Archbishop of Canterbury left feeling ‘uncomfortable’ over Bin Laden killing

The Archbishop of Canterbuy, Dr. Rowan Williams, has admitted that several aspects of the killing of Osama bin Laden have left him feeling “very uncomfortable.”

The spiritual head of the Anglican Communion said the contradictory reports that have recently emerged leave him questioning whether justice has truly been done. Initial reports stated that Bin Laden had been killed after an extended fire fight with U.S. Navy Seals but now it seems he was unarmed when shot dead in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Sunday.

“I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done,” said Williams in a recent press conference.

“In those circumstances I think it’s also true that the different versions of events that have emerged in recent days have not done a great deal to help.”

The contradictory reports from the White House and Defense Department officials have led many to express reservations about the incident.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has called into question the legality of the killing and called for a “full disclosure of the accurate facts.”

The U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has responded by defending the military operation.

"The operation against Bin Laden was justified as an act of national self-defense," he insisted.

Katy Perry discusses why she rejected her Christian faith

It is fairly well known that Katy Perry was raised in a strict, Christian home and actually started out life as a Christian music artist under her real name Kate Hudson. Perry is now famous for her hedonistic lifestyle, skimpy outfits and sexually provocative dance routines, and in a recent interview with Vanity Fair she explains why she has not adopted the faith her parents brought her up in.

According to Perry, she found her childhood way too strict and constraining. She says the only book her mother ever read to her was the Bible and that listening to non-Christian music was not allowed.

“I didn’t have a childhood,” lamented Perry, who also explained she was very relaxed and tolerant about faith matters these days, including the fact her husband Russell Brand is into Hinduism.

“In my faith, you’re just supposed to have faith. At this point, I’m just kind of a drifter. I’m open to possibility,” she said.

“I come from a very non-accepting family, but I’m very accepting,” the pop singer added.

“Russell is into Hinduism, and I’m not really involved in it. He meditates in the morning and the evening and I’m starting to do it more because it really centers me. But I just let him be him, and he lets me be me.

“My sponge is so big and wide and I’m soaking everything up and my mind has been radically expanded.”

Perry admitted her parents are disappointed with some of her lifestyle choices, but says they don’t try to interfere too much.

“We coexist,” said Perry. “I don’t try to change them anymore, and I don’t think they try to change me. We agree to disagree.”

Martin Sheen stars in new movie about Christian pilgrimage

Martin Sheen is a confessed “radical Catholic,” and so it should come as no surprise that his next movie, "The Way," focuses on a father who embarks on a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago – or "Way of St. James" – following the death of his son, played by his real-life son, Emilio Estevez.

The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage that has been tackled by over a 100,000 Christians and the movie was penned by Estevez after Sheen travelled it in 2003. The film looks at the different types of grief people experience in life, and how an intentional inner journey can become a part of their healing.

“The Camino was filled with broken people who were suffering great loss and were in need of healing, which is very typical, because again, the Camino is metaphor for life,” Sheen recently told Christianity Magazine in an interview.

“Everyone is looking for an effort to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh. That’s what all of our lives are about, whether we’re conscious of it or not," he added.

“All of us seek transcendence, and that’s why people walk the Camino. Pilgrimages are an effort to touch the sacred in our lives.”

Although the film deals with spiritual themes, Sheen believes that it encompasses even non-believers since it deals with our deep inner hunger to realise a “moment of clarity” when we know we are loved.

“You see it (knowledge of being loved) in them, or you see the absence of love in them. You see it in people who don’t believe they are loved, or don’t know they are loved, or have not embraced their brokenness, their darkness – they’re still living in the shadow self,” Sheen added.

“When you see the light, and it’s so clear, so obvious, you see someone who knows they are loved and they reflect love in return. Those that are broken, heal, and heal others. That’s the journey of love. That’s the journey of the Camino.”

When Sheen was asked how he specifically knows he is loved, he replied that in his opinion it lies in the “genius of God” who chose to be human, small and broken.

“That makes me realize I am healed, here in this reality, and I can heal others.”

Pakistani Christians concerned over possible repercussions after Bin Laden’s death

Pakistani Christians have expressed real fears that the the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of American soldiers could result in revenge attacks by Muslim extremists.

Dr Nazir Bhatti, the President of the Pakistan Christian Congress, urged the Pakistani government to ensure Christians are properly protected in the aftermath of the al-Qaeda leader’s death, according to the Pakistan Christian Post.

“The Pakistan administration must beef up security of churches, Christian institutions, Christian colonies and life of common Christian after death of Osama bin Laden.”

Christians only make up around 3% of Pakistan’s total population, and have often been targeted by extremists in the past. In March of this year, the only Christian government minister in Pakistan, Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated for his outspoken views on the controversial ‘Blasphemy’ law.

Christians were also targeted for reprisals after an American pastor infamously burned a Koran as part of a staged ‘trial’ at his church. A Gujranwala church and missionary school were attacked last week in revenge resulting in hundreds of Christians fleeing from the area in fear for their lives.

Police have advised local churches to install security cameras and hire only security personnel who are Christian.

Happy 400th Birthday to the KJV!

The King James Version of the Bible officially turned 400 years old on Monday.

The official birthday culminates months of worldwide celebration, with public figures as diverse as Prince Charles to atheist Christopher Hitchens agreeing to participate.

Hitchens wrote in the Vanity Fair that: "Though I am sometimes reluctant to admit it, there really is something 'timeless' in the Tyndale/King James synthesis.

"For generations, it provided a common stock of references and allusions, rivaled only by Shakespeare in this respect.

"It resounded in the minds and memories of literate people, as well as of those who acquired it only by listening."

The KJV was originally called the Authorised Version but came to be named after the king who commissioned it. King James 1 was struggling to lead his country through a time of severe religious division between Anglicans and Puritans. At the centre of their disagreements were various Bible translations that neither side could agree on.

The King managed to forge an uneasy alliance between Anglican and Puritan scholars to begin work on a new translation together, and it was his hope that this partnership would create further unity. It took a team of 47 scholars seven years to complete the project, and although the date is not definite, it is believed the KJV was first published around May 2, 1611.

One particular act of commemoration arranged for May 2 was by YouVersion, a Bible app group from Lifechurch.tv, who organised a mob reading of the translation where people all over the world read from the Bible for 400 seconds in unison.

“To my understanding it’s the first time that something like this has ever happened in history and so people don’t just want to celebrate the history but be part of the making of history,” stated Bobby Grunewald, innovation leader at Lifechurch.tv, which created YouVersion.

Other celebrations being organised includes The Bible Nation Society hosting an expo housing ancient Bibles, including a first edition 1611 authorised King James Bible, in front of the US Capitol building.

"To ignore it (KJV), is to ignore the very sun. It has enlightened our souls about Jesus Christ, and enriched our lives by paving a way of thinking," said Doug Levesque of the Bible Nation Society.

"In its pages are the answers to our current dilemmas including, the economy, the middle east, and even political gridlock."

Christians don’t ‘rejoice over death,’ says Vatican in response to Bin Laden death

A spokesperson for the Vatican said that Christians should never “rejoice over a death” in response to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s death and subsequent scenes in America and other places of people wildly celebrating.

Father Federico Lombardi also said, however, that Bin Laden, who was killed by American soliders in a raid on Sunday, would have to answer to God for having killed many people and exploiting religion to spread hate.

Lombardi added that Bin Laden’s death should serve as a sombre note of reflection that stands as a reminder of "each person's responsibility before God and men."

"Osama bin Laden, as everyone knows, had the grave responsibility of having spread division and hate among people, causing the deaths of an innumerable number of people and exploiting religion for these purposes," he added.

Pope John Paul II’s Beatification Draws Over 1 Million Catholics to Rome

Over a million Catholics crowded St Peter’s Square and the streets surrounding Vatican City on Sunday morning to attend a service of beatification for Pope John Paul II.

The service was led by Pope Benedict XVI on behalf of his predecessor who passed away in 2005 after spending 25 years as pope.

The beatification is the second last step in the process towards full canonization and is the fastest in modern times after John Paul II was put on a “fast-track” to sainthood.

The service was preceded by an all-night prayer vigil in Rome’s Circus Maximus and included a testimony from the French nun at the center of the miracle needed for John Paul’s beatification.

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre told the crowd how she was inexplicably cured from Parkinson’s disease after a night of prayer to the pontiff not long after his death.

A second miracle is required for full canonization, which should not be problematic as hundreds of Catholics have already reportedly come forward with such claims.