The By Way of Beauty blog explores the spirituality of Paul Simon, calling his new album – which Boomers everywhere will soon be rocking out to during morning commutes – his “most spiritual” yet. Turns out he even did some spiritual “sampling” on the album, just like they do in the music those crazy teenagers listen to these days. In other news, teenagers still don’t know who Paul Simon is:

“What many might not know is that, for Paul Simon, this emphasis on the power of music to continually transform and inspire us is not mere 60’s nostalgia, but a living reality. In fact, some, including Elvis Costello, are even calling his 2011 album, So Beautiful or So What (download here for just 8 dollars) his finest – it is also, incidentally, his most spiritual.

This weekend hundreds (thousands?) of people descended on Wall Street for the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, but while the decentralized effort made a big splash on the Twitters, it seems to sort of fizzled with the mainstream press. Get Religion is a bit flummoxed as to why the protest hasn’t garnered much media attention, but is particularly fascinated by a group of “Protest Chaplains” that are amongst the frustrated masses:

“Still, I can’t believe how lacking the media coverage of this Wall Street event has been. I had to work really hard to just find basic facts out about the protest and its size, much less anything interesting about it.

I think it was in the video I embedded above, from an independent media site called Waging Non-Violence, where I noticed a Celtic cross in one of the scenes. That intrigued me. I wanted to find out if there were any interesting religion angles to this protest.

I don’t know, but I found this group called The Protest Chaplains and they’re pictured holding the same cross. They say they have ties to Harvard Divinity School and the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and they explain that they’re there to protest but also to provide a service.”

A lot of religions give lip service to that whole “give up all your possessions” idea, but not a lot of people follow through on it. (I was going to but, you know, I got busy and something came up…or something…) Buddhist blog/publication Tricycle, however, reports on one Daniel Suelo, a man who has lived without money – and made the rest of us look bad – for eleven years now:

“I’ve certainly had days where I’ve daydreamed about giving away all my possessions and savings and embarking on a journey a la Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild…and I’m guessing that if you read Tricycle, you might have, too.

But how many of us actually do it?

There is, however, a modern-day American sadhu living in a cave right now in Moab, Utah. Daniel Suelo, who gave up money eleven years ago, has survived for over a decade by foraging off the land, dumpster-diving, hitchhiking, and taking only what is freely given to him from friends and strangers.”

CNN reports on a special, multi-faith delegation helping to bring the two U.S. hikers arrested in Iran back home:

“A prominent group of Muslim American and Christian leaders are scheduled to return to Washington Monday, following a six day visit to Iran where top government and clerical officials indicated to them that two American hikers would be released.

‘Our goal has been to foster interfaith ties, build a system of understanding and ask the Iranian leadership to show compassion and mercy for the American hikers by allowing them to come home,’ said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) who went to Tehran last week as part of a religious delegation.

The American delegation included Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, the Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, and Interim Dean of Washington National Cathedral, and former North Carolina State Sen. Larry Shaw, said Awad.”

Finally, our Video of the Day comes from CBS news (by way of Jesus Needs New PR). They highlight a particularly devout Christian couple who figured that the best way to prove that Noah’s Ark was real was to, well, build their own. Fair enough, but :: ahem:: I’d say their “animals” section leaves something to be desired…