Religion

Ahead of Pope Francis’s upcoming visit to the U.S., Wednesday’s NBC Today touted a new Pew Research Center poll finding that a minority of Catholics do not believe abortion to be a sin. Willie Geist used the Pope adjusting the process of forgiving abortion as a segue: “...the Vatican announced priests may now forgive women who’ve had abortions....The Pope isn't alone when it comes to a bit of a…

Jeffrey Tayler of The Atlantic offered more of his anti-theist – and especially, anti-Catholic – vitriol in a Sunday item for the left-wing Salon. Tayler likened God to Don Corleone of The Godfather, and then spent most of his column ranting about how Pope Francis is akin to the fictional Mafia boss.  The atheist claimed that "Don Corleone could only have dreamed of committing crimes on the scale…

Yet again a liberal media outlet is trying to engender controversy in a completely non-controversial and commonplace gesture by Pope Francis.

On Friday, Washington Monthly's Ed Kilgore and Kevin Drum of Mother Jones contended that the conservative war on political correctness is a tempest in a teapot, and that being politically correct is pretty much synonymous with not being a bigoted jerk.

Wednesday’s NBC Today devoted a full report to the Freedom From Religion Foundation forcing a Kansas school to take down a painting of Jesus. Co-host Matt Lauer declared: “...a controversial decision to take down a portrait of Jesus that’s getting an awful lot of attention.”

Conservatives tend to be religious, but is conservatism itself akin to a religion? Yes, opined Washington Monthly blogger David Atkins in a Sunday post. “Many consider modern conservatism to be an almost cultic movement,” Atkins wrote. “Its adherents long since stopped caring about the evidence or empirical results. It’s all about who can prove truest to the faith, and maximally annoy and rebel…

When an actor charges Hollywood isn’t fond of people of faith, one expects the actor to be Christian. But the same holds true of the Jews. Mayim Bialik has been in the Hollywood spotlight for more than half her life.  Best known for her role as the title character of Blossom on NBC in the first half of the 1990s. After that, in between her voice acting, she earned a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D…

Chris Hayes scolded Jeb Bush on the Wednesday edition of his MSNBC program for using the term "anchor babies." Hayes played a clip of Bush calling for "greater enforcement, so that you don't have these anchor babies, as they're described, coming into the country." He continued by pointing out that "Hillary Clinton responding with a Tweet: 'They're called babies' – which seems like a better term…

The award for trollish headline of the day should go to MSNBC.com.

Very liberal “Very Rev.” Gary Hall is stepping down at the end of the year as dean of the Washington National Cathedral, reported Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein. “Vocal cathedral dean stepping down” was the headline in Wednesday’s paper. Boorstein began by calling Hall a “fierce progressive” – which made the Episcopal leader a Washington Post and NPR darling. But the paper…

On Monday, NBC’s Today was the only network morning show to cover a new study showing a strong link between religious faith and lasting happiness. Co-host Savannah Guthrie informed viewers: “According to a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology, joining a religious group does more for someone’s sustained happiness than other forms of social participation.”

When you think of tough crowds, Philadelphia sports fans or the audience for Amateur Night at the Apollo may come to mind. The Washington Monthly's D.R. Tucker thought of the “right-wing Republicans” he expects will heckle Pope Francis when the pontiff speaks before a joint session of Congress late next month. “Joe Wilson’s…infamous 2009 'You lie!' outburst will be considered a term of…

MSNBC host Chris Matthews kicked off his roundtable segment on Tuesday's Hardball by denouncing Ted Cruz's amusing "machine gun bacon" video for conservative media outlet IJReview.com. Unfortunately for Matthews, no one else on his panel was as stuck in the mud, agreeing among themselves it was a clever viral video to put out in the midst of a crowded primary campaign.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker got in trouble again for not falling prey to the lapdog media’s line of questioning. For some reason the media is really, really interested see if Scott Walker thinks President Obama is a Christian.This past weekend at a fundraiser, Walker was asked yet again if he could confirm Obama was a Christian, and once again, Walker responded: “I’ve never asked him about…