Joe Newby

One normally does not expect to hear a political attack during a sermon on Easter Sunday, but that's exactly what the congregation of St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., received this weekend.

"The captains of the religious right are always calling us back, back, back. For blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet and for immigrants  to be on their side of the border," Rev. Dr. Luis Leon said.

Ryan Rotela, a devout Mormon attending Florida Atlantic University at Davie, Fla., was suspended from his intercultural communications class for refusing to stomp on a piece of paper with the name "Jesus" written on it, CBS affiliate WPEC reported Thursday.

According to WPEC, the class was conducting an exercise that was spelled out in the textbook, “Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach, 5th Edition.”

God's word is clear that we are not to engage in "necromancy."

On Saturday, one day before Pope Benedict XVI's final blessing in St. Peter's Square, the Vatican lashed out at the media over what it called defamatory and false reports it says are an attempt to influence the election of the pope's successor, according to the Associated Press.

"Italian newspapers have been rife with unsourced reports in recent days about the contents of a secret dossier prepared for the pope by three cardinals who investigated the origins of the 2012 scandal over leaked Vatican documents," the AP reported.

On Monday, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe, a Democrat, signed the so-called "Guns in Church" bill into law, allowing those with concealed-carry permits to bring their guns into churches.

On Monday Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would retire at the end of February, citing his advanced age and failing strength.

As soon as the announcement was made, the social media site Twitter exploded with hateful, often profane messages, many of them calling for the aging pontiff's death.

The question isn't whether or not I approve of God (I do, by the way), but whether or not God approves of me.