Sarah Palin at the Time 100 Gala in Manhattan on May 4, 2010.
1. Popes John Paul II and John XXIII were proclaimed saints on Sunday (April 27) before a crowd of nearly 1 million people, the first time two popes have been canonized simultaneously.
2. Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the Holocaust as the “most heinous” modern crime.
3. Weekend talker: Sarah Palin told members of the National Rifle Association what she would do with terrorists if she were in leadership. “Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we’d baptize terrorists,” she joked. Here’s why using baptism in a punchline was seen as offensive.
4. Hillary Clinton spoke to the women at Saturday’s United Methodist Women Assembly in Louisville. “Like the disciples of Jesus, we cannot look away, we cannot let those in need fend for themselves and live with ourselves,” she said. “We are all in this together.” She paid her own way and declined an honorarium.
5. A judge in Egypt today sentenced to death 683 alleged supporters of the country’s ousted Islamist president, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader. The architects of Egypt’s military takeover promised religious freedom, but nine months later not much has changed.
6. After 1,300 Muslims have fled Central African Republic’s capital, a mob descended & destroyed a mosque.
7. Three same-sex Tennessee couples’ marriages who were granted recognition last month by a Nashville federal judge are legally void after the state’s attorney general won a stay from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
8. Europe seen as a secular continent, but the leaders of European countries still maintain some kind of religious identity. With UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent comments on religion, the Economist looks at the religious identities of England, France, Germany and Italy.
9. Clemson University football coach has said he wouldn’t change procedures after the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s letter of complaint expressing concerns about the program’s connection to the coach’s Christian faith.
10. Rwandan President Paul Kagame spoke at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California during an event held to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.
Today’s provocative tweet:
Inequality is the root of social evil.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 28, 2014
On a final upbeat note, RNS won several awards from the Associated Church Press contest in Best in Class, Opinion (Jonathan Merritt), reporting (Adelle Banks) and in Online/New Media (staff).
