News & Comment - Spring 2006

Christian High School Religion Classes Not Accepted:  The battle between Christian high schools and the University of California system have been in the news over the last few months.  The university has rejected certain courses, notably some science courses which it feels are not up to standard.   The curriculum review has now extended to religion classes.  According to the University of California at Riverside, "Religion and ethics classes are acceptable as long as they do not include among its primary goals religious growth of the student."    (First Things,  January 2006 p. 66)

The Super Bowl is this weekend and one lucky woman in Maryland is ready! All first-time guests who visited Cross Pointe Christian Church (Waldorf, MD) Jan. 8-29 were entitled to enter a drawing for a new home theater system including a multimedia projector, stereo VCR, and HDTV projector screen. Regular attenders who brought a guest could also enter the drawing. Donna Bass, who visited the church for the first time this past Sunday, entered the drawing and won the prize.

“As a three-month-old church, we are continually looking for new and creative ways to get the name of Cross Pointe out into the community,” says lead pastor Curtis McGinnis. “We advertised the giveaway through direct mail, local newspaper, and press releases. Not only was this an effort to reach out to the community, but also a way in which we could encourage our members to invite their friends, relatives, coworkers, and neighbors. The drawing created a buzz in the church, and we did see a number of first-time visitors from the event. Currently we run around 40 people on a Sunday morning, and this event brought in about 20 first-time visitors, so we see it as a huge success.”

Does Cross Pointe Christian Church sound familiar? For more information, click here to access the June 13, 2004, CHRISTIAN STANDARD article, "Closing One Door to Open Another." The article, written by Max E. High, describes the closing of a southern Maryland church, that church’s partnership with the Virginia Evangelizing Fellowship, and the use of those assets to launch Cross Pointe.

Kent continues:

Discovery Christian Church, located in Cranberry Township, PA, close to Pittsburgh, has its share of loyal Steelers fans. Pastor Toney Salva is not one of them—despite the new Steelers tattoo on his arm.

Salva, a Denver Broncos fan, and community involvement pastor Bryan Gratton, a Steelers fan, made a bet before the AFC Championship game between the two teams: the fan of the losing team would get a tattoo of the winning team’s logo. After the Steelers’ victory, Salva made good on the promise.

In addition to a permanent memento for Salva, the tattoo may also create more local buzz about the church—Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA captured the moment for a recent newscast.

Kent continues:

Velocity offers 2 services at 8:30am and 10:00am. Once you arrive at the theater, you have the option of choosing a service with Rock and Roll music or a service featuring Today's Pop Country music.  Velocity is a church designed especially for people who've never been to church or haven't been in quite a while.

Kent comments:

from Liberty Matters News Service

Kent comments:

from Bizzare News:  MOLINE, Ill. - A pillar supporting an interstate highway bridge in Moline, Ill., is the latest sighting of an image of the Virgin Mary. Andrea Handel said her 5-year-old son first spotted the image last week while the family was walking along the banks of the Rock River, WQAD-TV, Moline, reported. As word spread locally hundreds of people came to the Interstate 74 bridge west of Chicago during the weekend to look at the outline on one of the pillars.

Handel said it is visible during daylight, but is best viewed at night. One of the faithful who agreed she could see Mary on the bridge said she understood perfectly why it was there. "Too many things are happening, people are losing faith, that's why she's appearing -- for people to get their faith back," said Maria Ruiz.

Kent comments:

from Sojourner's David Batstone:  I simply cannot understand why so many evangelicals consider same-sex marriage as the prime threat to the virtue of heterosexual families. Honestly, which has ruined more marriages: The extramarital affairs that are so brazenly celebrated on Desperate Housewives or the decision of two men or two women who love each other to make their lifelong commitment public? I don't think there is any doubt about the answer to that question. Yet most discussion of sex and values in the church veers inevitably to the gay and lesbian issues.

Kent comments:

from Religion & Ethics Newsletter
Feature: African-American Mormons
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Mormon outreach in black communities was almost non-existent until 1978, when, then-President Spencer Kimball reported a revelation saying blacks could become priests. Today, African-American membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is growing in black neighborhoods and cities around the country. And though they remain a distinct minority, a few African-Americans today hold high positions in the Church. Deborah Potter explores the Church's efforts to appeal to the African-American community despite its history of excluding blacks. Ahmad Corbitt, one of the few black leaders in the LDS Church, says, "I think the appeal is the power of the Gospel on our families, a very practical appeal. Teachings that make us better human beings and better family members and the African American community needs that salvation of the family."

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week931/feature.html

Kent comments:

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India (AFP) - An Indian movie director said he hopes to persuade Paris Hilton to play the role of Nobel laureate and prospective Catholic Saint, Mother Teresa, in an upcoming film. 

"Her features resemble Mother Teresa," director T. Rajeevnath told AFP from the southwestern coastal state of Kerala. 

The filmmaker said Hilton is on his shortlist after a computer-generated image showed a close facial match between the hotel heiress and the Albanian-born nun.

Kent comments:

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Parents say the principal of a Inglewood, Calif., elementary school forced children to use buckets for toilets during a recent school lockdown. Principal Angie Marquez of Worthingon Elementary School imposed the lockdown March 27 when nearly 40,000 middle and high school students across Southern California staged walkouts to protest immigration legislation, the Los Angeles Times reported.  The newspaper said some students were barred from using the restroom and were forced to use buckets placed in classroom corners or behind teachers' desks. Tim Brown, director of operations for the Inglewood Unified School District, said the principal's order was an "honest mistake." "When there's a nuclear attack, that's when buckets are used," Brown told the newspaper. The principal "followed procedure. She made a decision to follow the handbook. She just misread it.”

UTAH - Polygamy used to be legal in Utah, and civic leaders apparently don't want to be reminded of it. Wasatch Beer is facing a boycott over their ad campaign that makes comical reference to the state's former marriage sanction. Slogans for beer include "Why have just one?" and "Take some home for your wives." The beer company insists the ad campaign is all in good fun, but civic leaders disagree. In fact, two local billboard companies believe the slogans are offensive and refuse to display the ads. Also, the Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission tried to hinder the campaign by banning ads with religious themes or symbols. The owner of Wasatch Beer, Greg Schirf, thinks they are all taking the ads too seriously: "They're being thick-headed. With everyone watching because of the Winter Olympics, they don't seem to realize they are drawing more attention to themselves. I couldn't pay for this kind of publicity."

Christianity Today, April 2006 from a review of Wicca's Charm:  Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality by Catherine Edwards Sanders - Reviewed by Irving Hexham

Not long ago, mention of Wicca and modern witchcraft seemed ludicrous. Today, millions of Britons and Americans are involved in neopagan activities. Wicca's Charm is a delightfully readable look at this rapidly growing movement, written by a skilled Christian journalist who is remarkably open to other people and their religious beliefs. Sanders provides a broad overview of neopaganism from a missionary perspective intended to help Christians reach out to its adherents.

Sanders explains why Wicca and other forms of neopaganism attract people "as an alternative to other mainline religions, including Christianity." (One reason, as she notes, is this: "[E]ach practitioner can add and subtract beliefs at will.")

from the Christian Standard newsletter, May 14, 2006

This Sunday, the men of Journey Christian Church (Greeley, CO) and their fearless leader (worship minister Jeff Crane) will make a dynamic entrance with their annual Mother’s Day “Bucket Brigade.” Journey’s band will set the tempo, and then the men will enter the sanctuary by banging on trash cans, transmission fluid pans, car rims, pipes, and, yes, buckets. A special addition to this annual tradition is the precision electric drill team that joined the festivities last year. After ending the march with a flourish, the men will lead the worship service as a way to honor the women of the congregation.

Would dedicated non-instrumentalists be allowed to do this?  It's a very close call.

Los Angeles Daily News - 'Heaven help us'

BY BRAD A. GREENBERG, Staff Writer

The Rev. Beatrice Williams drove 110 miles to Hollywood on Wednesday to beg the Lord for lower gasoline prices.

"There is victory when we stand together," Williams said, after joining eight others in prayer. "We will overcome, and we will overcome this if there are enough people who believe that God cares."

Standing beneath the Gothic Revival tower of Hollywood United Methodist Church - and across from a Chevron station charging $3.43 a gallon for unleaded - the group asked God to comfort those paying more while driving less.

"We give you praise and honor and glory. You are king of all kings. You know our needs," Bishop Donald Downing, pastor of Heart to Heart Christian Center in Fort Washington, Md., prayed as cars zipped through the intersection of Highland and Franklin avenues, occasionally honking.

"These high gas prices, Lord, bring them down, oh Father."

from:  Christian Standard, "Have We Lost Our Focus?"
By Name Withheld, 6/4/2006

Last night I watched a national television talk show host who had some trouble with his guest’s new method of promoting church attendance. The host, a nonbeliever, clearly had higher expectations for growing a church. The excited guest, a pastor of a megachurch in south Texas, was telling about his church raffling off a house. Every Sunday, those attending would deposit another entry ticket in a box for a chance to win the house in the drawing.

Previously the church had given away other prizes—cars, trucks, motorcycles. But this was the first house. What was the catch? None, really. The more tickets a person deposited (code for the more Sundays he attended), the better his chance of winning.