Social media is flipping out over New York City’s first Ebola case, Dr. Craig Spencer. He returned to the city last week after a stint treating Ebola victims in Africa with Doctors without Borders. While the virus lurked in his system, Spencer rode the subways and went bowling and more.
In Twitter-world, he’s a selfless humanitarian — or a reckless fool heedless of others’ health. He gets praise and prayer…
Pray for the New York doctor with Ebola. Pray for containment. Pray as hard for the thousands of poor and sick who suffer in West Africa.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) October 24, 2014
And slams and some really terrible puns (e-Bowl-a).
If this doctor, who so recklessly flew into New York from West Africa,has Ebola,then Obama should apologize to the American people & resign!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2014
The tweet that rings my bell:
Extreme Blown-out-of-proportion Overreaction Losing our shit, when America has lost one person to Ebola, Africa has lost almost 5,000
— Tim Akimoff (@timakimoff) October 24, 2014
Yes, there actually is other news…
Besides Ebola (and the nutburger who went after NY police with a hatchet). Consider:
- The upcoming mid-term elections (See the 7 wackiest ads or find out “Why Jews vote Blue”)
- The World Series (Game 3 tonight)
- Ongoing fallout over the Canadian Parliament gunman
- The Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali. It started Thursday but the celebrations with candle lights (lovely!) and sweets (yum!) will go on for days.
.@JohnKerry marked the first ever celebration of Hindu Diwali at @StateDept http://t.co/oy1J7NbrCg pic.twitter.com/qK0Vq7yo10 via @nwarikoo
— Religion NewsService (@RNS) October 24, 2014
Also rans:
- Shia LaBeouf has become a “Christian man” while filming WWII action flick Fury “– and not in a f***ing bullshit way—in a very real way.”
- Seriously, am I the only person who does not not not care what Renee does with her face?
News that never goes away
- What cease fire? Boko Haram is still kidnapping girls — this time in a village near the Cameroon border on Saturday night — says Nigerian Catholic Bishop Stephen Mamza
- Immigration issues still bubble away. An alliance of evangelical groups pledges to boost the number of church-basked immigration legal clinics from 27 to 1,000 by 2017.
- Paige Patterson, the former Southern Baptist Convention president revered by conservatives, is off the hook for his audacious move to admit a Muslim grad student to a theological seminary. The student left.
- Modern usury — loans with high interest rates that trap the poor — are unbiblical, says the National Association of Evangelicals, which has announced a campaign to combat payday loans.
- Halting sexual abuse is still a top concern. The Church of England’s No. 2 Anglican suggests the church change the rules to of confession to break the confidentiality in cases where people disclose the abuse of children.
Quiz mania!
How post Christian are you? Quiz yourself and read more about a Christian research group’s calculation that the secular worldview is on the rise in America, even among folks who call themselves Christian.
What kind of nun should you be? PlayBuzz matches your spiritual gifts and personality with a Catholic women’s religious order. (I turn up Franciscan – “full of simplicity and awesomeness” – which immediately undermines the credibility of this quiz!)
Your daily Pope Francis
The pontiff blasts supermax prisons and “extraordinary rendition” and other soul-crushing punishments say RNS Catholic coverage mavens David Gibson and Rome correspondent Josephine McKenna.
The priest leading the anti-mafia campaign championed by the pope, the Rev. Luigi Ciotti, could be Italy’s most endangered man.
Point of view:
@JanaRiess has five facts about Mormon polygamy and Joseph Smith (which you are no longer an LDS apostate for mentioning). Any bombshells here? It depends…
@ChrisDStedman interviews the author of a bold memoir about his brush with death, transgender stories, and his agnostic mother.
Something to think about…
Never thought of this before: Sisyphus is the model of a happy man. So says NYTimes op-ed columnist Roger Cohen who finds comforting wisdom in “active fatalism” and a redefinition of heroism.
