By Arielle Hawkins, CNN
Here's the Belief Blog’s morning rundown of the top faith-angle stories from around the United States and around the world. Click the headlines for the full stories.
From the Blog:
CNN: The making of Mitt Romney: A look at his faith journey
Romney hopes the nation is ready to embrace a president who happens to be Mormon. But he has faced questions about his faith since first getting into politics in 1994, when he ran for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts against Democratic stalwart Ted Kennedy. When Kennedy’s nephew, Joe, attacked Romney’s Mormonism, the insult drew a strong public response from Romney’s father – a former governor of Michigan who’d himself run for president – and failed to gain traction.
CNN: In Obama’s first term, an evolving Christian faith and a more evangelical style
Welcome to the intense, out-of-the-box and widely misunderstood religious life of President Barack Obama. Though he famously left his controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the year he was elected to the presidency, a handful of spiritual advisers close to Obama say that his time in office has significantly deepened his faith. Stephen Mansfield, a former Christian pastor who wrote the book “The Faith of Barack Obama,” goes so far to say that Obama has experienced a spiritual transformation.
CNN: On holiday of sacrifice, many Syrians cannot celebrate
Artillery shelling, water outages and food shortages, rather than presents and sweets, greeted many Syrians on the most important Muslim holiday of the year. "There is no Eid here. What are you even talking about? How can you have Eid amid shelling? May God watch over us. We have rockets falling over us. The situation is horrific. Eid has no meaning for us," Abu Fouz, a 48-year-old resident of Aleppo, told CNN.
Soldiers stand guard after a suicide attacker drove a car bomb into a church in Kaduna, Nigeria.
CNN: Suicide bomber kills 7 in Nigerian church
A suicide bombing killed seven people and wounded more than 100 others Sunday at a Catholic church in Nigeria, an emergency management official said. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the attack, saying it was "barbaric, cruel and uncalled for." Scores of people have been killed in church bombings in the country in recent years.
Tweets of the Day:
[tweet https://twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/262748500276686849%5D
[tweet https://twitter.com/DalaiLama/status/262848145032101888%5D
Belief on TV:
Enlightening Reads:
Haaretz: Jerusalem's old railway station back on track
The city's 19th-century abandoned station is to be transformed into a cultural and culinary complex, which developers promise will open on Shabbat and will serve non-kosher food.
Religion News Service: Who is most likely to stray? Christians and Jews
With their “True Love Waits” jewelry, conferences and T-shirts, Christians may be the face of the abstinence movement, but Muslims and Hindus are more likely to abstain from premarital sex. That's the conclusion of a new study in the American Sociological Review, which also found that Muslims and Hindus - at least in the developing world - are more likely than Christians and Jews to refrain from extramarital sex.
The Miami Herald: A Miami priest accused of sex abuse for fourth time shrouds Miami archdiocese in controversy
Longtime Catholic priest Rolando Garcia is accused of sexual abuse for the fourth time, prompting the Archdiocese of Miami to take a defensive stand while many parishioners condemn him.
The Guardian: Peru university in Vatican battle over right to call itself Catholic
The Vatican is locked in a bitter dispute with one of South America's top universities in a row that has resurrected ideological differences within the Catholic church long thought to have been consigned to cold war history. At stake is the seemingly obscure issue of whether the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima can any longer describe itself as either Catholic or pontifical – ie, papal. The dispute has highlighted lingering antipathy between Roman Catholic conservatives and proponents of liberation theology, which in the 1970s and 1980s created a bridge in Latin America between radical priests and leftwing militants.
Join the conversation…
CNN: When ‘God’s will,’ rape and pregnancy collide
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock stirred controversy during a debate in Indiana Tuesday when he said pregnancies from rape are “something that God intended to happen.” The instant reaction in political circles was predictable: Democrats decried him, and many conservative Republicans defended his position as steadfastly “pro-life.”
People change. The Lord God does not unfortunately.
DID YOU KNOW?
During his presidency, James Madison vetoed two bills that he believed would violate the separation of church and state. He also came to oppose the long-established practice of employing chaplains at public expense in the House of Representatives and Senate on the grounds that it violated the separation of church and state and the principles of religious freedom**. Starting from their anger over feuding Christian sects in their home state, until the end of their lives, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were fervent promoters of the separation of church and state.
Who is James Madison? He was the 4th President of the United States and the chief architect of the U.S. Constitution.
** Library of Congress – James Madison Papers – Detached memorandum, ca. 1823.
"PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR NATION"
This is because the god(s) are not paying attention and must be begged to know, (well remember) what their omniscience already knows, and to do what their omniscience already knows they will be doing.
Now THAT makes sense.
Yup.
It shore does. 🙂
CALLING ALL CHRISTIANS!!!! DO NOT BE DECEIVED – THOMAS MONSON, SEER, REVELATOR, PRESIDENT OF THE MORMON CHURCH WILL BE MAKING ALL THE DECISIONS FOR THIS COUNTRY. EVEN BILLY GRAHAM HAS BEEN DUPED!! PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR NATION – THIS IS A "MORMON MOMENT" THAT HAS BEEN IN THE MAKING SINCE JOSEPH SMITH RAN FOR PRESIDENT IN 1844. PLEASE DO THE RESEARCH – GOOGLE WHITE HORSE PROPHESY. READ MICHEAL MOODY'S BOOK – READ BOOK OF MORMON GIRL! WE HAVE BEEN DECEIVED – PLEASE SEEK THE LORD AND ASK HIM TO REVEAL THE TRUTH – OUR COUNTRY DEPENDS ON IT. OUR GOD IS NOT THE SAME AS THE MORMON GOD – OUR JESUS IS NOT THE SAME AS THE MORMON JESUS. PRAY FOR OUR MORMON BROTHERS AND SISTERS – MOST ARE INNOCENT AND NEED OUR SAVIOUR. MITT ROMNEY IS ANOTHER JOSEPH SMITH – GLENN BECK IS HIS JOHN THE BAPTIST/MORMON – WHO STARTED ALL THE RUMORS IN 2007 – GLENN BECK – HE'S A MORMON!
I love it when people type in all caps. I can't think of a more efficient way to tell the entire board that you nothing of value to say.
Well, unless you forewarn them with your moniker, like "Reason." "truth be told," "Madrep," or "Truth."
meh
From http://www.mormon.org,
“Jesus Christ, Our Savior
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and the Son of God.”
Luke 9:49 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. 50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.
We may not agree with all their teachings, but at least they aren’t antichrist. They believe Jesus is their savior and the son of God. If they pull a Jim Jones or David Koresh then we can classify them as a cult.
So Robert Brown, considering the mass murders that Christians did in the Inquisitions, simply by your metric and reasoning, we should definitively label Christianity as a cult. Thanks for your contribution. I think that once more people recognize that Christianity is just one more cult/supersti-tion, we will see more people leaving it and its idiocies behind and replacing their cult with more solid moral bases.
Sue,
Christians are a rough bunch, love others as you love yourself, forgive those who mistreat you, turn the other cheek, help others, judge not, and all that other mean stuff.
Mormonism is a cult, no doubt. The twist they have put on basic Christian beliefs is not only a lie, but also beyond belief – literally out of this world.
Prayer changes things
Prove it.. go ahead, use prayer to change the course, speed, and wind velocity of Hurricane Sandy. We'll be waiting. If it doesn't work, then I guess you're just not that worthy or devout, are you?
It is written it rains on the just and the unjust. I will get wet so will you.
You're already all wet, Turdy.
"Ronald Regonzo" who degenerates to:
"Salvatore" degenerates to:
"Douglas" degenerates to:
"truth be told" degenerates to:
"Thinker23" degenerates to:
"Atheism is not healthy ..." degenerates to:
"another repentant sinner" degenerates to:
"Dodney Rangerfield" degenerates to:
"tina" degenerates to:
"captain america" degenerates to:
"Atheist Hunter" degenerates to:
"Anybody know how to read? " degenerates to:
"just sayin" degenerates to:
"ImLook'nUp" degenerates to:
"Kindness" degenerates to:
"Chad" degenerates to
"Bob" degenerates to
"nope" degenerates to:
"2357" degenerates to:
"WOW" degenerates to:
"fred" degenerates to:
"!" degenerates to:
"pervert alert"
This troll is not a christian.
Prayer does not; you are such a LIAR. You have NO proof it changes anything! A great example of prayer proven not to work is the Christians in jail because prayer didn't work and their children died. For example: Susan Grady, who relied on prayer to heal her son. Nine-year-old Aaron Grady died and Susan Grady was arrested.
An article in the Journal of Pediatrics examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. They concluded that four out of five ill children, who died under the care of faith healers or being left to prayer only, would most likely have survived if they had received medical care.
The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs.
I'm sorry, "Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things", but your assertions regarding atheism and prayer are unfounded. Using my Idiomatic Expression Equivalency module, the expression that best matches the degree to which your assertions may represent truths is: "TOTAL FAIL".
I see that you repeat these unfounded statements with high frequency. Perhaps the following book can help you:
I'm Told I Have Dementia: What You Can Do... Who You Can Turn to...
by the Alzheimer's Disease Society
ok here comes the hurricane ... so is this a naturally occuring event, or is this some kind of "punishment" from some sadistic "god" to get us to mane our sinful ways? Go ahead, pray ALL you want, it won't change the course or wind speed of Sandy.
Churches are built with lightening rods...why is that?
Sorry that should be mend, not mane .. I need to return these rented fingers and get a new set.
Roy... would you trust their "god"? lol "He" might have an off day and his aim might be a little off kilter once in a while lol