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May 2nd, 2013
12:51 PM ET
Pope goes economic, harkens back to predecessorsBy Dan Merica, CNN Washington (CNN) – In the last two days, newly installed Pope Francis has become increasingly vocal about economics issues. On Wednesday, the Pope Francis made reference to a building collapse in Bangladesh that killed upwards of 400 people in a sharp condemnation of worker exploitation and “slave labor.” "Not paying a just (wage), not providing work, focusing exclusively on the balance books, on financial statements, only looking at making personal profit. That goes against God!" Pope Francis in his homily. On Thursday, Pope Francis continued with his economic message by tweeting “My thoughts turn to all who are unemployed, often as a result of a self-centred mindset bent on profit at any cost,” to his almost 2.5 million followers.  How many times do hot-button issues come up in the Bible?
November 5th, 2012
09:43 AM ET
My Take: Counting the Bible's words doesn't yield a Republican Jesus
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN (CNN) – Over the last few days I have fielded hundreds of angry e-mails from pro-Mitt Romney evangelicals about a recent Belief Blog post in which I took Billy Graham and other white evangelicals to task for turning Jesus into a water boy for the Republican Party. A disturbing number of these complaints about my alleged "evangelical bashing" have been hateful, ill-informed and explicitly racist. But the more intelligent responses have taken two tacks. First, readers have told me that they are voting for Romney not because Mormonism is proper Christianity but because Romney is the lesser of two evils. Some in this camp, convinced (wrongly) that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, say they would rather vote for a Mormon than a Muslim.  Ayn Rand's book "The Fountainhead" and the Bible.
August 15th, 2012
11:29 AM ET
My Take: Christianity and Ayn Rand's philosophy are 2 distinct religions
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN Now that one of the Republican Party’s least ideological men (Mitt Romney) has christened one of the GOP’s most ideological men (Paul Ryan) as his running mate, Ayn Rand is back in the news. Ryan, who used to give away Rand’s novel "Atlas Shrugged" for Christmas, once described this Russian-born preacher of heroic individualism as "the reason I got into public service.” “There is no better place to find the moral case for capitalism and individualism," he told the pro-Rand Atlas Society in 2005, "than through Ayn Rand’s writings and works."  Mitt Romney's VP pick, Paul Ryan, means there will be Catholics on both party tickets. Vice President Joe Biden is also a Catholic.
August 14th, 2012
10:41 AM ET
My Take: Paul Ryan will provoke a debate on Catholic politics
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN A lot has been written about the “Mormon moment” in American politics. But the election of 2012 is starting to shape up as a “Catholic moment,” too. Now that Mitt Romney has tapped the former altar boy (and Rep.) Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate, there will be a Catholic on both major party tickets for the first time in U.S. history. So as Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden articulate their views, we will be tuning into an intra-Catholic conversation pitting “social justice” Christians on the left versus “family values” Christians on the right.  A protester camps out at St. Paul's Cathedral last month in London. Tony Perkins says Jesus had a different view of "occupy."
December 6th, 2011
12:10 PM ET
My Take: Jesus was a free marketer, not an Occupier
By Tony Perkins, Special to CNN (CNN) – One of the last instructions Jesus gave his disciples was "Occupy till I come." As Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem for the last time, just before his crucifixion, he was keenly aware that his disciples greatly desired and even anticipated that the kingdom of God was going to be established immediately on the earth. Groups bring Occupy to Congress As a way to break the news that it wasn't going to happen in the manner and with the timing they expected, Jesus pulled them aside and gave them instructions by way of a parable.  Davis College, a christian school, cut tuition by up to 22% for the current school year.
November 28th, 2011
10:50 AM ET
Want cheaper tuition? Find religionBy Blake Ellis, CNNMoney New York (CNNMoney) – With church membership dwindling and more families struggling to afford the cost of college, many private religiously-affiliated colleges and universities are slashing tuition and offering incentives to attract new students - and to stay afloat. Read the full story on how Christian colleges offer tuition discounts The nation is being savaged by the Great Recession, but many pastors are afraid to talk about its causes, some say.
October 1st, 2011
10:00 PM ET
Preachers confront 'last taboo': Condemning greed amid Great RecessionBy John Blake, CNN (CNN) – Bishop Harry Jackson is a former college middle linebacker who can still hit hard. He once described same-sex marriage as a satanic plot to destroy the family, called on Republicans to get “political Viagra” and said African-Americans needed to abandon what he called the Gospel of Victimization. Jackson is not shy about stirring up controversy, but he stops short when it comes to preaching about greed. The Maryland bishop said he encourages his congregation to get through the Great Recession by saving and sharing. But he doesn’t want to alienate well-off members by talking about what’s behind the nation’s economic woes. "I've got to watch it," said Jackson, pastor at Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland. "I could get into some big teaching on greed, but the reality is that a lot of that teaching may wind up creating anti-economic-growth and anti-capitalism concepts (in people’s minds). ... I always talk about personal responsibility so we don't get into the blame game." The Great Recession is more than an economic crisis. It has become a spiritual dilemma for some of the nation’s pastors and their parishioners, religious leaders say.  Most people who strongly believe that God has a plan for them believe the government does too much.
September 21st, 2011
06:00 AM ET
Study: For ardent believers, economic issues are a matter of faithBy Dan Merica, CNN Washington (CNN) – People who believe God is very engaged in their everyday life tend to see conservative economic policy as an article of faith, according to a study published Tuesday by Baylor University. Paul Froese, co-author of the Baylor Religious Survey, says that those who believe in a more hands-off God tend to believe in more than one way to fix America’s economic woes. But those who believe in a more active God tend to believe there is “one truth” when it comes to fixing the economy. Forty percent of those surveyed said they “strongly agree” that God has a plan for them. Among that group, 53% believe the government does too much, with 44% believing “able bodied-people who are out of work shouldn't receive unemployment checks."  A priest and author says religious leaders aren't paying attention to older people hit by recession.
September 17th, 2011
10:00 PM ET
Priest offers spiritual survival guide for recessionBy John Blake, CNN (CNN) - Sooner or later, it happens to each of us, Richard Rohr says. “There always will be at least one situation in our lives that we cannot fix, control, explain, change or even understand,” the Franciscan priest said. Maybe you’ve been laid off from a job you held for years. Perhaps you’ve experienced a nasty divorce. Or maybe the crisis is more subtle: You suddenly realized that you’ll never have the life you dreamed of living. Any life-changing moment can knock a person down. But it can also open doors if, as Rohr puts it, a person learns how to “fall upward.” Rohr, a 68-year-old Roman Catholic author and internationally known speaker, says older Americans face a problem: Religious leaders aren’t paying much attention to them. Much of contemporary religion is geared toward teaching people how to navigate the first half of their lives, when they’re building careers and families. Rohr calls it a “goal-oriented” spirituality. Yet there’s less help for people dealing with the challenges of aging: the loss of health, the death of friends, and coming to terms with mistakes that cannot be undone, he says. Rohr’s new book, “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life,” is his attempt to fill that void. It also functions as a spiritual survival guide for hard times as millions of Americans young and old struggle to cope with “falling”: losing their homes, careers and status.
September 8th, 2011
12:17 PM ET
Church invites jobless to place resumes on altar(CNN) – A Catholic church outside Buffalo, New York is taking prayers for the jobless to a new level, inviting unemployed parishioners to place their resumes on the alter "It's tough times," said Father Bill Quinlivan, who came up with the idea to collect resumes and pray for them at a recent prayer service, told CNN Buffalo affiliate WGRZ. "So we go to God with that." |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke and Eric Marrapodi with daily contributions from CNN's worldwide newsgathering team and frequent posts from religion scholar and author Stephen Prothero.  |
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Editor's note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of 
Editor's note: Tony Perkins is president of the 
