Archive for the ‘Spiritual’ Category
For all you Stephen Baldwin fans . . .
Stephen Baldwin of the famous “Baldwin Brothers” Hollywood clan is a veteran actor who has starred in over 60 films and TV shows.
In 2003, he had an experience that changed his life forever. He became Born Again Christian, giving his life to Jesus Christ. Over the next few years, he became very vocal about his faith, using his spotlight to boldly preach the gospel. However, because of this convictions it has caused him the loss of many jobs and the most recently, a highly publicized bankruptcy.
He has been publicly ridiculed and insulted by people who think that he has been abandoned by God. A simple search through the internet will reveal that people not only mock Stephen, but mock God.
In response to this (with the permission of Stephen’s ministry President Daniel Southern) we have established RestoreStephenBaldwin.org. A privately funded and managed website. Our vision is to see Stephen Baldwin publicly restored in front of millions. Stephen’s platform will increase allowing him to reach even more people with the Gospel and God will get all of the glory. Publicly.
The Bible has a book called Prophets?
From The Times of London: Identification of agents by Dubai police embarrasses Mossad
Call it a hunch, but I think they meant Proverbs 11:14.
Clothing Optional Church
In church, you come as you are. That’s especially true inside the Whitetail Chapel in Ivor. Clothing is optional for everyone from the pastor to the congregation.
“I really don’t think God cares what you wear when you worship,” said Richard Foley, a member of the congregation. ”The thing is worship.”
Churchgoers like Foley have no problem getting the word of God from a pastor in his birthday suit.
“Some of the biggest moments in Jesus’ life he was naked,” Pastor Allen Parker said. “When he was born he was naked, when he was crucified he was naked and when he arose he left his clothes in the tomb and he was naked. If God made us that way, how can that be wrong?”
Pastor Allen says the congregation is a family-oriented one and is very involved in helping others.
The Whitetail Chapel is part of the Whitetail Nudist Resort, the only year-round nudist resort in Virginia. It opened in 1984 and business is booming. More than 10,000 people visited last year and business is up 12 percent from a year ago.
Income Levels of America’s Major Relious Groups
It’s no secret that the distribution of wealth is inequitable in the United States across racial, regional, and socio-economic groups. But there is a distinct variance among and within America’s faiths as well. Displayed below are the income levels of America’s major religious groups, as compared to the average U.S. income distribution.
Man, it pays to be Jewish.
[Thanks, Jonathan!]
Rare prayers to bring back dead Kenyan pastors
Two pastors in the Kingdom Seekers Fellowship International church were killed in a road accident on Monday last week and the faithful believed that God would resurrect them if they prayed hard enough.
Their death in a car that rolled on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, the faithful believed, was the work of the devil and the miracle was to shame the evil one.
Scores of pastors surrounded the caskets and cried out to God for more than an hour. At one point, Pastor Ndetei’s widow, went to the tent where the coffin was placed and shook it as she hysterically pleaded with God to raise her husband.
Another worshipper pushed the coffins in an attempt to stir the dead pastors to wake up from their “deep sleep.” Nothing happened.
The article goes on to state that if they are not brought back to life by Thursday they will be buried.
Va. Lawmaker: Disabled Kids are God’s Punishment for Abortion
Republican Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall said at a press conference last week that God is taking “vengeance” on parents who have had abortions by making their other children disabled, according to the News Leader in Central Virginia.
“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically,” he reportedly said. “Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.”
“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord,” he added. “There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
Did Fox News make Woods’ Buddhist beliefs disappear?
Whether is was an edit for space or something done on purpose, Fox News in their posting of Tiger Woods’ press conference, completely edited out any reference the golfer made about his Buddhist beliefs.
‘God told me I’d be raped’
Pretoria – The wife of gospel singer Louis Brittz, who was raped by a robber on Monday night, has told how the Lord had warned her that she was to be raped.
A up beat Hettie Brittz told how the Lord had not left her alone and how she had felt her soul and spirit had been undamaged by the experience.
Despite her nightmare experience, which came after armed robbers overpowered her family in their home in a security complex in Centurion, she was still planning to swim the Midmar Mile this coming weekend.
Bedrock, TX?
Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are reflected in the political and religious preference of our respondents, who were asked four questions about biological history and God:
Agency that monitors religious freedom abroad accused of bias
Allegations of religious bias are being leveled against a notable federal body: the one responsible for monitoring international religious freedom.
Some past commissioners, staff and former staff of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom say the agency charged with advising the president and Congress is rife, behind-the-scenes, with ideology and tribalism, with commissioners focusing on pet projects that are often based on their own religious background. In particular, they say an anti-Muslim bias runs through the commission’s work– a charge denied by its chairman, Leonard Leo.
“I don’t know of any other organization who defends as many Muslims in the world as we do,” said Leo, who was appointed to the commission by President George W. Bush in 2007.
Nevertheless, the commission was hit this fall with an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint filed by a former policy analyst, Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, who alleges that her contract was canceled because of her Muslim faith and her affiliation with a Muslim advocacy group.
Young adults ‘less religious,’ not necessarily ‘more secular’
Young adults today are less church-connected than prior generations were when they were in their 20s. But a new study finds they’re just about as spiritual as their parents and grandparents were at those ages.
Members of today’s Millennial generation, ages 18 to 29, are as likely to pray and believe in God as their elders were when they were young, says the report from Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
“They may be less religious, but they’re not necessarily more secular” than the Generation Xers or Baby Boomers who preceded them, says Alan Cooperman, associate director of research.
Dad Pleads Not Guilty on Violating Court Order For Taking Daughter to Church
A Chicago man who defied a court order and took his toddler to a Catholic Church service was arraigned today on a charge of indirect criminal contempt in a custody battle that is threatening to put him in jail and draw new boundaries in divorce cases.
Joseph Reyes pleaded not guilty for allegedly violating a court order issued by Chicago family law Judge Edward R. Jordan who had barred Reyes from taking his 3-year-old daughter to church following a dispute over religion with his estranged wife. Reyes’ wife, Rebecca Reyes, is Jewish.
Catholic Church: Priests shouldn’t perform weddings on cruise ships
The Catholic News Service is reporting the Catholic Church plans to issue new guidelines for priests serving on cruise ships that, among other things, forbid them from performing weddings while at sea.
The news service says regional directors of the Church’s Apostleship of the Sea program meeting at the Vatican on Feb. 9 ratified the new guidelines, which authorize priests to offer blessings for newlyweds or couples celebrating wedding anniversaries on ships but not to marry them outright.
The document also says priests serving as chaplains on cruise ships can and should offer daily and Sunday Masses, as well as ecumenical prayer services when required, the news service says, and it encourages priests to make themselves available not just to passengers but to cruise ship crew members.
Catholics, Mormons, Assemblies of God growing; Mainline churches report a continuing decline
The National Council of Churches’ 2010 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches reports membership gains in the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Assemblies of God, among others.
The 78th annual edition of the Yearbook also reports a continuing decline in membership of virtually all mainline denominations. And the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s second largest denomination and long a reliable generator of church growth, reported a decline in membership for the second year in a row, down 0.24 percent to 16,266,920.
Here’s the top ten if you are interested:
1. The Catholic Church, 68,115,001 members, up 1.49 percent.
2. Southern Baptist Convention,16,228,438 members, down 0.24percent.
3. The United Methodist Church, 7,853,987 members, down 0.98 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,974,041 members, up 1.71 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no membership updates reported.
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc, 5,000,000 members, no membership updates reported.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,633,887 members, down1.62 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
9. Assemblies of God (ranked 10 last year), 2,899,702 members, up 1.27 percent.
10. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 1(ranked 9 last year), 2,844,952 members, down 3.28 percent.
Buena Park pastor prayed for Murtha’s death
Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park sent out an email Monday night, saying that perhaps his prayers had been answered with the death of Rep. John Murtha yesterday.
“Maybe God took him out,” Drake wrote. “Maybe God Answered our IMPRECATORY prayer that we prayed every 30 days.”
The Pennsylvania congressman, a decorated former Marine who fiercely opposed the Iraq war, died at the age of 77 after complications from gallbladder surgery.
I asked Drake if his statements weren’t distasteful, particularly coming immediately after Murtha’s death. He said that as a Christian, he didn’t buy into the sentiment of not speaking ill of the dead.
“It’s not distasteful to pray the word of God and include somebody’s name,” he said. “I didn’t celebrate his death. I said maybe it was God’s answer to our imprecatory prayer.”
Drake regularly asks his “prayer warriors” to participate in prayer targeting “unrighteous” politicians. He typically uses Psalms 109, including these passages including in his Monday email: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” And, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
NCAA Football Committee OKs Ban on ‘Eye Black’ Notes
The NCAA Football Rules Committee agreed Wednesday to bar players from displaying words, numbers, logos and other symbols in the anti-glare “eye black” they underline their eyes with.
Though not mentioned in the decision, former college football star and outspoken Christian Tim Tebow has been credited by numerous media and bloggers as having had an influence on the move – dubbed by some already as “The Tebow Rule.”
Though hundreds of college players use their eye black to express themselves, Tebow’s use of the glare reducer had drawn notably attention over the past two years as it touted verses in the Bibles. It became especially prominent the college football season before last as he marched his team toward their second BCS championship in three years.
I think the article focuses too much on Tebow, almost portraying him like a victim. I read several things about how the NCAA was worried about the image of gang influence, and how many players represented where they came from by writing their area codes on their eye black among other things. I’m not saying that the decision was not influenced by Tebow’s action, I just don’t like how they article has the world is against believers approach.
“Need people who aren’t Christians to review church service”
The help-wanted ad going live this week on Craigslist might raise some eyebrows. If not tempers.
“Need people who aren’t Christians to review church service,” it says.
It goes on. “Who: Age 20-35. Do not currently believe Jesus Christ is God. Not mad at Christians.
“What: Attend a church service (anonymously) and complete a survey.”
The pay for this odd job? $50. To go, once, to the Sunday service at North Sound Church in Edmonds and rate it on everything from whether the music is tedious to if the sermon seems sincere.
It’s the inspiration of Jim Henderson, a Seattle evangelical Christian, former pastor and self-described “spiritual anthropologist” who says it’s past time Christians found out “what our true customers really think.”
He came up with the Craigslist ad. As well as a Web site for ranking houses of worship, called ChurchRater.com.
