April 4, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Martin Luther King's legacy gains candidates' attention
Michael Muskal/Los Angeles Times (04/04/2008)
On the 40th anniversary of King's assassination, McCain apologizes for opposing a federal holiday in his honor. Clinton focuses on poverty, and Obama calls for completing King's tasks.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Memphis Marchers Honor Legacy of MLK
Woody Baird/Associated Press (04/04/2008: usnews.com)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- On the 40th anniversary of his assassination, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was remembered Friday in the city where he died as a man who came to Memphis "to lead us to a better way."

A moment frozen in time: Witnesses recall King's death
CNN (04/04/2008)
April 4, 1968. It's a date frozen in the memory of millions of Americans.

The other side of the mountaintop
Kevin Merida/washingtonpost.com (04/04/2008)
His life, like those of other historical figures -- Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt -- has been simplified, scholars say, his anger blurred, his militancy rarely discussed, his disappointments and harsh critiques of government's failures glossed over. Forty years after King was gunned down by an assassin in Memphis, it is this sharper-edged figure who has come into focus again.

If King Had Lived, What Now?
Allen G. Breed/Associated Press (04/04/2008: abcnews.go.com)
40 Years After His Assassination, Question Remains: What if King Had Lived?

BENEDICT XVI
The American Pope
David Van Biema and Jeff Israely/Time (04/03/2008)
A survey of the 80-year-old Pontiff's writings over the decades and testimonies from those who know him suggests that Benedict has a soft spot for Americans and finds considerable value in his U.S. church, the third largest Catholic congregation in the world. Most intriguing, he entertains a recurring vision of an America we sometimes lose sight of: an optimistic and diverse but essentially pious society in which faiths and a faith- based conversation on social issues are kept vital by the Founding Fathers' decision to separate church and state.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Hitchens Brothers Agree to Disagree on Faith
Charles Honey/Religion News Service (04/04/2008: pewforum.org)
Soon after the 2007 release of Christopher Hitchens' best-selling atheist manifesto, "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," another journalist took sharp issue with it -- his brother, Peter Hitchens.

DENOMINATIONS
Judge rules for Episcopal Church secessionists
Michael Conlon/Reuters (04/04/2008)
CHICAGO - A U.S. court has ruled in favor of 11 conservative congregations that broke away from the U.S. Episcopal Church and want to keep property worth millions of dollars, parties in the dispute said on Friday.

CONGREGATIONS AND FAITH GROUPS
Obama's church tells media 'enough'
Frank James/Chicago Tribune (04/04/2008)
Sen. Barack Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ, is fed up and not going to take it anymore. "It" would be the media intrusions that have come with the controversy over the by- now infamous comments of its retired senior pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.