Patrick Oppmann
CNN All Platform Journalist

More than 2,500 miles from Fort Hood, the US Army also honored fallen soldiers at a ceremony at Fort Lewis in Washington state today.

Seven soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, were remembered in a service that family, soldiers and Vice President Joe Biden attended.

All seven soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device attack in Afghanistan last month. Fort Lewis officials said they believe the attack was the largest loss of life for the post since the wars began in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“As hollow as it sounds to say,” Biden said, ”we grieve with you. We don't have the sense of the profound grief you're experiencing today, but we grieve with you. And we owe you - we owe you more than you can ever be repaid.”

Speaking of his own experience as the father of a National Guard member who served in Iraq, Biden told the crowd, “In a sense, those of us who've had children, husbands and wives who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, I guess we all share a sense of relief and a sense of guilt that we're here, having our loved ones back.”

The seven soldiers were remembered by fellow soldiers, some of whom had returned to Fort Lewis, some of whom  were still serving in Afghanistan.

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Ann Holmes Redding on her faith.

Patrick Oppmann
CNN Seattle Producer

It’s not always easy reconciling your life with your religion.

Ann Holmes Redding knows all about that.

Until yesterday Redding was an Episcopal minister. She was defrocked by the church - but not for lack of faith, exactly.

That’s because Redding is both a practicing Christian - and Muslim.

When I met Redding she said her double faith allowed her “to see the same mountain from different points.”

She became interested in Islam during an interfaith service in Seattle three years ago where she worked as a minister.

Redding saw similarities in the way both religions worshipped one God and she was drawn to how Muslims “surrendered themselves” to their faith.

While Christianity worships Jesus as the Son of God, Islam sees him as one of many prophets. In fact, the Koran names 25 prophets, including Moses, Lot and John the Baptist. It also has an entire sura, or chapter, named for the Virgin Mary.

In both the Koran and Bible, Redding says, “Jesus does the same things. So it’s a question of how do you believe in him, not that you believe in him, but how. Jesus never asks people to believe in him as God.” Better understanding the Koran, Redding said, “made her a better Christian.”

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Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda says he is God, and his followers believe him.

Patrick Oppmann
CNN Miami

He tells his followers he is God.

But Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda’s wife disagreed and was awarded a $2.2 million divorce judgment.

It may seem unusual for a church leader to claim he is divine and then go through a messy, public divorce, but De Jesus’ church has always been, well, unique.

His followers, many of whom are Hispanic and have left the Catholic Church for his take on Christianity, believe that he is both the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and the anti-Christ. Dozens of his followers in South Florida and in Latin America have had 666 –the number associated with the anti-Christ—tattooed on their bodies as a sign of their beliefs.

De Jesus tells the people who believe in him that there is no sin and that they are members of a “super race.”

One of those believers was De Jesus’ second wife Josefina Torres. But Torres told CNN in an interview that after five years of marriage she began to see through her husband and spiritual leader.

“It was like seeing a magician perform and then going backstage and you learn how he does the trick,” Torres said in Spanish.

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