
By Laura Koran, 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: Baby boomer nuns revolutionize health care
The baby boomer generation's efforts at creating social justice dramatically transformed history – from the Vietnam War to gay rights. Even institutions that kept tradition at their very core – institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church – were radically changed by this generation.
CNN: Decades-long fight for Jewish freedom remembered
If asked to name the monumental chapters in Jewish history over the past century, people are likely to name the Holocaust or the founding of the state of Israel. Overlooked and largely unknown, especially among younger generations, is a tale that spanned decades and transcended politics, people and places.

Rachel Held Evans is the author of "A Year of Biblical Womanhood."
CNN: 'Bible Belt' meets 'Borscht Belt'
Rachel Held Evans bridges the divide between the belts in her new book, “The Year of Biblical Womanhood,” the result of an experiment in which she lived the Old and New Testament's instructions for women as literally as possible for an entire year. Listen to the the CNN Profile of Rachel Held Evans at CNN Radio's Soundwaves.
Tweet of the Day:
[tweet https://twitter.com/MuslimIQ/status/285583472368680960%5D
Enlightening Reads:
Politico: White House petitions hit Westboro church
More than 260,000 people have signed a petition to the White House asking for it to label the notorious Westboro Baptist Church a hate group.
The Guardian: Muhammad cartoons: French magazine to publish illustrated prophet biography
The French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which sparked controversy and legal complaints after publishing cartoons of Muhammad, will this week release a special edition illustrated biography of the Muslim prophet.
CNN: Woman accused of murder as a hate crime in NYC subway push death
A 31-year-old Bronx woman has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime in the death of a man shoved in front of a subway train, Queens prosecutors said Saturday.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Polish store employees indicted for anti-Semitic merchandise
An indictment was filed against a store in Poland for selling anti-Semitic accessories for soccer fans. The Lodz District Attorney's Office filed the indictment Friday with the district court in that city.
Belief on TV:
Opinion of the Day:

A woman prays in church. Many Christians say they can audibly hear the voice of God.
CNN: My Take: If you hear God speak audibly, you (usually) aren’t crazy
Tanya Marie (“T.M.”) Luhrmann, psychological anthropologist and the author of "When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God," explains that hearing the voice of God isn’t as unusual as many would believe.
CNN: My Take: It’s time for evangelicals to speak up about guns
Pastor and author Daniel Darling urges evangelicals to participate in the debate over access to guns, and to acknowledge that there is “no clear-cut Christian position on gun control.”
Join the conversation…
CNN: Hobby Lobby faces millions in fines for bucking Obamacare
Craft store giant Hobby Lobby is bracing for a $1.3 million a day fine beginning January 1 for noncompliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare. The company opposes providing some contraceptives to employees through its company health care plan on religious grounds, saying some contraceptive products, like the morning after pill, equate to abortion.
2012 was a great year, without god(s).
2013 will be without god(s) too.
We've got a baseline. 2 hrs 39 min before Happy posted the same lie that was refuted not only two days ago on this blog but was also refuted IN HIS CITED SOURCE. Obviously, happy read his source, knew this alleged quote was attributed to a charachter in a satrical play during the Protestant reformation NOT to the pope, & still posted it – twice – for the purposed of creating misinformation (aka lies).
There's a lot of misinformation, lies, liars and posers on the internet.
Thought you knew that.
I wouldn't say that is uncivil. Perhaps plagaristic for not citing the play, but satire is a great form of comedy, quoting from a satirical play should hardly be taken seriously. But if we were betting I was going to take before noon CT 😉
ok totally taking a different track here with the whole "god" thing.
why is it so many chirstian fall for these charlatans year after year about "the end of days".
doesn't your own book read "man shall not know the day nor the hour of his demise"?
then if you folks truly read the dam book, why is it you have cults and the like even exsist
wouldn't it make sense that your god would shine a light on the "second coming" kindof how he did when jesus was born the first time?
i guess what they say is true..........................." a stooge born every minute."
WASP,
You are correct that we shouldn’t proclaim the day or the hour. Jesus taught that the important thing was to always be ready.
robert brown
correction. Men said Jesus said. We have no idea what Jesus said, nor do we have anything saying he really existed.
!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
http://www.123newyear.com/123newyear-images/happy-new-year/20/happy-new-year-2013-picture-1024×768.jpg
Only God can make a cell of living atomized matter! Only the family members of God can establish the cellular cosmologies of all living realms to finally evolve mankind's celestially megalithic cellular omnivore races.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God created men and women in Genesis chapter 1 while in Genesis 2, the LORD God did imitate God on the highest by creatively imitating God since the LORD God was God's first born of the Godly kinds.
I cite, Gen 1:26 And God said, Let "US" make man in our image, after our likeness.
For the LORD God was around when he saw God create the cosmos and its many universes and all the inner cosmologically created cellular beings.
God and LORD God are two very differently individuals of godliness and this is why Genesis chapters one and two seem to be a repet I tive construct of wordage yet it is but of differences in who created and which came first (God) and then came secondly, the imitator (LORD God).
Celebrating New Year's Eve a little early, aren't you?
Tom,
Just staying ahead of the curve! Over three years of sobriety and counting! Brother though is a different story, 🙁
This one is still trying to say God's running around in his body. I tried to tell him you've got to keep the lanes open. Have some damn prunes the night before if necessary. Those little bugs you get from yogurt and sauerkraut are good for you, but don't keep that junk around forever. I've always thought Lion's problem was that he was bit by a rabid dog while reading Thoreau, but maybe he's just bound up.
mama k,
Your writing in third-person relations does not rectify my roots beliefs. A simple mechanical 'bacteria' and even an enzyme are the machines whereby the sons and daughters of God do control in ways such as the likes of us may soon someday be able to fabricate upon a higher scale of relativity. We or rather science is now ensuing to be the imitators of Godly built machines of bio-genetic mechanisms. Today's re-engineered bio-nanotechnology marvels are still only Godly imitations of our sciences' creeds. Only thru science's psychically motivated and spirited soulful impartations will there ever be the steady streams of knowledge imparted to scientific understandings beyond the common folks' abilities for understanding.
Happy New Year
Raising a chalice of wine into the air, Pope X Leo toasted: "How well we know what a profitable superst_ition this fable of Christ has been for us ...
Make mine a g o b l e t of g r a p e juice and I'll raise it up in a toast for remembering the good things passing in hopes of better things coming!
No Need for religions to say a thing they should be answering the statement below!
ORIGIN OF LIFE: Hypothesis Traces First Protocells Back to Emergence of Cell Membrane Bioenergetics
Dec. 20, 2012 — A coherent pathway – which starts from no more than rocks, water and carbon dioxide and leads to the emergence of the strange bio-energetic properties of living cells – has been traced for the first time in a major hypothesis paper in Cell this week.
Let us know when science 'really' creates a living cellular being of atomized matter!
looks like they found the truth.
They are making Ears
Ears on a mouse's backside but still no scientific creation of a singular cell from matter alone!
@LL
You better watch How It Is Made to find out how the EARS are created !!!
they should run the story above on belef blog
It was just released.. The truth has been found.
Happy,,
If I am correct did not science take a stem cell and use a scaffolding of sorts to be implanted upon the backside of a mouse/rat? Cite me if I am wrong!
@LL
Just watched they are making complete EARS and heart valves now.for transplant according to the show How it is Made.
Dec. 27, 2012 — Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have developed a novel method for fabricating collagen structures that maintains the collagen's natural strength and fiber structure, making it useful for a number of biomedical applications.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121227110724.htm
How about something new & different? Shall we lay bets on how long the conversation on this blog can remain civil?
What's the over/under?