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Archive: February 8, 2009 - February 14, 2009
Rumi on Love: Making Sense of Ecstasy
For Rumi, to be alive is to be a lover, and I think the greatest spiritual teachers say the same thing.
By Deepak Chopra | February 14, 2009; 2:32 AM ET | Comments (6)
Lessons From the Land of Lincoln and Obama
As we look back, let's remember the story of unity that the myth of Lincoln teaches us -- the story of unity that Obama stresses time and time again.
By Eboo Patel | February 13, 2009; 10:37 AM ET | Comments (6)
Beware the Faith-Based Funding Trap
I would never advise a Christian organization to participate in these federal programs or to receive tax monies. The brutal reality is that when government money flows, government regulation inevitably follows. Furthermore, taking government money sets a bad precedent and can easily become a seductive snare.
By R. Albert Mohler Jr. | February 13, 2009; 9:23 AM ET | Comments (229)
Finding the Faith-Based Balance
There must be no proselytizing with public funds, nor funding any worship services or religious activities. In other words, no religious litmus tests, and no required sermons before showers or soup.
By Jim Wallis | February 13, 2009; 2:54 AM ET | Comments (44)
Government Funding Of, By and For ALL
If the government issues money to any faith-based institution, the government should have the right to demand that there be no discrimination in hiring, and if an institution or organization has a problem with that, that same institution should not seek government funding.
By Susan K. Smith | February 13, 2009; 12:55 AM ET | Comments (3)
Discrimination Is a Problem, Not Faith
The federal government has no business aiding programs which follow such practices. Note that I said programs, not organizations.
By Brad Hirschfield | February 13, 2009; 12:33 AM ET | Comments (5)
Why We Don't Take Government Funds
As a matter of policy and principle, my own church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - chooses to avoid that pitfall altogether. It simply doesn't accept government funding for its welfare efforts.
By Michael Otterson | February 12, 2009; 7:20 AM ET | Comments (89)
Uncle Sam's Faith
Government and faith partnerships exist for community empowerment and renewal. The wall between church and state works both ways. It protects the government from one religious belief system usurping all other convictions but similarly the wall protects the Church from the State.
By Samuel Rodriguez | February 12, 2009; 6:00 AM ET | Comments (5)
A Christian Progressive Happy Birthday to Charles Darwin
An infinite God can neither be proved nor disproved. Religion and science are, in the end, different ways of knowing. But there are large and increasing areas of fruitful dialogue possible.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | February 12, 2009; 12:44 AM ET | Comments (84)
Darwin The Disturber
Susan Jacoby: Darwin's conclusions about life continue to trouble and challenge us, sure proof of his genius.
ยป Susan Thistlethwaite: How Darwin Helps Christianity Evolve
By Susan Jacoby | February 12, 2009; 12:24 AM ET | Comments (153)
Discrimination With Federal Money
If sectarian organizations are using their own money, they have every right to employ only persons committed to their religion. However, if taxpayers are funding a program, that program should reflect our nation's historic commitment to civil rights.
By Welton Gaddy | February 12, 2009; 12:18 AM ET | Comments (8)
Support All Charities or None
If government must be in the business of charity, it would be wise to fund diverse approaches with competing moral assumptions.
By John Mark Reynolds | February 11, 2009; 7:40 PM ET | Comments (2)
Holocaust Deniers
The embrace by the Vatican of the anti-Semitic Bishop Richard Williamson is an embarrassment to Christians everywhere.
By John Shelby Spong | February 11, 2009; 4:22 PM ET | Comments (0)
Government Money For Religion Equals Government Favoritism Of Religion
With all due respect to Obama's desire to broaden the program beyond the honeypot for right-wing evangelical groups that it became under President Bush, it is impossible to dole out money for programs directly administered by religious institutions without doing violence to the separation of church and state.
By Susan Jacoby | February 11, 2009; 8:39 AM ET | Comments (82)
Discrimination Turns Back the Clock
Allowing religious organizations to discriminate in the private sector is an appropriate accommodation of religion. To subsidize religious discrimination with tax dollars is arguably unconstitutional.
By J. Brent Walker | February 11, 2009; 7:40 AM ET | Comments (4)
Keeping the Faith in Faith-Based
Faith-based programs can never discriminate against those they serve. In our ministry we serve Muslims, atheists, and Christians alike. But we have to be able to control our own hiring.
By Charles "Chuck" Colson | February 11, 2009; 4:55 AM ET | Comments (9)
Compassion Doesn't Require Conversion
If religious organizations are running programs that help people in non-religious ways, such as helping the poor with food and shelter, helping prisoners with education, helping people during times of disasters, they should of course be funded, but only on condition that they not proselytize their religious beliefs while dispensing the needed assistance.
By Robert Thurman | February 11, 2009; 1:51 AM ET | Comments (5)
Lincoln, Darwin and Gay Marriage
Lincoln and Darwin were two great men whose visions and life work ultimately served humanity but polarized people enormously.
By Brad Hirschfield | February 11, 2009; 1:29 AM ET | Comments (171)
Faith-Based Initiatives
The vocation of the church is not to convert the world, but to transform the world, so that every person in it has a better chance to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that he or she can be.
By John Shelby Spong | February 10, 2009; 8:10 PM ET | Comments (0)
Divine Shelter From the Storm
Historically, applications to seminary and divinity school rise during tough times.
By Lisa Miller | February 9, 2009; 4:06 PM ET | Comments (0)
World Leaders and Interfaith Cooperation
We have a former British Prime Minister and a new American President each articulating a vision of interfaith cooperation and building institutions to make good on that vision.
By Eboo Patel | February 9, 2009; 9:57 AM ET | Comments (19)
Always Challenge the BIG LIE
If religion or the state have any claim, any claim at all, to speak the truth, then religious or state leaders who tell the BIG LIE must be refuted so loudly and so often that they can no longer speak and be believed.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | February 9, 2009; 9:11 AM ET | Comments (30)
The Evil Behind Holocaust Deniers
"Never forget" is the admonition Jews often use when referring to the Holocaust. With modern deniers like Iran's Ahmadinejad and Bishop Williamson, it is a useful reminder that others want us to forget for evil ends.
By Cal Thomas | February 9, 2009; 8:27 AM ET | Comments (22)
Silence is Acquiesence
Under no circumstance should people of faith ignore the Holocaust deniers or stay silent while Pope Benedict implicitly validates such beliefs.
By Samuel Rodriguez | February 9, 2009; 7:25 AM ET | Comments (5)
Confrontation not Conciliation
The Holy Father's initial failure to confront Williamson's anti-Semitism had the unintended effect of amplifying the schismatic Bishop's most extreme pronouncements much in the way that sound echoes and reverberates in the quiet of an empty building.
By Mathew N. Schmalz | February 9, 2009; 4:51 AM ET | Comments (5)
