Pope warns about dangers of income equality

Faith Leaders Across America Protest Budget Cuts To Programs That Help The Poor

Faith Leaders Across America Protest Budget Cuts To Programs That Help The Poor: A collection of faith groups will today hold protest actions across the country calling on Congress to pass a budget that invests in programs to help low-income Americans instead of giving tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations. The coalition will hold 21 events in 13 states, according to a release from Faith in Public [...]/p

You Wouldn't Believe How Fast Americans Are Losing Their Religion -- But the Fundamentalists Have a Plan | Alternet

You Wouldn't Believe How Fast Americans Are Losing Their Religion -- But the Fundamentalists Have a Plan | Alternet
"As their power declines in America, fundamentalists are moving to developing countries not as far along the secularization curve. And they're causing massive damage."

How Christianity Became a Lucrative Brand | Alternet

How Christianity Became a Lucrative Brand | Alternet
"Prosperity Christianity, or what some call “health and wealth” religion, is largely a North American religious movement, connected to Pentecostal Christianity and Word of Faith teachings, and is often tied to Oral Roberts and other evangelists who became well known in the 1980s and 1990s. However, Prosperity Christianity is also historically related to faith healing; in the early 20th century, evangelicals focused on physical well-being as the therapeutic ethos of culture became normative and activities like the “mind cure,” which stressed the power of positive thinking as a cure for disease, became popular."

Faith Leaders Urge Republican Governors To Expand ‘Pro-Life’ Medicaid Program

Faith Leaders Urge Republican Governors To Expand ‘Pro-Life’ Medicaid Program: Over 100 national, state, and local faith leaders are imploring Republican governors to have the “wisdom and integrity” to expand their states’ Medicaid programs to cover an estimated 17 million low-income Americans who cannot currently afford health insurance. A joint statement issued by the religious leaders calls on lawmakers to accept the Medicaid expansion under [...]/p

Mitt Romney Attacks The Line Separating Church And State

Mitt Romney Attacks The Line Separating Church And State
"Mitt Romney is the highest-profile Mormon politician in the history of the Latter-Day Saints Church. Since I've been exploring and writing about the subject of Romney's beliefs and how they will shape him as a president, it's not at all surprising to me that he's speaking out against separation between church and state."

Nuns On The Bus Tour Stops In New York To Protest ‘Devastating Romney-Ryan Budget’

Nuns On The Bus Tour Stops In New York To Protest ‘Devastating Romney-Ryan Budget’: The Nuns On A Bus tour that made stops at 10 congressional offices in nine states in July is back on the road protesting the House Republican budget’s damaging cuts to programs that benefit the poor and middle class. The tour, comprised this time of a different set of faith leaders and community action groups, [...]/p

Wisconsin Catholic Group Prays For Paul Ryan To ‘Reconnect With The Compassion For The Poor’

Wisconsin Catholic Group Prays For Paul Ryan To ‘Reconnect With The Compassion For The Poor’: A group of Catholics from Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) home state have launched PrayforPaulsChangeofHeart.org, a website asking people to pray for the vice presidential candidate to change his position on his plan for the federal budget. This group, which includes Franciscan friars, joins in the growing protests from Catholic clergy concerned about the impact Ryan’s [...]/p

Paul Ryan, Catholics and Ayn Rand

Sister Simone Campbell, discuss how Paul Ryan will mesh his faith with his admiration of atheist Ayn Rand's economic philosophy.

Why Religious Leaders Have Condemned The Ryan-Romney Budget

Why Religious Leaders Have Condemned The Ryan-Romney Budget:  Now that Mitt Romney has picked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate, Ryan’s radical budget constitutes Romney’s economic platform. The Ryan-Romney budget is based on a number of false and dangerous [...]/p

Viewpoint: Romney Angers Veterans And Nuns

Viewpoint: Romney Angers Veterans And Nuns: former Congressman from Ohio and U.S. Air Force Instructor Pilot. I’ve been honored to serve Ohio in both Statehouse chambers and in the United States Congress. And if there is one thing I’ve learned about Ohioans, it’s that you don’t cross those who dedicate their lives to service [...]/p

Franciscan Friars Join Nuns’ Call On Romney To Spend Day With The Poor

Franciscan Friars Join Nuns’ Call On Romney To Spend Day With The Poor: Yesterday, a group of Catholic nuns called on Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to spend a day with them to learn about the plight of America’s poorest citizens. Now, another religious group has made a similar call. The Franciscan Action Network, a group of Franciscan friars and sisters, released a statement Wednesday asking Romney and [...]/p

The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks | Alternet

The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks | Alternet
"This 2012-2013 school year, thanks to a bill pushed through by governor Bobby Jindal, thousands of students in Louisiana will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools, some of which teach from a Christian curriculum that suggests the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution and states that the alleged creature, which has never been demonstrated to even exist, has been tracked by submarine and is probably aplesiosaur. The curriculum also claims that a Japanese fishing boat caught a dinosaur. 

On the list of schools approved to receive funding through the new voucher funding, that critics warn could eventually cut public school funding in half, are schools that teach from the Christian fundamentalist A Beka Book, Bob Jones University Press, and Accelerated Christian Education curriculum."

Does Mitt Romney Think He Is a Son of Abraham and That the Land of Zion Will Be his Inheritance? | Alternet

Does Mitt Romney Think He Is a Son of Abraham and That the Land of Zion Will Be his Inheritance? | Alternet
"Conservative Christianity teaches “ supersessionism,” the idea that God’s covenant with Christians replaced his covenant with the Jews and now Christians are the Chosen People, the spiritual heirs of Abraham. Mormonism takes this a step further, teaching that Mormons are not only the spiritual heirs of Abraham, they are his physical descendants as well."

60 Faith Leaders Sign Letter Telling GOP Not To Raise Taxes On 24 Million Americans

60 Faith Leaders Sign Letter Telling GOP Not To Raise Taxes On 24 Million Americans: A coalition of faith leaders released a letter ahead of yesterday’s symbolic House tax vote telling Republicans not to allow the expiration of two tax credits that, together, would raise taxes on more than 15 million Americans. In the letter, the faith leaders called for extensions of the 2009 expansions of the Child Tax Credit [...]/p

Pastors Warren and Huckabee Spread Christian Ugly

Pastors Warren and Huckabee Spread Christian Ugly
"Huckajesus celebrates Chick-Fil-A's commitment to gay hate. Yeah, that's right in line with Jesus' instruction to "Love one another"."

Good Riddance to the Air Force's Religious Intolerance Enabler in Chief

Good Riddance to the Air Force's Religious Intolerance Enabler in Chief
"we have seen the vast coverup of an unlawful epidemic whereby many thousands of men and women within the ranks of the USAF have been subject to serial religious abuse and molestation. The national security repercussions of this ongoing crisis are all too dire, and as was the case at Penn State, the responsibility for this scandal ultimately lies with the most senior leadership."

Everything You Need to Know About Mormonism | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

Everything You Need to Know About Mormonism | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet
"Pundits still haven't figured out how to talk about Romney's Mormon religion. Here's everything you need to know."

10 Ways Right-Wing Christian Groups Will Likely Shove Religion Down Your Throat This Year | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

10 Ways Right-Wing Christian Groups Will Likely Shove Religion Down Your Throat This Year | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet