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Your Take: Should we have polling places in churches?
Many polling places are in churches.
November 6th, 2012
06:45 PM ET

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

- CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Filed under: 2012 Election • Church • Comments • Politics

Online conversations around Sandy feature God, prayer and atheism
A church sign from Sunday in a town on Long Island, New York.
October 30th, 2012
04:54 PM ET

Online conversations around Sandy feature God, prayer and atheism

By 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:

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog

Filed under: Comments • God

Your Take: Rebuttals to rethinking the Bible on homosexuality
What does the Bible really say about homosexuality? Readers responded to a professor's views on the issue.
May 17th, 2012
02:10 PM ET

Your Take: Rebuttals to rethinking the Bible on homosexuality

The 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:

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Filed under: Bible • Comments • Gay marriage

Your Take: Comments on a congressman's conversion to Islam
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison was raised Catholic but converted to Islam in college.
September 2nd, 2011
11:11 AM ET

Your Take: Comments on a congressman's conversion to Islam

It'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?):

RonnieReagan

Anyone notice this pattern?

Again the SHAMEFUL cnn promoting Islam and atheism at the expense of Christianity. I wonder what the schmucks at CNN will do when they realize the hammer is about to be dropped on their daughters by all the MOOSLIMS.

Lots of commenters vented anti-Muslim sentiments:

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog

Filed under: Comments • Islam • Politics

June 19th, 2011
10:01 PM ET

June 16th, 2011
12:07 PM ET

Your Take: Comments on Sarah Palin's e-mail from God

One 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:

ckbabs
I am certainly not a Sarah Palin political fan but I thought this email was wonderful. It truly shows that she, as a mother, views her beautiful boy as a blessing and perfect in spite of what society may say. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to hear those words from your doctor and spend months carrying the baby, not knowing just quite what this extra chromosome means. ... She embraced it and shows unconditional love. Truly refreshing. I wish we all could view everyone in the same light regardless of any differences

HealthyMom

I feel exactly the same way. When I see her name in headlines I usually cringe, but this piece of news is actually refreshing!

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Filed under: Comments • God • Politics • Sarah Palin • Technology

Your Take: Comments on evangelizing Weiner
June 15th, 2011
11:12 PM ET

Your Take: Comments on evangelizing Weiner

Tuesday'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:

lindsbry
Nothing wrong with what the evangelist guy said ... People – he's an evangelist!!

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Filed under: Christianity • Comments • Judaism • Politics

10 things the Belief Blog learned in its first year
June 8th, 2011
01:01 PM ET

10 things the Belief Blog learned in its first year

By 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.

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Filed under: Comments • Technology • Trends

Your Take: Comments on misquoting the Bible
June 6th, 2011
11:37 AM ET

Your Take: Comments on misquoting the Bible

Our 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:

Amanda
Because most people would prefer to be ignorant rather than think for themselves. That is what the whole of organized religion is based on, especially Christianity and Catholicism. Organized religion has never done anything good for humanity in history.

Atheism is Great!
Actually, the bible is nothing more than a collection of stories and moralities written by human beings thousands of years ago who's max age was maybe 30, who thought the Earth was flat, and who did not have access to scientific or medical science/information. It's not from "god" people, god doesn't exist either. Whatever helps you get through your life I guess. I personally don't need that crutch. Have a nice day.

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Filed under: Bible • Comments

Your Take: Commenters on doomsday leader's end of world revision
May 25th, 2011
09:49 PM ET

Your Take: Commenters on doomsday leader's end of world revision

This 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
The end of the world is a big deal. Preach on, brother. Since the end is surely coming, I would like to help you and your congregation by accepting all of your money since you won't be needing it. I imagine that all of us sinners will be buying & selling right up to the end, and I for one would like to relieve you of the trouble. Besides, I saw the new SLS this year & have a pretty good idea that I could have it if all of you paid for it.

FULL POST

- CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

Filed under: Comments • End times

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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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