2013-01-30T16:37:23-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:37 pm   By

The clock is ticking and soon Jeff Crandall while face the challenge of selecting the right music for the Christmas services at High Desert Church. This will be tricky, because Christmas is what the 70-member staff at this megachurch calls a “federal” event. This means that these services will unite worshippers from the three radically different services that are held week after week at this booming congregation in Victorville, Calif., about 90 miles outside of Los Angeles. “Christmas may be... Read more

2013-01-30T16:37:34-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:37 pm   By

Every half a millennium or so, waves of change rock Christianity until they cause the kind of earthquake that forces historians to start using capital letters. “What happened before the Great Reformation, we all know,” said Phyllis Tickle, author of “God Talk in America” and two dozen books on faith and culture. “We know, for instance, that some sucker sailed west and west and west and didn’t fall off the dad gum thing. That was a serious blow.” So Columbus... Read more

2013-01-30T16:37:45-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:37 pm   By

It was the kind of cryptic theological statement that is often found stuck on automobile bumpers. This sticker said: “Don’t let my car fool you. My treasure is in heaven.” This echoed the Bible passage in which Jesus urged believers to, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. … For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” This sticker’s creator probably intended it to be displayed on the battered bumper of a maintenance-challenged car, noted sociologist Christian... Read more

2013-01-30T16:37:55-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:37 pm   By

Those values viewers in the heartland are at it again, clicking “forward” on yet another wave of hot emails about sin, evil, magic and Hollywood. Here’s the news, as harvested on the Internet by experts at Snopes.com, a giant website dedicated to researching urban legends. “Hi! I just wanted to inform you what I just learned about a movie that is coming out December 7, during the Christmas season, which is entitled ‘The Golden Compass.’ … What is disturbing to... Read more

2013-01-30T16:38:02-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:38 pm   By

The Rev. Billy Graham is a Baptist and so is Bill Clinton. The Rev. Rick “Purpose Driven Life” Warren is a Baptist and so is the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The Rev. Bob Jones III of Greenville, S.C., is a Baptist and so is the Rev. Al Sharpton, Jr., of New York. The Rev. Bill Moyers is a Baptist, or used to be, and that’s also true for the Rev. Pat Robertson. There are all kinds of Baptists, so saying people... Read more

2013-01-30T16:38:11-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:38 pm   By

It wasn’t easy being the token evangelical in the Howard Dean office during the 2004 White House race. Other staffers called Mara Vanderslice the “church lady” and reminded her that the loudest cheers at Dean rallies followed attacks on the Religious Right. But what really stung were her candidate’s answers to religious questions. Round one: Dean confessed that he left the Episcopal Church when his parish blocked the construction of a bike path. Round two: He names the Book of... Read more

2013-01-30T16:38:26-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:38 pm   By

WASHINGTON — Jim Wallis and Richard Land were preaching to the same flock, but their sermons at the recent “Values Voters Summit” reached very different conclusions. “I am an evangelical Christian who tries to live under biblical authority. A fundamental is the dignity of human life. We are all created in the image of God,” said Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine and author of “God’s Politics.” But it’s time for new strategies, he said. Evangelicals should try to “dramatically reduce... Read more

2013-01-30T16:38:35-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:38 pm   By

NASHVILLE — The idea for the movie began with a vision of three fake pirates falling from the sky into the ocean, transported in a magical rowboat back into the 17th century. It helps to know that Elliot, Sedgewick and George have, in their previous dramatic lives, been known as Larry the Cucumber, Mr. Lunt and Pa Grape — key characters in the successful VeggieTales products created by Big Idea, Inc. Now they’re headed back to theaters in “The Pirates... Read more

2013-01-30T16:38:42-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:38 pm   By

The slogan on the white t-shirts for kids is short and bittersweet. The simple blue letters declare, “My daddy’s name is Donor.” You can buy a baby bib with the same proclamation. For a self-proclaimed “marriage nut” like David Blankenhorn, it’s hard to see this consumer product as a positive statement about modern family life. Of course, America has been evolving for several decades after the cultural revolutions that changed how millions of people live together, break up, get married,... Read more

2013-01-30T16:38:52-05:00

Last updated on: January 30, 2013 at 4:38 pm   By

Siti Fatimah was born a Muslim, but tried to change her name to Revathi Masoosai before marrying a Hindu man. This created a crisis, since multi-ethnic Malaysia has both civic and Muslim courts. After the birth of the couple’s daughter, the Muslim grandparents urged a Sharia court to give them custody of the baby. They won and Revathi was sent to a rehabilitation center for apostate, wayward Muslims. “I will make her a Muslim child. That’s why I took her,”... Read more

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