Saturday, June 4, 2011

Blue Like Jazz: The Movie

A film version of the best-selling Christian book Blue Like Jazz will be screened in Portland this month. The film came about thanks to an odd Internet site called Kickstarter. The site allows people to post ideas for projects that readers can pledge to support. Steve Taylor, who made The Second Chance, set a goal of raising $125,000 through the site for Blue Like Jazz. But by last fall, he had $345,992. That's when a major investor saw the interest in the film and pledged to match that amount. Taylor is now calling everyone who gave $10 or more to thank than them. He's about halfway through a notebook of 3,300 names.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Polling Numbers on Mormon Candidates

A new poll finds 25% of voters say they would be less likely to support a candidate who is Mormon, such as Mitt Romney. About one-in-three white evangelicals say they would not consider voting for a Mormon candidate. The same Pew poll found only 18% said they would never consider backing Romney while nearly 40% of Republican voters said there was "no chance" they would ever vote for Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin.

Davis Dies

Christian music pioneer Paul Davis has died at the age of 67. His New Christian Music Radio Show could be heard on over 360 radio stations around the world. Davis worked with the artists like Johnny Cash, Amy Grant, and Bill and Gloria Gaither. During the 1980s he became director of the Gospel Music Association.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Tony Alamo Verdict

Two former members of cult leader Tony Alamo's ministry have been awarded $33 million each by a Texarkana, Arkansas jury. They claim Alamo ordered them beaten. The jury found Alamo liable for battery, outrage and conspiracy. Alamo plans an appeal and his lawyers say the men will never see the money - because there isn't any. Last year, a federal judge awarded 5 young women whom Alamo sexually assaulted and took as "wives" $500,000 each.

Life in Prison for Meyer's Former Employee

Joyce Meyer's chief of security has been sentenced to life in prison for strangling of his wife and their two sons in their beds at home in Columbia, Illinois. Prosecutors says Christopher Coleman sent fake threats in an email and spray-painted obscenities on walls at the crime scene to make it look like the killings were the work of a Joyce Meyer stalker. His deceased wife's family has filed a lawsuit against Joyce Meyer Ministries for “its failure to recognize that accused family murderer Christopher Coleman was a threat to his wife and two sons."