Search for "CNN International cleantalkorg2.ru Headlines Videos Stories and Videos on News breaking newstoday bbc news news word BBC News World"

Missing the Extra Point: The Real Cause of Tebow Fever

By Carter Turner

…eyes? Many people of faith believe they see God’s intervening work in the world every day. They watch Tebow because they know a miracle when they see it, and with him, they’ve seen it a lot. On the other end of the spectrum are those who don’t believe God exists, or don’t believe God gives a hoot about football. These people watch because they want to see Tebow fail, and with it the faith that an active God routinely intercedes in human endeavors…

Where Do “Sacred” Values Live in the Brain?

By Arri Eisen

…g thinking, these same parts of the brain have been implicated in language rule and other rule retrieval. The researchers also found that sacred values thinking activated the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain. Perhaps not too much surprise there. Why does any of this matter? It goes back to why we believe what we do; the military strategists, the politicians. People make decisions—and act—based on their beliefs. The more we understand ab…

To the One-Percenters, With Love

By Garret Keizer

…ld I have believed even six months ago that all around the country and the world we would see what we have seen, that throngs of gadget-addicted kids would opt for face-to-face democracy by wiggling their fingers in the frosty air, that people without jobs would be feeding the homeless who meander into their ranks, that suburbanites in middle America would, over the strong objections of the oracles at Fox News, be mailing hats and mittens to a “lu…

Sacrifice, Suffering, and Rick Santorum

By Ivan Strenski

…at one’s principles—religious or not? Could it be, for example, that Santorum’s distrust of science, such as his opposition to evolutionary theory, dismissal of climate change and such has bled into his personal life? Did he sneer at medical statistics in favor of throwing up his arms in surrender to “Thy will be done”? Second, I simply cannot fathom why it would be so important for a woman of Karen Santorum’s age—48 years old—to have risked conc…

Rough Week for Scientology

By Joseph Laycock

…as censorship and began a campaign of tactics—both legal and illegal—to disrupt and discredit the Church of Scientology. That February, Anonymous members began to picket in front of Scientology headquarters, many of them sporting Guy Fawkes masks made popular by the film V for Vendetta. On Saturday, this “uprising” against the Church of Scientology was commemorated with a two-hour picketing session in front of the Church’s Time Square headquarters…

Keeping the “Southern” in Southern Baptist Convention

By Paul Harvey

…igious Liberty” is unclear, but how it comports with an entire ideological worldview is obvious and unapologetically stated. To be sure, churches in the SBC represent a wide and varied spectrum of individuals and social attitudes, but the dominant force in the convention since the so-called “conservative resurgence” of 1979 has been towards turning rightward Southern Baptists as a body into a formidable electoral force. And, to the degree the Repu…

The Reagan Era, Still Going

By Gary Dorrien

…took office in 1981 the national debt was $907 billion and America was the world’s leading creditor nation. In eight years Reagan tripled the national debt and turned America into the world’s leading debtor nation. Reagan slashed the marginal tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent, and the top rate on capital gains from 49 percent to 20 percent, fueling a blowout for inequality. George H. W. Bush, vowing to maintain Reagan’s winning approach, let…

400 Churchgoing Mormons March in SLC Pride Parade

By Joanna Brooks

…LDS marchers. About ten minutes before parade start time, marcher Clair Barrus of Draper, Utah, counted about 475 members of the Mormons Building Bridges delegation, ranging in age from toddlers to senior citizens. (Newspapers estimated the Mormons Building Bridges crowd at more than 300.) “One woman in her eighties walked with a cane. Another man in his seventies came in his wheelchair; his wife pushed him—they have a gay son,” says Barrus, who c…

Lessons From a Spiritual Failure

By Joanna Brooks

…yer, fasting, gratitude, charity. I am dying for a clear voice to give the world some guidelines for spiritual practice on the internet. You’ve earned your failed sainthood. What advice do you have to dispense? First, take a digital Sabbath. I need to have time to read and reflect and connect with people instead of a machine. Second, I’ve learned the hard way that many people who react vitriolically to something I’ve written are in great pain. As…

Bishop, Priest, Protester Arrested in Trinity Wall Street/Occupy Clash

By Elizabeth Drescher

…those who disagree with Trinity. My statement is not to be used to justify breaking the law. In a country where all people can vote and Trinity’s door to dialogue is open, it is not necessary to forcibly break into property. Nor is it to reinforce or build higher the barriers between people of faith who seek peace and justice. My deep prayer is that people can work together and I look forward to that conversation. For his part, Packard, who blogs…