ Migrants * Gay Whoppers * Loud Buddhists? : Wednesday’s Roundup

Francis asks America to welcome the migrant children at its border. The American Family Association has a problem with a rainbow-wrapped Whopper. And some Coloradans worry that a growing Buddhist monastery will bring not tranquility, but traffic and noise.

A Tibetan monk. Our story below refers to Colorado monks. But if you squint, Tibet kind of looks like Colorado. Image by Dmitry Kalinovsky via Shutterstock.
A Tibetan monk. Our story below refers to Colorado monks. But if you squint, Tibet kind of looks like Colorado. Image by Dmitry Kalinovsky via Shutterstock.

A Tibetan monk. Our story below refers to Colorado monks. But if you squint, Tibet kind of looks like Colorado. Image by Dmitry Kalinovsky via Shutterstock.

I wrote yesterday’s roundup and let me tell you, that was one sad roundup. I did what I could, but man, Tuesday’s news was grim. Let’s see if we can find a little more light in the world today. And if not, at least a little truth.

Pope Francis to US: welcome the migrant children

Immigration, Francis wrote Monday to a Mexico City conference on the topic, is a fact of modern life and immigrants deserve compassion for the difficult lives they lead and the prejudice they face. He spoke directly of the tens of thousands of children on the U.S. border, asking that they be “welcomed and protected.”


The new morals clauses

NPR looks at a Catholic high school in Oakland and its new morals clause. Catholic schools are more careful to spell out what is and is not acceptable in teachers’ private lives these days, as more states allow same-gender marriage.

Americans view Jews, Christians warmly but not atheists or Muslims

Cathy Lynn Grossman reports on a new Pew survey on American attitudes toward groups of believers and non-believers. While Jews and Christians rate high, less than half of Americans express warm feelings toward atheists and Muslims (41 and 40 percent respectively). As for evangelicals, about as many people give them a cold rating (27 percent) as a warm one (30 percent).

Israel’s president on the moral problem of Gaza

Nobel Peace laureate and Israeli President Shimon Peres gave an interview to the AP in which he acknowledged the “moral problem” of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, which has resulted in more than 200 deaths, including many civilians (compared to one fatality on the Israeli side, despite heavy rocket fire from Hamas.) “There is a moral problem, but I don’t have a moral answer to it,” said Peres, pointing to Hamas’ rejection of a cease fire proposed by Egypt.

As for the future of the Occupied Territories, Peres praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and expressed optimism for a Israeli-Palestinian peace in the wake of failed U.S.-mediated peace talks.

Pipe down, Buddhist monastery!

A Colorado Buddhist monastery’s new permit to expand has some of its neighbors worried that the noise and traffic are going to be awful. The Compassionate Dharma Cloud Monastery was on land zoned for agriculture, but now has the green light for development of a facility for worship and retreats, and two outdoor events a year.  Perhaps these neighbors will be enveloped in a cloud of compassion and their earthly worries will disappear.

A beef with the “Gay Pride” Whopper

The American Family Association is asking its members to email Burger King and tell the company that they don’t like  “The Proud Whopper,” a hamburger wrapped in paper on which the letter “E” in whopper is the gay pride rainbow flag. The AFA says the fast food establishment is embracing sin. They didn’t say that the Whopper contributes to the obesity epidemic and a cow had to die for it.


An atheist prayer in Greece, N.Y.

In the town that won a Supreme Court case this spring that allows it to open its council meetings with highly sectarian prayers, an atheist Tuesday evening convened the meeting. Governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, said Dan Courtney in his invocation. “This central premise still echoes, however faintly, from the town hall to the white-columned halls of Washington” and is “today, more than ever, under assault,” he said.

Worth Your Time

A sad Ramadan for Muslims in Gaza.

The number of Jews leaving France for Israel to escape anti-Semitism is rising markedly.

Passed away: Elenie Huszagh, prominent lay member of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and former president of the National Council of Churches.

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