Thanksgiving plans got you stressed out?
The Rev. James Martin has some advice for dealing with turkeys – of the human persuasion. The antidote, says Father Martin, is laughter.
J.J. Goldberg of The Forward says Thanksgiving is not a time to celebrate if others are getting rich at our expense. Give thanks to God, “when we receive our fair share – and hell to pay for those who grab it away,” says he.
Lots of chatter about a Pew report that found the number of religious advocacy groups in Washington has more than tripled since the 1970s.
The big spenders, as WaPo notes, include the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is reported to spend $27 million a year on advocacy.
USCCB spokeswoman Sister Mary Ann Walsh disputes that figure, saying Pew included the conference’s non-advocacy work like reviewing and recommending family-friendly films.
The Republican candidates held their 783rd debate last night, this time on domestic security. Herman Cain and Rick Santorum said the Muslims should be profiled at airport checkpoints.
A new Pew poll (those guys have been busy) indicates that Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith will hurt him in the primaries, but not the general election, should he get that far.
Michele Bachmann sat down with CT and said waterboarding doesn’t injure people, she had no problem with the anti-Catholic doctrine of her former Lutheran church, and she has ambled to yet another congregation. Let’s just add that one to the Michele Bachmann Church Timeline, shall we?
An influential Egyptian Muslim cleric said minority Christians do not face sectarian discrimination and that Islamists would win no more than 20 percent of votes in next week’s election.
Another Irish bishop resigned, reportedly for health reasons, leaving seven of the country’s 26 Catholic dioceses without a prelate.
A small but growing number of American religious communities are removing their money from Wall Street banks in protest.
The KC Star catches up with Megan Phelps-Roper of Westboro Baptist Church and finds that she likes her iPhone and Mumford and Sons and the Showtime series “Dexter.” Oh, and she also believes “this filthy, perverted nation will be spending a long, fiery eternity burning in hell.”
Atheists, borrowing a page from the gay rights movement, have launched a campaign to urge nonbelievers to come out of the closet.
An artist has mounted a traveling exhibit of American Muslim self-portraits.
The Vatican is reportedly preparing to create a new commission to crack down on the building of ugly churches.
Thank God for that.
Happy To-Furkey Day, friends. And thanks for reading our little roundup.
Yr grtfl aggregator,
Daniel Burke