Apologies for the late delivery, due to technological snafus …
Five men have been detained in London for allegedly hatching some sort of terrorist plot (specifics are very hazy) against Pope Benedict XVI. Making the rounds today, B16 appealed for religious tolerance and respect for religious freedom. He’s meeting with Anglican Communion head Rowan Williams this afternoon; excerpts here, and the Telegraph is live-blogging the entire visit here, and the trip is being webcast here.
John Allen dissects B16’s “nice guy” effect against a fairly hostile British audience, and the Telegraph offers a peak inside the papal plane (Air Force One it ain’t).
Interesting tidbit about Cardinal John Henry Newman, who’s slated to be beatified by B16 on Sunday. The Vatican has chosen Oct. 9 as his annual feast day — that’s the day he entered the Catholic Church, not the date of his death (as is tradition). Anglicans celebrate the theologian they lost to Rome on Aug. 11 (the day he died), but the word is that Oct. 9 was already too crowded (you decide). Another Roman thumb in the Anglican eye? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s interesting either way.
Christine O’Donnell, the GOP Dragon Slayer from Delaware, will be speaking to the annual Values Voter Summit (watch it live here, if you want) here in town today; Religion Dispatches’ Sarah Posner predicts a love fest. An “ex-gay” who worked with O’Donnell back in the day says she “totally turned her back on me” when he decided that he was, in fact, gay.
Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who wanted to barbecue a few hundred copies of Islam‘s holiest text, refused to apologize for the stunt that was eventually cancelled, saying he has “no conviction from God to repent.” Protests continue in Kashmir and Afghanistan continue to die in protests against the Quran burn.
Harvard University is all atwitter over an award scheduled to be awarded to alumnus Martin Peretz, editor of the New Republic; Peretz recently called Muslim lives “cheap.” Catholics in St. Petersburg, Fla., are more than a little annoyed about fliers attached to their cars — in the church parking lot — from an evangelical church; the priest calls it “kind of pretty aggressive.”
Catholic officials in Austin, Texas, have cancelled High Holy Day services at a church rented by a Jewish group after the rabbi was connected to Planned Parenthood; church officials also banned a gay rights group from the campus of St. Edward’s University. Conservative Jews marking the “Days of Awe” will no longer call God “awesome,” but rather “awe-inspiring.”
Officials in King City, N.C., have removed a Christian flag from a veterans memorial after city attorneys told them it was a constitutional no-no. Over in Clayton, N.C., members of the Church of Body Modification say a student should be allowed to wear a nose ring as an article of faith, even though the school dress code prohibits them.
The “World” stops turning this week (or at least the soap opera), and some are mourning the death of a pop culture icon with more religious symbolism than some might think.
