On May 3, 2011, the Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhism, said that while Buddhism, like most Western religions, calls for forgiveness, “Forgiveness doesn’t mean forget what happened. … If something is serious and it is necessary to take countermeasures, you have to take countermeasures.”

John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served in the Justice Department from 2001-03, writes in The Wall Street Journal that the successful raid vindicates the Bush administration’s interrogation policies.

A May 3, 2011, blog post rounds up news stories and religious reaction surrounding the torture issue.

Read an editorial in the May 23, 2011, edition of America magazine, the national weekly produced by the Jesuits, that questions whether the bin Laden operation means the U.S. is resorting too frequently to “extrajudicial” killings.

The Rev. Patrick Lynch is chair of the religious studies department at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. He is a Jesuit priest and has taught courses on Catholic social ethics, religion & politics and the Jesuits.

Read “non-observance” for an idea of which states have opposed celebration of Christopher Columbus and why the holiday has become increasingly unpopular.

In response to Berkeley’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day in place of Columbus day, Yale raised awareness of the holiday’s brutal origin and history in 2009.

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat, was elected to represent New Mexico in the Senate in 2008 after serving five terms in the U.S. House. He also had served as the state’s attorney general.

The Religious Tolerance website maintains a history of the conflict between Mormons and traditional Christians.