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September 14th, 2010
03:45 PM ET
Popemobile takes center stage for UK state visitLondon, England (CNN) - The Popemobile has landed, just ahead of the pontiff himself who arrives for the first ever papal state visit to the UK. There is some debate about the cost of this event for British taxpayers but it is going ahead, and the Popemobile will play an integral role. Appropriately enough, the car is a Mercedes; a converted M-Class. A German Popemobile for a German pontiff. It's been used before but this is its UK debut and I got a closer look at what's become a symbol of the pope's overseas tours. It is rather grand: white, with few markings, the Mercedes logo and Vatican coat of arms. A raised seat allows crowds to see Pope Benedict XVI behind large sheets of bullet-proof glass. The side panels and undercarriage are armor-plated which makes it a secure, but heavy, vehicle.
September 14th, 2010
03:43 PM ET
Belgium church to begin interviews in sex abuse case(CNN) - Belgian church officials will begin interviews Tuesday in their inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse of children by clergy and others working for the church from the 1950s into the late 1980s. The interviews are a follow-up to a church-backed investigation that detailed hundreds of assertions of sexual abuse. It was led by Dr. Peter Adriaenssens, (pictured above) who is both a church investigator and a psychiatrist. "From the mistakes of the past, we wish to take the necessary lessons," said Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, on Monday. "In the interviews that will be conducted from tomorrow, we will consider the relevant reflexions and proposals of Professor Adriaenssens."
September 14th, 2010
03:13 PM ET
French senate approves burqa banParis, France (CNN) - The French senate approved Tuesday a law banning any veils that cover the face - including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women - making France the first European country to nationally impose such a measure. The law passed by a vote of 246 to 1, with about 100 abstentions coming essentially from left-leaning politicians. The legislation was overwhelmingly approved by the lower house of parliament in July and will go into effect next spring. French people back the ban by a margin of more than four to one, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found in a survey earlier this year. Some 82 percent of people polled approved of a ban, while 17 percent disapproved. That was the widest support the Washington-based think tank found in any of the five countries it surveyed.
September 14th, 2010
01:26 PM ET
September 14th, 2010
01:21 PM ET
My Take: Michael Moore and moving the Islamic center to ground zero
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN I usually ignore Michael Moore, who has long seemed to me a liberal doppelganger of the worst conservative ideologues. But when he said on September 11 that the Islamic community center should not be built near ground zero but on ground zero my ears perked up. Hadn’t I heard that before?
September 14th, 2010
12:28 PM ET
Lessons from the whole Quran episode(CNN) - When Terry Jones, a Florida pastor, announced his plan to burn Qurans on 9/11 with a tweet and an "International Burn a Koran Day" page on Facebook, he ignited an international conflagration of outrage. As news spread, worldwide condemnation and anxiety mounted. At least two people died in a demonstration in Afghanistan. It seemed this obscure self-proclaimed pastor in Gainesville, Florida, was determined to carry out an action of catastrophic global consequences. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates even called him. Jones finally changed his mind. Now that the crisis is over, CNN asked contributors to write their observations of what happened, and what lessons the pastor's threat and the events that followed can teach us. Read the full story here.
September 14th, 2010
11:57 AM ET
My Take: The Quran burning that wasn't: 7 lessons learned
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN 1. There are extremists in every religion. Islam has them. Christianity has them. We shouldn’t let our perceptions of Christianity be determined by Pastor Terry Jones , or our perceptions of Islam by al Qaeda. 2. Don’t let the extremists control the story. When Pastor Jones cancelled his 9/11 Quran burning and then abruptly neverminded us, you could almost hear a collective groan from the media: How and why did we end up giving this nut so much air time? The more important question is whether we are going to let the fringe control the religion conversation. We have done that in U.S. politics to a shocking extent. Are we going to let it happen with Islam?
September 14th, 2010
11:54 AM ET
Faith, polygamy and fears
Editor's note: Diane Noble is the award-winning author of "The Sister Wife," the first book in her new historical polygamy fiction series "Brides of Gabriel." "What religion are you?" Last week a young woman sent me an e-mail that opened with this question. She went on to say that she had picked up my book, "The Sister Wife," at Wal-Mart, thumbed through it, and then put it down again. Though the story intrigued her, she didn't want to buy the book until she knew if I was writing from a point of view that wouldn't offend her religious beliefs. That same evening at a book signing, a high school teacher told me a senior honors student had spotted my book in her handbag and asked about it. When the teacher gave her a brief synopsis, the girl looked distraught. She said that her religion should not be written about by an outsider. Furthermore, her teacher should not be reading this book. "There are things in it you shouldn't know," the girl said.
September 14th, 2010
07:56 AM ET
Mira Sorvino finds faith in new movieEditor's Note: Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino sat down with CNN's Belief Blog to talk about her new film Like Dandelion Dust. The film is based on the book by Christian author Karen Kingsbury. CNN's Chris Ford filed this report. Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino is the star of the latest film aimed at the faith community. Sorvino says she found faith in the story of a mother who gave her child up for adoption but has decided to try and get him back. While not overtly a religious film, Sorvino says "Like Dandelion Dust" contains religious values: forgiveness, love, and redemption. Watch what she had say in our interview. The film also stars Barry Pepper, Cole Hauser, Kate Levering, and Maxwell Perry Cotton and is directed by Jon Gunn. It is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including domestic violence and alcohol abuse. It will be playing in select theaters Sept. 24. |
  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 with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.