%1

"Incidentally, 'sex and marriage, divorce and homosexuality' are hardly the major areas where Pope Francis has emphasized tensions between church teaching and Western norms."

I like Michael Gerson's writing, and sometimes I even agree with the things he says. This week he wrote a sensitive and heartfelt column about one of the houses in the DC-area L'Arche community—a place I feel some small connection to, as my wife was once part of a different house in the same community.

In case you’re not up on your celebrity news, Shia LaBeouf recently told Interview magazine that he “became a Christian man” on the set of Fury, in which he plays an evangelical soldier. Yay, another high-profile believer!

Well, maybe.

"The key to stopping Ebola in the United States is stopping it in West Africa."

"You are loved. Your family loves you. You're a good man."

Did you hear about the for-profit wedding chapel owners in Idaho who are claiming a constitutional right (pdf) to refuse services to same-sex couples? From Marci Glass's entertaining post:

I hate to be the one to point this out to the Reverends Knapp, but they are not, in fact, pastors of a church. They own a wedding mill.

Shorter Peter Berger: Sometimes when liberals make public advocacy statements, they use the phrase “speaking truth to power.” This started in the 50s and got irritating by the 70s.

"The real-life adult answer would have acknowledged that (a) we don't have the capability to save Kobani, and (b) our NATO ally Turkey has chosen not to save Kobani. Neither of these is something that the American public is really prepared to digest."

"Who is Christ in the scenario? Who are the followers of Christ?"

I don't have much use for the notion that hostility toward religion generally or Christianity in particular pervades American media. Yes, Bill Maher can be kind of horrible, but there's really just the one of him on TV. What is common (if still hardly pervasive) among left-leaning commentators is an attitude toward religion that includes little hatred or vitriol but plenty of puzzlement, ignorance, and mild condescension.

Here's an odd example by science writer Brian Palmer, on medical missionaries in Africa:

In case you missed this last week: Haïm Korsia, the recently elected chief rabbi of France, used the occasion of an event commemmorating Holocaust victims to call for solidarity with religious minorities in the Middle East:

The situation of religious minorities all over the world and especially in the Middle East resonates, unfortunately, with our commemoration today. . . As our parents wore the yellow star, Christians are made to wear the scarlet letter of ‘nun.’