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Online conversations around Sandy feature God, prayer and atheismBy Conor Finnegan, CNN (CNN) - As millions of Americans begin to clean up from Superstorm Sandy, many will turn to insurance companies to cover damages caused by an “act of God.” It’s legalese for natural disasters. Some of the online conversation around Sandy have treated it as such an act, with the term “prayer” trending on Facebook on Monday, as the nation awaited the storm’s landfall. We noticed four themes emerging that touch on God and religion on Facebook, Twitter and in CNN.com’s comments sections: ![]() What does the Bible really say about homosexuality? Readers responded to a professor's views on the issue. Your Take: Rebuttals to rethinking the Bible on homosexualityThe Bible clearly condemns homosexuality - and, by extension, same-sex marriage - right? A guest "My Take" post we ran this week from a college psychology professor who has a background in religion (he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, for instance) challenged that conventional wisdom. The professor, Daniel A. Helminiak, argues that foes of same-sex marriage have assigned modern, ethics-laden meanings to biblical passages on homosexuality to make it seem like the Bible unequivocally condemns it. In fact, Helminiak proposes, the original meanings of such passages about gays are at the very least ambiguous. The piece has generated an avalanche of response: 10,000 Facebook shares, 6,000 comments, 200 tweets and a couple of blog posts. Giving the other side its say, here's a rebuttal roundup of critical reactions from across the Internet: Your Take: Comments on a congressman's conversion to IslamIt's no surprise that our Thursday post on U.S. Rep Keith Ellison's conversion from Catholicism to Islam fetched loads of comments. Some commenters discerned a pattern of CNN conspiring against Christianity (have they noticed all our thoughtful stories about Christianity?):
Lots of commenters vented anti-Muslim sentiments: Your Take: Comments on Sarah Palin's e-mail from GodOne theme to emerge in the comments on yesterday's post about Sarah Palin penning an e-mail in God's voice is that a lot of her critics were quite moved by her note:
Your Take: Comments on evangelizing WeinerTuesday's post about one of the nation's leading evangelicals encouraging scandalized U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who is Jewish, to try Jesus instead of therapy garnered upward of 900 comments. Some commenters defended the evangelical leader in question, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler:
10 things the Belief Blog learned in its first yearBy Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor (CNN) - In case you were wondering about all the balloons and cake: CNN’s Belief Blog has just marked its first birthday. After publishing 1,840 posts and sifting through 452,603 comments (OK, we may have missed one or two) the Belief Blog feels older than its 12 months would suggest. But it also feels wiser, having followed the faith angles of big news stories, commissioned lots of commentary and, yes, paid attention to all those reader comments for a solid year. 10 things we've learned: 1. Every big news story has a faith angle. Even the ordeal of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for more than two months. Even the attempted assassination of Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Even March Madness. Even - well, you get the point. Your Take: Comments on misquoting the BibleOur Sunday post about oft-quoted biblical lines that don't actually appear in the Bible struck a chord, with 5,000 comments so far. Lots of atheists and critics of religion used the piece to ridicule believers, taking several different lines of attack. Here are a two:
Your Take: Commenters on doomsday leader's end of world revisionThis week's Belief Blog story on doomsday leader Harold Camping claiming he still expects the world to end on October 21, even after the apocalyptic events he predicted for Saturday failed to materialize, fetched nearly 5,000 comments. Lots of you left tongue-in-cheek ripostes to Camping's insistence that he merely misinterpreted the Bible's guidance about Judgement Day: Cleveland |
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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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Your Take: Should we have polling places in churches?
By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor
(CNN) - It's an election issue that gets virtually no attention, but we found out today that many of you do feel strongly about it: Churches being used as Election Day polling places.
A guest Belief Blog piece on the subject Tuesday morning, "My Take: Stop using churches as polling places," fetched more than a thousand comments, prompting us to ask Twitter followers to share their church-based voting experiences and pictures. Then we noticed the "My Take" rising to near the top of reddit politics, sparking a lively discussion there.
Lots of you who cast ballots inside a house of worship today were bothered by it. Others were bothered by the notion of church-based voting, whether or not you participated in it. A sampling of opposition to church-based voting:
FULL POST
Filed under: 2012 Election • Church • Comments • Politics