In case it was possible for anyone to not know, the Pope is in town.  And DC seems to be agog.  All week long the metro platforms have been announcing that you can take the train to Nationals stadium (if you have a ticket).  On the trains, I've heard several cellphone conversations about the pontiff.  And the Post is running stories about people who paid thousands of dollars to fly here, or drove all night... And of course there is stuff like this.

than watch the Compassion Forum on CNN.  At 8 pm, I tuned in to see Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama answer questions on faith and how it affects their approach to public policy. (Fyi, the Compassion Forum was organized by Faith in Public Life, for whom my supervisor sits as chair of the board.)  John McCain was invited but declined.

For our interfaith dialogue discussion topic last night, the question was "How does your spirituality affect your life?"

Blue Gal over at Street Prophets is asking people to participate in blog against theocracy this Easter weekend, so that's what I had intended to do today. But first, because this morning's Easter sermon at All Souls was so relevant to my Saturday post, I just had to comment:

Back in October, I participated in an Interfaith Dialogue facilitator training. Tonight, a few of us finally got around to going to the next level - engaging in Dialogue amongst ourselves and practicing facilitation. Our group consisted of ten participants, 2 Christians, 3 Jews, 2 Baha'i, 1 Muslim and 1 Unitarian Universalist (me).

When Rabbi Lerner (of Tikkun fame) brought his Network of Spiritual Progressives to DC two years ago, what drew me most to the movement he was starting was his giving a voice to the Religious Left. For too long the "battle lines" for the "soul" of America had been drawn along the Religious Right and the Secular Left. (For the purposes of exposition here, "Secular" refers to those who are hostile to religion.

Got into a telling argument online recently. I was talking about how progressive religious activists base their striving for social justice on their faith. Our faith compels us to work for justice.

Most people know today as Abraham Lincoln's birthday. What you might not know is that the man who saved the Union shares his birthday (to the year) with the man who proposed natural selection as the driving force for evolution. February 12th is "Darwin Day," promoted by some as an "international celebration of science and humanity," mainly in reaction against those that favor creationism/intelligent design.

I used to like Bill Maher. He's smart and funny. I've always known that he has no personal use for religion and that's fine. But I just heard him on the Larry King show - attacking Mormonism, attacking Catholicism. And then arguing that he's not a bigot... because he's against all religions.

Right. Equal opportunity hate.

Maher is a smart man who sometimes has the nerve to say what no one else will say. So I am all the more disappointed that he's fallen into the "you're either with us or against us" mentality that is so pervasive these days.

Some interesting resolutions have been introduced into the House of Representatives the last couple of weeks. No, they didn't end the immoral war in Iraq or impeach Bush and Cheney. Nor did they address poverty, health care, nor global climate change. H. Res. 847 is called "Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith." It was introduced Dec 6th and passed with bipartisan and near unanimous support.