Under God

Religious leaders ‘pray for Boston,’ contemplate evil in the world

Elizabeth Tenety — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:35:33 GMT

As news reports out of Boston continue to evolve from Monday’s bombing, religious and nonreligious leaders and activists contemplated the existence of evil and good.

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‘Pray for Boston’: Prayers stream in after Boston Marathon bombing

Elizabeth Tenety — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:38:30 GMT

Social media sites lit up Monday with prayers flowing in for the victims of Monday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon.

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Calling all ‘free-range Jews’

Michelle Boorstein — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:31:00 GMT

It’s official: Judaism isn’t a religion. Or, it isn’t only a religion.

That’s the argument of some leading Jewish educators, who say American Jews need to look hard at their beliefs and practices and embrace their reality. Which is that Jews strongly identify as Jewish, but that identity is in many ways a non-religious one.

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Rev. Luis Leon reveals response to his reference to gays in presidential inauguration

Ron Charles — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:24:45 GMT

Rev. Luis Leon said that he received “hundreds and hundreds of e-mails” about his reference to gays in the benediction at President Obama’s second inauguration.

In Sunday's sermon at St. John’s, the historic Episcopal church across from the White House, Leon said, “You’ve heard my sermons, so I know it didn’t surprise you, but it surprised a lot of other people.”

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‘The Bible’ trending after Sunday night History channel premiere

Elizabeth Tenety — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:56:17 GMT

It’s not every day that the Bible is trending on Twitter and Google.

But it’s also not every day that a Hollywood power couple produces a 10-hour miniseries taking viewers from the Garden of Eden to the Book of Revelation, all in HD.

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Entering the ‘sede vacante:’ Everything you need to know about the church after Pope Benedict XVI

Elizabeth Tenety — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:41:00 GMT

Benedict is pope no more. He is now His Holiness Benedict XVI, pope-emeritus.

At 8 p.m. Roman time, 2 p.m. Eastern, the Catholic Church entered a period called the sede vacante , (the empty chair). It is an interregnum, a period between two papacies. The church’s spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ noted last week that the church goes into a “holding pattern” until the conclave and election. The Swiss Guards standing at attention by Benedict have left their post, “their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over — for now,” notes the Associated Press. Church watcher Rocco Palmo also adds that at the same time, “in keeping with centuries of tradition, the papal apartment will [have been] sealed until the next pontiff takes possession of it.”

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Rep. Walter Jones: Dick Cheney probably going to hell for Iraq War policy

Georgetown/ On Faith — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:10:00 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Congress will not hold anyone to blame [for America’s wars in the Middle East]. Lyndon Johnson’s probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War, and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney.”

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Jon Huntsman: Conservatives should support same-sex marriage

Georgetown/ On Faith — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:45:53 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Today we have an opportunity to do more: conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry. I’ve been married for 29 years. My marriage has been the greatest joy of my life. There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love.”

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Benedict XVI leaves as popular pope, but no John Paul II

Scott Clement, Peyton M. Craighill — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Pope Benedict XVI steps down with an uptick in personal popularity and wide support for his decision to retire, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. But Benedict leaves his position less well-liked than his predecessor or the Roman Catholic Church overall, a sign that his own brand failed to take flight as did Pope John Paul II’s.

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Mark Sanford: We can learn from ‘a God of second chances’

Georgetown/ On Faith — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:49:50 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I’ve experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes. But in their wake we can learn a lot about grace, a God of second chances and be the better for it. In that light, I humbly step forward and ask for your help in changing Washington.”

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Poll: Mississippi most religious state, Vermont least religious

Georgetown/ On Faith — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:57:53 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Mississippi remained the most religious state in the union in 2012, with 58 percent of its residents classified as very religious. At the other end of the spectrum, Vermont remained the least religious state, with 19 percent of its residents classified as very religious.”

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On day Pope Benedict resigns, lightning strikes St Peter's: See the photo that’s lighting up the Internet

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 06:42:36 GMT

Pope Benedict XVI resigned his office Monday, effective Feb. 28, making him one of only a few pontiffs in history to voluntarily abdicate.

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Sen. Marco Rubio: I’m not the savior. (Jesus is.)

Georgetown/ On Faith — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:48:22 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “There is only one savior, and it is not me.#Jesus”

-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweets on the TIME cover story labeling him the “Republican savior.”

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Granddaughters of Westboro Baptist Church founder quit church, apologize for ‘hurt’

Caitlin Dewey — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:45:00 GMT

For all of her adult life and much of her childhood, Megan Phelps-Roper picketed funerals, condemned gays, and said she earnestly believed that most Americans were destined for hell.

But on Wednesday, the 27-year-old granddaughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps publicly said goodbye to all that.

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Obama adviser Joshua DuBois to leave Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships

Elizabeth Tenety — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:30:00 GMT

President Obama announced Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast that Joshua DuBois, head of his Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships would be leaving the post, effective Friday.

DuBois was 26 when he was chosen by the president to serve as director. Obama has often mentioned the inspiration he finds in DuBois’ daily Scripture e-mails, making the faith-based office director an informal spiritual adviser to the president.

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Obama: ‘We come together as children of God’

Elizabeth Tenety — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:51:16 GMT

The annual National Prayer Breakfast was held Thursday morning at the Hilton Washington International Ballroom in Washington, D.C. The annual event, first established by President Eisenhower in 1953, gathers a bipartisan group of political and religious leaders, as well as a diverse group of activists, to pray for America. Although the event is inclusive of many faiths, it is hosted by a Christian organization and calls for leaders to gather “to come together under the leadership example of Jesus.”

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Latter-day Saints: Proposition 8 support based on traditional view of marriage

Georgetown/ On Faith — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:21:32 GMT

“On the contrary, our members supported Proposition 8 based on sincere beliefs in the value of traditional marriage for children, families, society, and our republican form of government. Only a demeaning view of religion and religious believers could dismiss our advocacy of Proposition 8 as ignorance, prejudice, or animus.”

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Ron Paul on sniper Chris Kyle: Live by the sword, die by the sword

Georgetown/ On Faith — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:19:34 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Chris Kyle’s death seems to confirm that ‘he who lives by the sword dies by the sword.’ Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn’t make sense.”

--Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul sends a controversial tweet on Kyle, a Navy SEAL and sniper who was allegedly shot and killed by a fellow veteran at a firing range on Feb. 2. Paul cited a verse from the Gospel of Matthew (26:52).

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Stevie Wonder’s Bud Lite voodoo: It's ‘very superstitious’

Sally Quinn — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:05:48 GMT

Superstition is in. Even Stevie Wonder is into it. Even Budweiser is into it. “Very Superstitious”? That was Bud Light’s ad on TV for last night’s Super Bowl.

The commercial shows a guy gathering items to make a voodoo doll in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. An old sock, some strands of hair, a clump of grass. He goes into a bar, orders a Bud and clicks his glass with the bartender. They both look ominous. Then, he walks down a dark corridor of candles and into a room where a white suited Stevie Wonder grins menacingly. “You lookin’ for a little mojo? “ he asks. “Let’s get lucky!”

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At Super Bowl 2013, ‘God made a farmer' and Tide had a ‘Miracle Stain’

Elizabeth Tenety — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 04:15:52 GMT

With a voice-over from radio broadcaster Paul Harvey’s 1978 speech at the Future Farmer’s of America convention, Ram trucks delivered a spiritually-themed Super Bowl ad Sunday night titled ‘Farmer:’

And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.

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Four things to know about Catholics, HHS and contraception

Elizabeth Tenety — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:18:05 GMT

The Obama administration announced Friday a new opt-out for faith groups protesting the HHS mandates over coverage of birth control, “one that will allow large faith-based hospitals and universities to issue plans that do not directly provide birth control coverage,” Post reporters Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Kliff noted. Here are four items to keep in mind as this story unfolds:

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Ed Koch quotes Daniel Pearl on tombstone: ‘My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish.’

Elizabeth Tenety — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:35:27 GMT

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch died Friday of congestive heart failure at 88.

Koch, born in 1924 to Jewish Polish immigrants, told the Associated Press in 2008 that he was so moved by some of slain journalist Daniel Pearl’s last words, spoken on a hostage video, that he chose to have them engraved on his tombstone.

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Pollster: Religious freedom fights likely to continue

Georgetown/ On Faith — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:16:19 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Protestants and Catholics, who represent nearly three-quarters of Americans, must discern a path that takes seriously the increasing religious diversity of the nation and how religious freedom in America affects freedoms in other countries. By any measure, matters of religious freedom are likely to be an area of significant struggle in the years to come.”

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‘Jihad’ ads come to D.C. Metro stations

Elizabeth Tenety — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:10:00 GMT

Aiming to “reclaim jihad from Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists alike,” Muslim activists this week announced that their “#My jihad” ad campaign began running Monday in D.C. metro stations. The ads have previously appeared on buses in San Francisco and Chicago.

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Al Gore: Weather news ‘like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation’

Georgetown/ On Faith — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 23:14:44 GMT

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Look at your first story about the flooding in Australia. Today is the three month anniversary of superstorm Sandy here. Two years ago in my home city Nashville, massive flooding. These storms – it’s like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation on the news every day now and people are connecting the dots.”

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