It’s a good Nobel Peace Prize Day!

Some may be disappointed Pope Francis didn’t win it. But here at Roundup Central, we think Malala is a fine choice.

Two years and a day after Taliban gunmen shot her in the head for daring to speak up for the rights of a girl to get an education, Malala Yousafzai, 17, of Pakistan was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. She shares the award with veteran children’s rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi, 60, from neighboring India.

She is the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Ever. For a great, if dated, documentary on Malala click here.

The other major news of the day concerns gay rights, Catholic marriage, Ebola, ISIS and forgiveness. So let’s get to it:

Exasperated with gay marriage

In an interview with the American Family Association’s radio show, Mike Huckabee said he was “utterly exasperated” with Republicans for failing to stand up for traditional marriage.

“[I]f the Republicans wanna lose guys like me, and a whole bunch of still God-fearing Bible-believing people, go ahead and just abdicate on this issue, and go ahead and say abortion doesn’t matter either.
Because at that point, you lose me, I’m gone.”

Stephen Colbert said much the same thing, btw. “You can’t pray away your gay,” he said. “Well, you can’t gay away my pray.”

A Roman Catholic cardinal said the church would never bless gay marriage. “To bless this type of union … to say that they are like (heterosexual) marriages — never,” said Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, the Vatican’s highest-ranking expert on church law.

The other marriage debate

Of course, the church’s leading men are gathered at the Vatican to discuss the realities of modern family life. But their focus is marriage and divorce among heterosexuals. John Allen reports that two Italian cardinals said they’d be open to allowing divorced and remarried Catholics whose first marriages were not annulled to receive Communion under certain conditions.

David Gibson’s insightful story explains that a change in church doctrine is unlikely to happen. But church leaders may see their way to another solution: a pastoral one, in which bishops and cardinals issue exemptions more generously.

Ross Douthat gets at much the same point in his column “What the church can do.”

And if there’s any doubt that Catholic families and households have changed over the past four decades, Tobin Grant has five nifty graphs that delineate those changes.

No laughing matter

At Dallas’ Wilshire Baptist Church, a prayer vigil for this country’s first Ebola patient turned into a memorial service after it was announced that Eric Duncan died of the virus Wednesday.

Duncan’s death brings to nearly 4,000 the number of people who have succumbed to Ebola. Those wanting to help end the outbreak can find a list of five worthy charities here.

An Ebola scare on a US Airways flight leaving Philadelphia prompted officials to meet the plane when it arrived in the Dominican Republic after a passenger reportedly joked he had Ebola.

Democracy and Christianity

Many of the leaders of the Hong Kong democracy demonstrations are Christian, and some cite faith as an inspiration.

Atheists of color

Black atheists will hold a first-of-its-kind conference in Los Angeles this weekend. It will examine issues of special interest to nonwhite atheists, especially economic and social inequality.

More on Maher

If you’re not tired of the “Is-Bill-Maher-an-Islamophobe” question, there’s plenty of more punditry to add to your reading list here and here. But I still think Reza Aslan nailed it.

Pulpit confession

An Alabama pastor confessed from the pulpit that he has AIDS, had slept with church members, used drugs and misused funds.

Religious impediment?

Yes, religious people can be dumb, and sometimes stupid. But really. Does religion deserve this? In his newest book, the eminent biologist and naturalist Edward O. Wilson gives religion in the abstract a thrashing:

“The great religions are,” he writes, “sources of ceaseless and unnecessary suffering. They are impediments to the grasp of reality needed to solve most social problems in the real world.”

Perhaps Wilson might read some essays on theme of forgiveness. There’s Amy Julia Becker, who writes about forgiveness as “the work of the cross even in the midst of the everyday.” Or Rabbi Will Berkovitz, who warns Jews they can’t do binge forgiveness on Yom Kippur and then forget about it the rest of the year.

At Sukkot, Jewish families construct makeshift shelter to remember their 40-year sojourn in the desert.

Then there’s Sukkot.

This relatively unknown Jewish harvest festival may harken back to the time the Israelites lived in booths on their trek to the Promised Land. They celebrate by having a meal in a makeshift shelter. Check out these neat photos of sukkahs in Borough Park and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Makes me long for the outdoors. And how better to spend the weekend?

Check this space Monday for the latest news.