Religion, Politics, Politics, Religion from Russia and Germany to Minnesota, Ohio, and Over to Rome

Rachel: "It may be the dying gasps of a group that calls itself 'national': that's the N- in NomNomNom. But lately, they have to go to Russia to try get any of their ideas put into law."
Alan: "That means that every German taxpayer, Jew, Muslim, Protestant, non-believer as well as church members, is paying for that 15,000 euro bathtub."
John: "MPR NEWS: Have you offered your resignation to Pope Francis or to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the papal nuncio? NIENSTEDT: No."
Jerry: "This pathetic story reveals clearly that the Vatican’s 'Zero Tolerance' policy that Francis still touts is in practice more like a 'Zero Competence' or 'Zero Morality' policy. Will Pope Francis please step up and remove this obscenity?"
Andrew: "No one should support a church’s doctrine because it is more effective in the short run at putting bottoms on pews, as they say in England."
Rob: "I don't see this as a retreat in the culture wars by the SBC, and it's certainly not a surrender. I'd call it a tactical repositioning."
Tara: "Pro-life groups in Ohio sue to block 300,000 low-income people from gaining health coverage."
Purgatrix: "If the incidence of same-sex attraction could be reduced from 2% to 1% in the next generation, that would be an unqualified public health triumph."
New Ways: "I stand with LGBT employees serving Catholic schools and parishes."
Leonardo: "There's no other way to regain the credibility the Church has lost except going back to the tradition of Jesus, as Pope Francis is wisely doing."
Francis: "In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always."