Everyone weighs in on the passing of Rev. Jerry Falwell. The Rev. Chuck Currie goes the extra mile and includes a list of his own past posts on the icon of the Religious Right.

Progressive Christians Uniting's Peter Laarman warns, Falwell May Be Gone, But the Religious Right Is Far From Dead

Faithfully Liberal writes:

"I didn’t like Jerry Falwell, yet I mourn the passing of one of my fellow human beings. All those with a heart for love must do the same. Here we have a perfect example of the Christ ethic- we must love our enemies, we must pray for those that persecuted us."

The Rev. Debra Haffner:

But, he was an effective religious voice for his beliefs in the public square and a tireless advocate. When I ask audiences to name a religious leader speaking out about sexuality issues, his name has always been first. His commitment to young people through Liberty University was admirable. In addition to his national activities, he continued his pastoral activities at a local church. I'd like to think twenty years from now, I'd leave even ten percent of his legacy in the public arena.

Metacentricities writes:

We didn't just disagree with him. We are willing, because of our philosophy of life and governance, to allow people like him to speak. In fact, we would fight so that he could speak. Meanwhile, he would have rather wiped us off the map. I don't really ever know what to do with that disparity. Christian kindness is a good thing, but I would rather the progressive religious blogosphere had decided to have some moments of silence, instead.

And Johnny's Cache gets meta with a huge roundup of blog reactions.
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Another big story this week was the Pope's trip to Brazil.

dotCommonweal writes three posts the visit. Here's the homily. And here's some John Allen analysis. And here's Benedict in Brazil post number three which is worth reading just for the informed and probing comments.

FPL's David Buckley writes regarding the pope on a plane:

It will be interesting to see how this story develops in the days and months ahead. The Pope's mind was on Mexico and Brazil when he spoke, but as the US Presidential season approaches, such comments will almost certainly be applied to our political environment. With the most prominent Catholic candidate a pro-choice Republican (pace, Dodd supporters), will conservatives rehash their 2004 calls for withholding of communion from pro-choicers? With the US Bishops meeting in November to consider an updated version of 'Faithful Citizenship,' what impact will Benedict's comments have?

As JSpot's Jeremy Burton notes:

Inflation adjusted in $2007

1950 - $6.39
1968 - $9.44
1997 - $6.59
2007 - $5.15

No comment necessary?

Fr. Jake Stops the World writes about Episcopalian leaders talking to Congress about stopping poverty.

Philocrates takes up the issue of educating people about proper UU lingo.

And Islamicate has a friend juggling for Afghanistan.

And finally, perhaps proving Peter Laarman's title above, Pastor Dan of Street Prophets writes about Dobson meeting with Bush over Iran. As the news story points out, a dozen other religious right leaders also joined the conversation about the "war on terror". I've been reading a couple of emerging increasingly convincing lines of argument that the "war on terror" may be the single most unifying issue for conservative Christians. Not convinced yet? Here's more on Dobson vetoing Guiliani. On the other hand, here's the Family Research Council taking Jim Wallis' side against Lou Dobbs. I'm sure someone has an opinion on that. . .