Beliefnet News

Understanding Christian Political Engagement

Jennifer E. Jones — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:10:12 +0000

Guest Blogger: Bethany Blankley Pastor Charles Worley of Maiden, North Carolina created a firestorm among Christians and non-Christians when he suggested that homosexuals be rounded up and put inside electrical fences, left to die. Obviously, this is not the Christian message of loving our neighbors, let alone loving our enemies, which Jesus preached. Yes the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination to God but that does not justify hate speech by...

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Why would “anti-bullying” youth convention speaker mock the Bible, Christian teens?

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:54:19 +0000

The report is difficult to believe: A paid “anti-bullying” expert is caught on video ranting at a national convention of high schoolers and is recorded bullying the Christian kids who were offended by his obscenities. They quietly follow his advice to homosexual youth in his “It Gets Better Project”– to passively walk away from bullies, but instead of praising them, he mocks them. It seems that at the National High School Journalism Convention, author and sexual advice radio...

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Are Americans finding God in cyberspace?

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:14:32 +0000

Will the church of the future be on line? We seem to be heading that way, says think-tank president Ron Sellers who points to recent findings that among American adults who use the Internet, 44 percent use it for religious purposes. "This is particularly common among younger Americans," says Sellers, who heads up Grey Matter...

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Are “unacceptable religions” fatal for U.S. presidential candidates?

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:56:17 +0000

Is there an unwritten religious litmus test for the U.S. presidency? Do voters require candidates to be "not just religious, but acceptably religious"? Yes, say Northwest Nazarene University professors Steve Shaw and Darrin Grinder. If they are right, will Mitt Romney’s Mormonism doom his bid for the presidency? After all, Catholicism was blamed for New York Gov. Al Smith’s loss to Herbert Hoover in 1928. Smith was denounced by vocal Southern Baptists and German Lutherans who were...

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U.S. Marine dies after rescuing ORU trustee’s daughter from deadly air crash

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:39:20 +0000

The daughter of an Oral Roberts University trustee was pulled from the wreckage of a crashed small aircraft by a former U.S. Marine sergeant severely injured in the crash, who then helped her wave down help along a highway. Three were killed in the crash, and former U.S. Marines Sgt. Austin Anderson, recently returned from two tours in Iraq, died after being airlifted to a Wichita, Kansas, hospital. The five had been on their way to an Iowa youth crusade. Hannah Luce, 22,...

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Twitter, texting, Facebook bring Malaysia’s street protests to worldwide audience

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Sat, 12 May 2012 08:05:27 +0000

He's just a kid – a university law student – but K. Sudhagaran Stanley is using the tools he has, the Internet, to demand change for his homeland. Last week, it put his life at risk -- but he texted and Facebooked all the way through a dramatic confrontation with police in which the devout young Christian says God delivered him from angry police. Stanley and thousands like him have been marching in the streets of Malaysia's cities and sharing every moment of it on Twitter,...

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T.D. Jakes: It’s time to forgive

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:39:57 +0000

Has T.D. Jakes ever had to forgive? “Oh, yes,” answers the author of the new book Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven and pastor of The Potter's House, a 30,000-member church in Dallas. “I was born in West Virginia in the 1960s in an area that was about 5 percent African-American. So, growing up, I had plenty of opportunities to forgive,” he recalls. “I’ve had a lot of practice.” Today, his congregation is used to hearing him share stories of his own...

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What can the Third World teach the “civilized” world about witchcraft?

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:23:27 +0000

A fear of witchcraft? In our enlightened age? According to Reuters, the British news agency, a woman from the island of Sri Lanka off the southern tip of India has been charged with casting a spell on a 13-year-old Saudi girl during her family's trip to a shopping mall. In Zimbabwe, local leader Maliki Masuku fined Shadreck Dube for performing witchcraft and “terrorizing nurses at Nathisa Clinic” in Mapoto. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in a New Year address to the nation...

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Chuck Colson: Beyond Watergate

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 04:45:23 +0000

by James D. Davis Copyright © 2012, South Florida Sun-Sentinel This week I told a friend that Chuck Colson was on his deathbed. Her response: "Who's that?" That ignorance is good, in a way. For many in my generation, Colson, who died today at 80, is forever a symbol of government hypocrisy. As part...

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Can The Lucky One’s Zac Efron portray a convincing U.S. Marine Corps sergeant?

Rob Kerby, Senior Editor — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:28:43 +0000

Can Disney pretty-boy teenybopper Zac Efron, the Ken doll from Hairspray, the crooning, high-stepping big-man-on-campus in the High School Musical movies pull of a leading role as a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant? Former Marines just home from Iraq don't comb Justin Bieber-style bangs. A few weeks ago, my son, a U.S. Marines sergeant, came home from Afghanistan and spent the weekend with me, bringing along two buddies from Camp Lejeune. All were serious and respectful –...

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