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July 26th, 2011
01:43 PM ET
Christian Dems take on debt ceiling in new adsBy The CNN Political Unit (CNN) - An organization of Democratically-aligned Christian leaders will launch new radio ads Tuesday attacking Republicans for neglecting Biblical lessons to care for the needy in their plans to raise the debt ceiling, according to the group. Sojourners, a progressive Christian coalition led by Rev. Jim Wallis, will place ads narrated by local pastors on Christian and country radio stations in House Speaker John Boehner's Ohio congressional district and statewide in Kentucky, targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Nevada, in support of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The size of the buy has not yet been disclosed. The minute-long spot attacking Boehner's plan says the book of Proverbs "teaches that where there is not leadership a nation falls and the poor are shunned while the rich have many friends." Read the full story about the new Christian debt ads on CNN's Political Ticker
July 26th, 2011
12:20 PM ET
Winehouse burial raises Jewish questions about tattoos, cremationBy Richard Allen Greene, CNN LONDON (CNN) - Your Jewish grandmother might have told you not to get a tattoo if you want to be buried in a Jewish cemetery when you die. If you ignored her, rest easy - not only progressive Jews, but Britain's Orthodox Jews now have no problem with burying Jews with tattoos. The question came up Tuesday as the heavily tattooed Amy Winehouse was laid to rest in a traditional Jewish ceremony in London. The funeral was conducted by a rabbi and the Winehouse family will sit shiva - the Jewish custom and tradition of receiving guests in their home - starting Tuesday night, Winehouse spokesman Chris Goodman said. Winehouse was cremated, Goodman added - a more controversial practice among Jews.
July 26th, 2011
10:15 AM ET
My Take: Christians should denounce Norway's Christian terrorist
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN Ideas matter; thoughts have force. This is an obvious truth. It is why pastors preach, why professors profess, and why pundits do whatever they do. Yet whenever ideas do things we do not want them to do, as they did in Oslo , Norway on Friday, we try to pretend that ideas are powerless. For the last two decades, Christian students have told me that Christianity had nothing to do with the Holocaust. After 9/11, many Muslims said that the men who flew those planes into those buildings had nothing to do with Islam. When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot, we were told that the crime had nothing to do with our current climate of political hatred. Unpacking the 'Christian fundamentalist' label for Norway terror suspect? Now in the wake of the Oslo massacre bloggers and pundits are reassuring us that the crimes of the alleged perpetrator Anders Behring Breivik can be understood simply as the product of a deranged mind. They had nothing to do with his Christian faith or his anti-Islamic ideology. This is wishful thinking of the most dangerous sort.
July 26th, 2011
04:56 AM ET
Atheist group wants to stop World Trade Center crossA group of atheists has filed a lawsuit to stop the display of the World Trade Center cross at a memorial of the 9/11 terror attacks. The "government enshrinement of the cross was an impermissible mingling of church and state," the American Atheists say in a press statement. The group says it filed the lawsuit this week in state court in New York and posted a copy of the lawsuit on its website. The lawsuit names many defendants, including the state of New Jersey, the city of New York , New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
July 25th, 2011
01:53 PM ET
My Take: Norway attacks show why you can't #blamethemuslims
By Khalid Latif, Special to CNN In the immediate aftermath of 1995’s Oklahoma City bombing, much of the news media rushed to suggest that a Muslim, or at least a Middle Eastern connection, was behind the attack. News reports on television and in print featured Middle East terrorism experts claiming the Oklahoma City attack echoed a World Trade Center bombing two years earlier and that it contained parallels to recent Mideast attacks. The FBI picked up Ibrahim Ahmad, a Jordanian American, for questioning in an initial dragnet. Does 'Christian fundamentalist' label fit Norway terror suspect? Of course, it turned out that the attacker was homegrown and named Timothy McVeigh, not a Muslim. Sixteen years later, not much has changed.
July 25th, 2011
11:13 AM ET
Is 'Christian fundamentalist' label correct for Norway terror suspect?By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor (CNN) - Given initial suspicions that Friday's bombing and mass shooting in Norway were carried out by Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda, the way police ended up describing the suspect behind the attacks came as a big surprise even to many security experts: The alleged attacker was called a "Christian fundamentalist." But experts on European politics and religion say that the Christian fundamentalist label could overstate the extent to which the suspect, Anders Behring Breivik - who has told authorities that he carried out the attacks - was motivated by religion, and the extent to which he is tied to a broader religious movement. "It is true that he sees himself as a crusader and some sort of Templar knight," said Marcus Buck, a political science professor at Norway's University of Tromso, referring to an online manifesto that Breivik appears to have authored and which draws inspiration from medieval Christian crusaders. My Take: Norway attacks shows terrorism isn't just Islamic "But he doesn't seem to have any insight into Christian theology or any ideas of how the Christian faith should play any role in Norwegian or European society," Buck wrote in an email message. "His links to Christianity are much more based on being against Islam and what he perceives of as 'cultural Marxism.'"  Carl Medearis with Sheikh Nabil Qawouk Hezbollah’s number two leader.
July 24th, 2011
01:00 AM ET
My Take: Why evangelicals should stop evangelizing
By Carl Medearis, Special to CNN Let’s do an exercise. I want you to fill in the blank on what you think you know about me based on what I’m about to tell you. Here goes: Twenty years ago, I became a missionary. My wife and I left our home in Colorado Springs, Colorado to move to Beirut, Lebanon. Our job description was to plant churches and evangelize to Muslims. Based on what I just said, Carl Medearis is a ______________ . Depending on your background, the blank may look something like this: Carl Medearis is a... hero of the Christian faith, a saintly super-man willing to sacrifice the comforts of home in order to share the love of Jesus Christ with those who have never heard the gospel. Or this: Carl Medearis is a... right-wing extremist who destroys cultures, tears apart families and paves the way for neo-colonialist crusaders to invade, occupy and plunder the resources of local populations. 
July 23rd, 2011
11:41 AM ET
Obama pressed on faith-based hiringBy Alexander Mooney, CNN (CNN)–President Obama signaled Friday he has no intention of rescinding a controversial executive order that permits some faith-based organizations that receive federal funding to discriminate against non-believers in their hiring practices. The president’s comments on the matter came during a town hall event in Maryland, when a questioner who identified herself as an atheist pressed Obama on statements he made as a candidate in 2008 suggesting he was against permitting discriminatory hiring among faith-based organizations backed by taxpayer dollars. “It’s very straightforward that people shouldn’t be discriminated against for race, gender, sexual orientation, and – or religious affiliation,” Obama said Monday. “What has happened is, is that there has been a carve-out, dating back to President Clinton’s presidency, for religious organizations in their hiring for particular purposes.” The executive order in question, issued by President Clinton and affirmed by President Bush in 2002, states that while religious organizations that receive federal funds cannot discriminate against beneficiaries of their programs, they “may retain religious terms in its organization's name, select its board members on a religious basis, and include religious references in its organization's mission statements and other chartering or governing documents.” Read the full story from the 1600 Report
July 23rd, 2011
01:00 AM ET
New York synagogue restores Torah that survived confiscation by Nazis The Torah from Kolin, in the former Czechoslovakia. By Philip Rosenbaum, Matthew Moskowitz and Jonathan O’Beirne, CNN New York (CNN) - Help wanted: Someone who can sit in one place for hours on end, has the hand-eye coordination of a brain surgeon, a yogi’s power of concentration, a linguist’s knack for languages – especially ancient Hebrew – and a monk’s ability to work alone in contemplative silence, all while avoiding impure thoughts. The hypothetical job posting, which you’re not likely to see in the classifieds, is for a sofer, or Torah scribe. Every day, scribes around the world spend painstaking hours writing new Torahs – which contain the first five books of the Bible – by hand and restoring damaged or old ones that show the natural ravages of time that could make the scrolls unusable for services.
July 22nd, 2011
12:44 PM ET
New reality series tracks lives of American MuslimsBy Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor (CNN) - TLC is premiering a reality series about the lives of American Muslims this fall, "All American Muslim," the cable TV network announced this week. The series tracks five Muslim families living around Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the nation's largest Muslim enclaves. The series is about “inviting viewers into a world they might not otherwise experience,” said TLC's general manager Amy Winter in a press release. |
  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.
Editor's Note: Imam Khalid Latif is a chaplain for New York University and Executive Director of the school's 
Editor's Note: 