Happy Tax Day, fellow citizens. Tea Partiers, about as happy today as Scrooge McDuck, are
descending on their least favorite city and holding rallies across the country to protest (fill in the blank).
Speaking at one such rally, Sarah Palin said “we’ll keep clinging to our … guns and religion – and you can keep the change.” You betcha. A few churches are holding anti-Tea Party rallies, and religion scholar Diana Butler Bass writes about why she likes Tax Day here.
The AP moved a massive, multi-part investigative piece that found 30 Roman Catholic priests accused of abuse who had been transferred or moved abroad. Pope Benedict XVI reportedly said at a private Mass on Thursday that Catholics are “under attack from the world, which has been telling us about our sins … (and) we realize that it’s necessary to repent…”
Benedict heads to Malta this weekend in his first foreign trip since the clergy sex scandal erupted. Theologian and former friend/foe of Benedict Hans Kung said the pope’s traditionalist approach has failed and urged bishops to push for reforms in the church. A top Muslim cleric in Europe said damage to the Catholic Church’s moral credibility impacts other religions as well.
A Chilean priest has been charged with eight cases of sexually abusing minors, including his own daughter – yes, daughter. Schismatic Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson will not attend his German trial on charges of questioning the Holocaust. The NYT profiles Archbishop Dolan, one year into his reign in the Big Apple.
The Alliance Defense Fund announced yet another project designed to “protect” churches from “excessive and unconstitutional government intrusion.” Voters in Lancaster, Calif., approved a measure encouraging its city council to pray before meetings. They should probably pray for a lawyer, says the ACLU. Speaking of the ACLU, they’re on the case in Baltimore after a Muslim woman who wanted foster children was denied because she doesn’t allow pork in the house.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation wants Milwaukee to stop making Good Friday a legal holiday. Muslim-American women are filing discrimination complaints over their veils. Israel is ticked off that England banned an Israeli advertisement listing holy sites in the disputed territory of East Jerusalem.
The United Methodist Church is redrawing its map of regional conferences and will lose some bishops in the process.
Pew and Templeton released a huge study on religion in sub-Saharan Africa that found most are deeply committed to Christianity and Islam but continue to practice elements of traditional African religions. Sounds like someone’s been shopping at the Divine Deli. Human rights groups are calling on Senegal to clamp down on Islamic schools where students are beaten daily and forced to beg.
In a battle of the beards, Brooklyn hipsters are jostling for space with Hasidic Jews. Oy.
