Ashley Baxstrom: You’ve probably heard at this point about the Vatican’s statement concerning what it considers to be the wayward actions of its sisters in faith. You can refer to The Revealer’s “Radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith” for the basics, including how nuns were “reprimanded for making public statements that ‘disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.’”

And then, you’ve probably heard about some of the reactions, people talking about Christian feminism, and hierarchy, and personal histories with the Church and faith. One major trend in the reactions has been people coming to the defense of the nuns for acting on behalf of social justice and the poor. But we all know a trend of movement hasn’t really gained steam until it’s gone viral, and that’s where we find ourselves today.

In just 140 characters at a time the Taliban is talking back to the US Military:

The New York Daily News reported that the account @isafmedia wrote: “How much longer will terrorists put innocent Afghans in harm’s way?”

To which Abdulqahar Balkhi, a “mouthpiece” for the Taliban, rebutted: “I dnt knw. U hve bn pttng them n ‘harm’s way’ fr da pst 10 years. Razd whole vilgs n markts. n stil hv da nrve to tlk bout ‘harm’s way.’”

(h/t Nora Connor)

Ashley Baxstrom: There are trending topics, and then there are trending topics. Like the kind that will last 86 years rather than a week. Bonus staying power if they’re holy!

Beliefnet reported a project called “#TweetTheBible,” started by some guy named Anthony J. Thompson and his friends, who basically joked that St. Paul would totally have used Twitter to get out the Good News (all the News that’s fit to tweet, which, well we can do that!) In fact Thompson, a 30-year-old web developer, says he “has always felt called to use technology to edify the global Christian community.”

The result of his calling is @TweetTheBible86 (with a Facebook counterpart), which launched at 11:11 am on November 11 (11/11/11, 11:11 am) with the first verse of Genesis (so that’s 1-1:1?): “Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God create the heavens and the earth. ..”

Kathryn Montalbano: After a 3-hour debate today in the New York State Assembly, the future of gay marriage in New York–and ultimately, the nation–remains unsolved and undistinguished from concurrent deliberation, including a property tax cap and New York City rent control.

Meanwhile, rallies in Albany–for and against gay marriage–have highlighted the preeminence of the issue amongst New York citizens despite the bill’s languid movement within the Senate’s walls.  While the fight for gay marriage, led by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, remains relatively civil inside, tensions amongst and between protesters outside have steadily increased throughout the day.  According to Sharon Baum of New York City, “This is not about religion, this is about civil rights.”  Opposing protesters singing “This Little Light of Mine” and chanting “God says ‘No!’” apparently disagree with Ms. Baum.

While recent efforts in New Jersey, Maryland, and Rhode Island have failed to contribute to the national gay rights movement, hope is brewing around the pending outcome in New York, with demographics rendering it the third-most populous state in the nation.

Our very favorite story these days is the one about how, you know, those religious people — the pope, nuns, pastors, really Christian Christians — are surprisingly into technology.  Gasp!  Doesn’t religion mean medieval sensibilities or at least some backwards technophobia?  But it would seem, as The Guardian reports today, that everybody’s on twitter now, even those Arab super-religious cave-dwellers with guns, the Taliban.  According to Gawker, they’ll have to sauce up their tweets if they want more followers, though.

I am embarassed to admit this (really quite embarrassed) but I learned about Osama Bin laden’s assasination from Paris Hilton. I fell asleep at 10 pm on Sunday night and when I woke up in the morning I rolled over and opened my Twitter feed. There it was:

@ParisHilton: Just landed back in LA, so happy to hear the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. He was the face of terrorism and such .

Are you horrified yet? I have an excuse. As a celebrity journalist I’m allowed to have Paris Hilton on my Twitter feed. Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian too, who also weighed in on the death of OBL.

@LindsayLohan: Go USA
@KimKardashian: Osama Bin Laden is dead!!! I can’t wait to hear President Obama’s announcement!!!

Clint Rainey: Stephen Smith, at Bible Gateway, has for three years made an annual top-100 list and snazzy tag cloud with what Twitterers say they’re giving up for Lent. This year, he wrangled up 85,000 messages tweeted between March 7 and March 10. (March 9 was Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten calendar for Catholics and the one Americans popularly conceive of as Day 1 of the fast.) The top vote-getter, you ask? Twitter. Followed by Facebook, with chocolate third, soda seventh, and the teenage troika of transgression—swearing, alcohol and sex—landing fourth, fifth, and sixth.

Smith does not say how many I’m-not-tweeting tweets came once fasting was underway. But to compute it misses the point anyway. Hashtag searches cannot differentiate sarcasm from sincerity, so besides depriving themselves of “Lent” (eighth), “giving up things” (12th), “stuff” (25th), “Catholicism” (26th), and “religion” writ simple (14th), Twitterers on Smith’s list also helpfully sacrificed “nothing” (46th), “school” (13th), their virginity (37th) and sobriety (44th), as well as “me” (63rd) and “you” (16th)—perhaps “You”?

As it happens, jokester posters flooded the list. For Lent to be so thoroughgoingly Americanized that a quarter of his top-100 entries seem to mock it is itself telling. Even wisecracking tweets promising 40-day renunciations of Christianity still focus discourse on the idea of redemption through self-denial, sacrifice, commitment, self-discipline, however it is we define those terms. What Christian objects to publicizing that message at Easter?

This year’s forgo-social-media push returned Twitter and Facebook, last year’s top vote-getters, as champ and runner-up, and it was again the pastoral blogosphere’s Easter meme. But as tech-savvy pastors in particular avail themselves of social media as tools of evangelism, pastor-converts, like San Francisco pastor Bruce Reyes-Chow (who’s taken his protests to NPR, SFGate.com, The Huffington Post, and of course Twitter), will speak out against conscientiously swearing them off. Instead, Web 2.0 is seen as a demystifying force that portrays the Christian walk as self-denying and sacrificial, yes, but also as approachable, normal, everyday. In a word: tweetable.

Nasya Bahfen: Much of the twitterverse was definitely not down with soccer’s world governing body FIFA handing the 2022 World Cup to a tiny oil-rich Middle Eastern nation not renowned for its press freedom, and with a conjoined part-Islamic, part-civil legal system. The awarding of the biggest sporting tournament in the world to the emirate of Qatar will mark the first time the soccer World Cup is hosted by an Arab country.

Elissa Lerner: Unless you’re a Buffalo Bills fan, you might have missed an epic dropped pass by Bills receiver Stevie Johnson this past Sunday, which would have been a game-winning touchdown in overtime to beat the Steelers. In a tweet heard round the world (and possibly beyond), a devastated Johnson blamed God for the failure. But yesterday, Johnson clarified his tweet was not meant to blame God, just to ask “why.” A nice gesture perhaps, but God seems to have settled in Eagles QB Michael Vick’s corner this NFL and holiday season. Vick’s God-fearing tweets and speeches have coincided with a spectacular, if controversial, return. As some have speculated, God does forgive.