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:
Nuns pay their respects at a makeshift memorial to the victims on December 16.
CNN: Massacre of children leaves many asking, 'Where’s God?'
As he waited with parents who feared that their kids were among the 20 children killed at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday, Rabbi Shaul Praver said the main thing he could do for parents was to merely be present. From the first moments after Friday’s massacre, which also left six adults and the shooter dead, religious leaders were among the first people to whom worried and grieving families turned for help. Over the weekend, countless more Americans will look to clergy as they struggle to process a tragedy in which so many of the victims were children.
CNN: God will 'wrestle the light from darkness,' pastor tells heartbroken congregation
The bulletins were printed on Thursday for the third Sunday of Advent for Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown. There was no mention of Friday in the pages' long order for worship. By Sunday morning, the church was hosting its fourth service since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, and the sanctuary had been open for 72 straight hours keeping vigil. Speaking to a crowd still raw and still suffering, Pastor Kathleen Adams-Sheperd told them of the sermon she had prepared and how it was long gone, asking them to be patient with her as she preached with no notes.
CNN: National Cathedral dean: Let's 'mobilize the faith community for gun control'
On the first Sunday after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, the Rev. Gary Hall of the Washington National Cathedral called on religious communities to take a stance against gun violence. "The Christian community, indeed, the entire American faith community, can no longer tolerate this persisting and escalating gun violence against our people. Enough is enough," said Hall, who is the dean of the cathedral.
CNN: Huckabee: Lack of religion in classroom leads to violence in schools
Responding to the deadly mass shooting Friday in Newtown, Connecticut, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said new laws regulating guns won't deter such shootings, linking a lack of religious discussion in the classroom to increased violence in schools.
Tweet of the Day:
[tweet https://twitter.com/SteveChalke/status/280578679137001472%5D
Belief on TV:
Photo of the Day:
Photo credit: Essdras M Suarez/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
A group of Sikh men were among those came to Newtown to attend an interfaith service at Newtown High School on December 16, 2012 which was also attended by President Barack Obama. The service was held two days after gunman Ryan Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. and opened fire killing 20 children and several adults on December 14, 2012.
Enlightening Reads:
The Times of Israel: Newtown: twenty grieving Hannahs
Today my county, my state and my country are in a state of deep shock, following the massacre at Newtown. For a rabbi, especially one living in such close proximity to the murders, it has been reminiscent of the days following 9/11, when we had to discard all our Rosh Hashanah sermons and sift timeless messages through the filter of what suddenly was a very different world. That’s what I faced as Shabbat approached on Friday. How could I somehow find a message to convey that would filter Hanukkah through the horrors of Newtown. I immediately thought of the grief of Hannah.
Religion News Service: At Christmas, the babe in the manger isn’t always white
When the Rev. Kip Banks’ family pulls out its nativity scene each Christmas, the African features of the baby Jesus provide lessons on both the Bible and self-esteem. Banks’ 8-year-old son, Kip Jr., has told his father that the Christ child is both “black and white.” His father gently corrects him, telling him that the gospel story of Mary and Joseph's flight into Egypt with their young son shows that Jesus couldn't have been white. “If Jesus was white, with blond hair and blue eyes, then he'd have a very hard time hiding in Egypt,” said Banks, the father of three and the minister of public policy for the Washington-based Progressive National Baptist Convention.
Catholic News Agency: France's new monitoring policy deemed religious liberty threat
Religious freedom experts are decrying a recent announcement by the French government that it will deport and dissolve groups that are labeled extreme and appear to suffer from “religious pathology.” “It is a gross violation, in fact a negation, of basic religious freedom for the state to determine which religious beliefs are mainstream and which are radical for the purposes of banning the latter,” said Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C.
JTA: At White House, Chanukah’s light comes from Sandy-ravaged shul’s menorah
It has become something of a White House Chanukah tradition. For the second time, the Obama White House used a menorah from a hurricane-hit region to mark the holiday. This Chanukah, Rabbi David Bauman brought to the White House one of two 90-year-old menorahs that survived when Hurricane Sandy ravaged Temple Israel in Long Beach, N.Y. The menorah used in 2010 at the White House was from a New Orleans synagogue hit by Hurricane Katrina.
Quote of the Day:
To all the families, first responders, to the community of Newtown, clergy, guests - Scripture tells us: “…do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away…inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”...
... Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation. I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts. I can only hope it helps for you to know that you’re not alone in your grief; that our world too has been torn apart; that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you, we’ve pulled our children tight. And you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide; whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it. Newtown - you are not alone.
– – President Barack Obama at the vigil in Newtown, Connecticut honoring the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.
Join the conversation…
CNN: My Take: Fiscal cliff presents false choice between compassion, good economics
Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of the Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK and leader of the “Nuns on the Bus” says that when it comes to matters regarding the fiscal cliff Americans are “confronted with arguments framed as a hard, false choice between sound economic policies and social programs, between fiscal realities and compassionate acts.”
“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”=FALSE!
A man in China attacked and 'INJURED' 20 children using a 'KNIFE'.
A man in connecticut attacked and 'SLAUGHTERED' 20 children and 6 women and a man (himself) using (3) 'GUNS'.
I wish people are not too blind to see the 'HUGE' difference.
The answer is to the initial question, in religious context, seems obvious –
Where is God?, ummm Everywhere, as in omnipresent, and there is only supposed to be one.
This can be misleading to non-believers, but only to those not aware that our envirnment creates each one of us.
Our environment is our Creator, and well, all environments are, ummm Everything.
So the real starting question might better be offered as – What are the environmental factors, that could produce a monster, that could slaughter innocents?
And a follow up question might be – How can each of us assist to change that environment, to not produce more monsters?
Akira, you don't know jack.
Oh, jack. He is the guy at Chick-Fil-A who spits on the chicken sandwiches.
Oh, yes, Miss M, I do.
I know you're not Catholic.
I know you're not married, and if you got married in 1978, you would have been around 13.
I know you are not Italian, but German.
I know you tag-team with this name occasionally with your 'agapé'.
Shall I go on?
Take your false piety and shove it, liar.
" after gunman Ryan Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School i" From the photo of the day caption. How pathetic is your staff that you can't even get the most basic of your egregious errors corrected 3 days after the fact? When will the media be apologizing for all the misinformation they spewed on Friday in an attempt to keep people from flipping the channel, even when they had nothing of substance to say?
The media is a self indulgent machine and has no real desire to report the news as much as shape the news and public opinion.
Huckabee sounds like he's joined the Westboro Baptist Church, no?
Huckabee is the patron saint of Westboro
Really, Rice? Is there some kind of statue of him made out of corn in the town square?
Our God knows of all our pains,
Our God loves yet He refrains.
My God is your God too,
Your God is my God ever so true.
Their God is our God one and the same,
God cares for all creatures even the lame.
Love Lettuce,
Love Let Us.
G.O.D.
God's Oldest Dreamer
Can't say I agree with all of that, but I do enjoy lettuce. Great source of fiber.
Well at least you seem to be enjoying your senility.
27 people EVERY DAY die from drinking and driving related accidents. 18 childeren die EVERY MONTH from the same causes.
Lets outlaw drinking and driving.
Badger, it is illegal. Am I missing something?
Honey Badger Dont Care,
The social undulations of MADD denouncing drunk driving sees only the props of numeral equations and little changes in drunk driving deaths since MADD was conceptualized into being. Societies have become numbed to said drunk driving deaths and news agencies do little to push and make known all DUI deaths on a nationwide scale in televised principles.
AB,
Not missing anything at all. It is also illegal to go on a kiIIing spree at a school but people are talking about banning weapons again.
I don't think banning guns is the answer; better mental health screening and education, as well as banning assault weapons would be a start, though.
I do not see the point of assault weaponry in a non-military situation, I truly don't.
I agree with Akira on two point. Gun laws won't change much (and they just won't pass now anyway). And I do not see the point in them, or concealed carry, either. Studies show that neither improve security (for every crime stopped by an assault weapon or concealed weapon, another crime is committed by them).
But mental health screening is a can of worms, for there are literally hundreds of thousands of people theoretically capable of this sort of thing for every one who actually does. How do you control that? Institutionalize all of them? Way to expensive, and pretty repressive. They don't give much specific warning, so any criteria of "warning signs" will also imprison far more innocents than perpetrators.
I think people need to understand that we cannot control or legislate everything in this world, and trying too hard gets a totalitarian government.
It's about time we stopped throwing laws at everything, because there are too damn many on us individuals (and too damn few on corporations like the banks that got us into this recession).
We say we have a conscience yet we cannot see such a thing. What ways does one's conscience enfold and endure in a world torn and strewn by grief and demise? Where then does the conscience cry out for compassion and relief from the pangs of bitterness pains and just what is it that lightens one's load for living unto death's gate? Even the wicked and vile know well of God's Word yet they stammer about making vain attempts to delude the small minded weak of faith in order to gain in their small numbers more to be had of barrowed bitterness contempt against a being all do know of as the God of compassionate means! God in compassion will ever give those of righteousness, life everlasting but to those of dispassionate resoluteness will find no God come their demise in departures folds. For of Nothing is one's soul and onto nothingness do all souls abound and while nothingness knows well all matter's material way, all nothingness can do is watch with a great dismay!
Be you then your own god and stand aloof in saying there is no God declaring to others I am what I am and I am nothing the more wiser and in death will no more be anything but nothing as a being of nothingness forever so more!
more drivel ramblings from our Belief Blog Idiot.
noth·ing/ˈnəTHiNG/
Pronoun: Not anything; no single thing
Adjective: Having no prospect of progress; of no value
Adverb: Not at all
noth·ing·ness/ˈnəTHiNGnis/
Noun:
1. The absence or cessation of life or existence
2. Worthlessness; unimportance
This certainly does not describe anyone I know; how utterly sad that one would think this way about themself.
noth·ing·ness
[nuhth-ing-nis] Show IPA
noun
1. the state of being nothing.
2. something that is nonexistent: a view of humanity as suspended between infinity and nothingness.
3. lack of being; nonexistence: The sound faded into nothingness.
4. unconsciousness or death: She remembered a dizzy feeling, then nothingness.
5. utter insignificance, emptiness, or worthlessness; triviality
Therefore the bitter fruits of nothing becoming of nothingness is the wherewithal of bitter emptiness.
Please dont feed the troll.
Such a pity that you look up words after you put them in your posts.
The time to do this would be before you publish it.
HBDC:
I know, I know.
This is what it desires, and I know better.
Akira,
Your 'blemished' bemusements dares to me to be an enlightened ascertaining befuddle of laughable constraints! Try not to confuse those lots in case managements on your word only entrails. FYI, I know well my wordage usages while many who dares read my quips quirkiness candor are dispelled and go toward relativisms that will some day become them. I care not and you could care less! We are all what we want our self to be. For nothing really matters and no one really cares. Only the lonely are left to rant and dare rave!
Meh.
Whatever, you crazy old fvck.
My deepest sympathies to the families of the victims of the recent tragedy in Connecticut
People now ask why God allows such tragedies to happen-Allow me to share this:
People call on God using Jesus' name for protection and salvation-however Jesus himself cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
People do not realize that they are calling on the man who himself cried out he was forsaken by God!
How will God answer your call of salvation if you worship the man who cried out he was forsaken by God?
It is time for people to know why God forsook Jesus to die such a brutal death- May you read this link :
http://www.thename.ph/thename/revelations/greatestdeception-en.htm
No God, no worries.
Perhaps the best song ever written!
When He rolls up His sleeves
He ain't just putting on the ritz
There's thunder in His footsteps
And lightning in His fists
And the Lord wasn't joking
When He kicked 'em out of Eden
It wasn't for no reason
That He shed His blood
His return is very close
And so you better be believing that
Our God is an awesome God
Prove your God exists. Then we will discuss weather or not he is awesome.
I can feel Him in my heart brother! Joy on high.
One thing is for certain – your god is not my god so you can forget about the "our".
It's never too late to accept Him JWT. He loves you!
The bible and Christianity is a work of fiction. Next....
The Bible is the inspired word of our Heavenly Father. Rejoice, for He is the living God!
Subjective experience of a supernatural event is not acceptable evidence.
"The Bible is the inspired word of our Heavenly Father. Rejoice, for He is the living God!"
The stories found in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1-12, such as the flood story, the record is quite different: the time period under consideration is much more ancient. The factual bases of the stories are hidden from our view archaeologically. The stories remain a part of folk traditions and were included in the Bible to illustrate and explain theological ideas such as: Where did humans come from? If humans were created by God (who is perfect and good), how did evil among them come to be? If we are all related as children of God, why do we speak different languages? It must be remembered that the Bible is primarily a book of religion, a guide to faith. it was not a book of history, poetry, economics, or science. It contains all sorts of literary genre, which are used to teach about the relationship between God and mankind. Even biblical history is edited history: events were chosen to illustrate the central theme of the Bible. The Biblical writers did not pretend they were giving a complete history; instead they constantly refer us to other sources for full historical details, sources such as "The Annals of the Kings of Judah" (or Israel).
It is therefore not possible to try to "prove" the Bible by means of checking its historical or scientific accuracy. The only "proof" to which it can be subjected is this: Does it correctly portray the God-human relationship? In the best analysis, the Bible is a religious book, not an historical document.
I will pray for you Huebert, I know you will find Jesus some day! Bless you!
I am not a Bible literalist. What is important is that you rejoice in the love of the Lord!
" I know you will find Jesus some day! "
Your Jesus is a fraud. all hail Mithra! The original son of God!
Mithra
Was born of a virgin on December 25th, in a cave, attended by shepherds
Was considered a great traveling teacher and master
Had 12 companions or disciples
Promised his followers immortality
Performed miracles
Sacrificed himself for world peace
Was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again
Was celebrated each year at the time of His resurrection (later to become Easter)
Was called "the Good Shepherd"
Was identified with both the Lamb and the Lion
Was considered to be the "Way, the Truth and the Light," and the "Logos," "Redeemer," "Savior" and "Messiah."
Celebrated Sunday as His sacred day (also known as the "Lord's Day,")
Celebrated a Eucharist or "Lord's Supper"
"What is important is that you rejoice in the love of the Lord!"
Yeah, rejoice that your "Lord's" love allowed 20 innocent children to be shot to death many times! All rejoice in this Lord.
Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from Heaven above!
Brian, it is a terrible tragedy and mental illness is to blame. Look to God for comfort. Bless you.
"Brian, it is a terrible tragedy and mental illness is to blame. Look to God for comfort. Bless you."
The shooter went to a Christian school, yet your "Lord" didn't do anything to fix this mental illness, guess your God isn't so powerful and all knowing after all.
"Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from Heaven above!"
Yeah, it allows the killing of 20 innocent children, that's not awesome. You are one sick person.
I don't think the King of Kings operates quite the way you are thinking.
You pray for me, I'll think for you.
"I don't think the King of Kings operates quite the way you are thinking."
Brian haven't you figured out that when you challenge Christians, they'll only come back with excuses.
The Lord works in mysterious ways. I don't claim to understand the Almighty.
Huebert, I can think for myself thank you but I appreciate the offer LOL! Praise the Lord!
"The Lord works in mysterious ways. I don't claim to understand the Almighty."
See, Brian, I told you, more excuses.
It was nice chatting with you all. I have to go to work at the Chick-fil-A now.
I'm sorry, "Up with People", but you don't understand much.
I make a hell of a chicken sammich hal!
Poe.
Praise God, Bless all that this terrible event has touched, hoping they have some peace.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
PART ONE:
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE
"I BELIEVE" – "WE BELIEVE"
26 We begin our profession of faith by saying: "I believe" or "We believe". Before expounding the Church's faith, as confessed in the Creed, celebrated in the liturgy and lived in observance of God's commandments and in prayer, we must first ask what "to believe" means. Faith is man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life. Thus we shall consider first that search (Chapter One), then the divine Revelation by which God comes to meet man (Chapter Two), and finally the response of faith (Chapter Three).
One problem the bible is a work of fiction. Next....
Chick, is this in reference to one of the articles? It seems random...?
Apple, this person isn't even Catholic.
Good morning Akira!
Good morning, Apple!
Akira,
Yes, she is quite a case... how do you know so much about her, though?
roman catholism is a cult and has misrepresented God's word and His son, Jesus. No where does the Bible say to worship Mary or a host, or u have to confess to a Priest on this set day at this set time. It's a total work of man/fiction.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE "I BELIEVE" – "WE BELIEVE"
CHAPTER ONE MAN'S CAPACITY FOR GOD
I. The Desire for God
I. The Desire for God
27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:
The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.1
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behaviour: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:
From one ancestor (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."2
29 But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" (GS 19 # 1) can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man.3 Such atti.tudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that atti.tude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.4
30 "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice."5 Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.
You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. and man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.6
1 Vatican Council II, GS 19 # 1.
2 ⇒ Acts 17:26-28.
3 GS 19 # 1.
4 Cf. GS 19-21; ⇒ Mt 13:22; ⇒ Gen 3:8-10;⇒ Jon 1:3.
5 ⇒ Ps 105:3
6 St. Augustine, Conf. I, I, I: PL 32, 659-661.
What IF:
Knew her from another blog.
Everything she has presented herself to be here is false.
Brian – Chick-a-dee was quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church which is not the bible but much of it is rooted in scripture. You should consider the text which is in no way offensive or threatening to anyone but contains great words of wisdom.
Use g_od as a defense for a crime committed and see what happens !!