Check out these recent articles from around the web:

6 Times Stephen Colbert Got Serious About Faith by Jesse Carey: “My son asked me one day, ‘Dad, what’s hell?’ … So, I said, ‘Well, if God is love, than hell is the absence of God’s love. And, can you imagine how great it is to be loved? Can you imagine how great it is to be loved fully? To be loved totally? To be loved, you know, beyond your ability to imagine? And imagine if you knew that was a possibility, and then that was taken from you, and you knew that you would never be loved. Well that’s hell—to be alone, and know what you’ve lost.’”

In the Central African Republic, the only rule is terror by Michael Gerson: “The tents of displaced people reach nearly up to the runway at the airport — the first impression of a nation in flight and in fear. Befitting the sectarian cast of the violence in this country, there are two camps, one Christian and one Muslim. The Muslim camp has shrunken in size, as Chadian planes and truck convoys have taken some people out of danger. It is both a move to safety and the victory of religious cleansing.”

A program conservatives should love by E.J. Dionne: “One politician who speaks often about the importance of civil society groups is Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Ryan rightly talks about the ‘vast middle ground between government and the individual,’ and of empowering ‘community organizations to improve people’s lives.’ Yet Ryan’s new budget comes out against apple pie. It zeroes out AmeriCorps. Poof. Gone.”

Why I’m a pro-life liberal by Elizabeth Stoker: “A genuine pro-life position supports the lives of mothers and children rather than simply their births.”

Feeding the Family for $7.50: What I Learned by Patheos: “I cannot imagine the emotional toll it takes to not give your children what they need. I don’t know how mothers who are not eating enough themselves can have heads clear enough to find creative solutions, or if they are even available without outside help. I don’t have a cause I’m working for; I’m not an advocate for any interest — at least not yet. But we who have so much continue with with business as usual any longer. Pray with me. Ache with me. Wonder with me as you are able. And may God show us how to feed our brothers and sisters who are hungry.”

Celebrating Easter: Why a Watered-Down Resurrection Doesn’t Work  by Fr. James Martin, SJ: “The disciples were terrified. So does it seem credible that something as simple as sitting around and remembering Jesus would snap them out of their abject fear? Not to me. Something incontrovertible, something undeniable, something visible, something tangible, was necessary to transform them from fearful to fearless.”

Five myths about Easter by Fr. James Martin, SJ: “The Resurrection changes everything: It’s a reminder not just that Jesus rose from the dead but that love is stronger than hatred, that hope is stronger than despair, and that life is stronger than death. More simply, it reminds us that nothing is impossible with God. Choose not to believe in the Resurrection, and Jesus is just another prophet. Believe in the Resurrection, and your whole life changes.”

Becoming Peter, on Betrayal and Faith by Paddy Gilger, SJ: “We – spiritual descendents of the Twelve that we are – hold within ourselves the potential to be either Peter or Judas. And this difference is not faith in a thing, but faith that we can be forgiven, about this O’Brien is surely right.”

Yale’s Agony Over Social Justice by Matthew Gerken: “They took up their cause as a matter of social justice. They realized that abortion has never been solely a matter of a baby’s life and liberty. It’s about the desperation and hopelessness of the mother that walked into the clinic.”