Prince on Gay Marriage & Abortion

This week’s New Yorker includes an interview with pop singer Prince. He became a Jehovah's Witness seven years ago and was a asked about social issues like gay marriage and abortion. The New Yorker writes:

Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’ ”

Priest Rebuked for Obama Letter

A South Carolina priest wrote a letter to parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church saying those who voted for Barack Obama shouldn’t take Holy Communion because of his support for abortion rights. But the Diocese of Charleston says Jay Scott Newman shouldn’t have done that. Here’s background on the story from CNN.

Largest Gift in Ministry's History

Do we need more translations of the Bible? Someone apparently does. Someone with a lot of money. An anonymous donor is giving Wycliffe Bible Translators $50 million to support the organization’s literacy and Bible translation program. The gift for Wycliffe's Last Languages Campaign is the largest in the ministry's 75-year history. The campaign gets an official launch this Saturday at Wycliffe US headquarters in Orlando. The campaign’s goal is to speed up the process of translating the Bible for the world's remaining language groups from 125 years down to 17 years. Besides supporting literacy, Wycliffe supports developing communities with water purification systems and Aids education.

The Bible’s Buried Secrets

PBS goes after the Old Testament again in a two-hour show tomorrow called The Bible’s Buried Secrets. A preview last summer proved controversial. The program challenges a literal reading of the first five books of the Bible. The producers argue largely from silence. Suggesting that since archeologists haven't found items related to many of the stories in the Bible, they never happened. Actress Stockard Channing reads verses during the show. It airs at 8pm Eastern.

Focus on the Family Shoppers' Guide

The political action arm of Focus on the Family is posting an online shoppers guide. There are three categories: Christmas-friendly retailers, Christmas-negligent retailers and Christmas-offensive retailers.

The friendly retailers are so designated because they prominently use Merry Christmas and other Christmas-specific references in their catalogs and in-store promotions.

Those on the Christmas-offensive list use secular phrases such as happy holidays and have "apparently abandoned" the use of the word "Christmas."

Christmas-negligent companies "marginalize" their message by using Christmas in some cases and holidays in others.

Focus launched its first shoppers guide during the 2007 holiday season.

Episcopals Lose Fort Worth

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is leaving the denomination. Just as several others have recently done. The vote today was overwhelmingly in favor of breaking away to align with the more conservative Province of the Southern Cone, based in Argentina. The clergy vote was 73-18 in favor of leaving. Among the lay orders, it was 101-26.

Barack Obama's Beliefs

I am a Christian. So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith. On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences. I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of six and 10. My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim. And I'd say, probably, intellectually I've drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith. So, I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.

My mother remarried an Indonesian who wasn't particularly, he wasn't a practicing Muslim. I went to a Catholic school in a Muslim country. So I was studying the Bible and catechisms by day, and at night you'd hear the prayer call. So I don't think as a child we were, or I had a structured religious education. But my mother was deeply spiritual person, and would spend a lot of time talking about values and give me books about the world's religions.

(Did you actually go up for an altar call?) Yes. Absolutely.. And it was a powerful moment.

Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he's also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher. And he's also a wonderful teacher. I think it's important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.

I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That's just not part of my religious makeup.

(What is sin?) Being out of alignment with my values.

Barack Obama in a 2004 interview with BeliefNet

Electing Obama a Sin?

A Wichita, Kansas pastor says the election of Barack Obama is a sin and the country should repent. KSN-TV reports:

Preist Facing Excommunication

Roy Bourgeois faces excommunication from the Catholic Church after taking part in a ceremony to ordain a woman as a fellow priest. Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests, faces excommunication as well. Bourgeois plans to appeal. He lives in Fort Benning, Georiga.

Hunter Credits God for Rescue

A hunter from Grand Rapids, Michigan returned home to an emotional reunion after several desparte days, lost in the Colorado mountains. WOOD-TV says he's crediting God with sustaining and rescuing him.

"Godless Americans" Lawsuit Dropped

Kay Hagan is dropping her lawsuit against Senator Elizabeth Dole. Hagan beat Dole in the North Carolina Senate race but was upset over a TV ad that associated Hagan with a political action group called Godless Americans. A woman’s voice could be heard saying “There is no God” on the ad. Hagan, a member of the Presbyterian Church, USA, took part in a fundraiser at the home of a couple who are involved in the group.

Ancient Church Unearthed

The remnants of an 8th century Christian church has been discovered northeast of Damascus, Syria. Archaeologists from Syria and Poland found it in the city of Palmyra, a hub of caravan trade in the ancient world. They say the church’s columns are about 20 feet high and the sanctuary measures about 90 feet by 150 feet. There was an amphitheater in the courtyard, probably used for church rituals.

New Bama Bible Text

Alabama public schools now have a new option for text books in Bible classes. The State Board of Education has approved The Bible in History and Literature published by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. The Bible and Its Influence put out by the Bible Literacy Project has already been approved criticism from some conservatives.

Haggard Now Claims Sexual Abuse

Former Evangelical megachurch pastor Ted Haggard now says he was sexually abused as a child. He was fired from New Life Church in Colorado Springs for sexual misconduct when a former male prostitute alleged they had a cash-for-sex relationship and accused Haggard of using methamphetamine. The church issued a statement in February saying Haggard should not be allowed to return to the ministry because he did not complete his counseling rehabilitation. CNN has this report on Haggard, who now lives in Phoenix.

Ten Commandments Before Supreme Court

A Ten Commandments legal battle that arrived at the Supreme Court yesterday. The high court heard the plea of Pleasant Grove, Utah. It wants the high court to reverse a lower court decision requiring it to accept the Seven Aphorisms (part of a New Age religion that believes in UFOs) along with a Ten Commandments display in a park – or remove the Commandments entirely. The Bush administration joined 14 states and a coalition of veterans groups to file briefs opposing a lower-court decision. A decision is expected before the court term ends in late June.

Gay Rights Protesters Interrupt Church Service

There are a few scattered reports of a radical gay rights group interrupting a church service in Lansing, Michigan this past Sunday. Local media has apparently not picked up on the story but according to the Lansing State Journal, demonstrators threw fliers at churchgoers and shouted slogans such as "It's OK to be gay," and "Jesus was a homo” at Mount Hope Church, an Assemblies of God church. Protesters set off a fire alarm and unfurled a banner. Some carried picket signs and an upside-down, pink cross.

Book of Mormon Set on Fire

A copy of the Book of Mormon was set on fire and left on the steps of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sanctuary last night. No damage was reported. There is a possibility it may have been in retaliation to the church's stance on California’s Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage.

Nativity Scene at State Capitol

A nativity scene will be put up inside the Illinois Capitol Rotunda without objection from the state’s chapter of the ACLU. Other groups have been told they could also exhibit their own symbolic displays in the same area for the same number of days.

Catholic Bishops Cut Off ACORN

US Roman Catholic bishops are no longer sending money to ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Barack Obama once had connections with the group. It’s now involved in a controversy over voter registration fraud. The brother of its founder says nearly $1 million had been embezzled from the group. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development was set to give ACORN about $1 million to local groups.

Methodist Reference on The Simpson's

In the Halloween episode of The Simpsons titled Treehouse of Horrors XIX, Homer is a hit man. Krusty the Klown becomes one of his victims. In an act of revenge, Krusty comes down from heaven and points a gun at Homer.

Homer: Before you kill me, at least tell me: what is the one true religion?

Krusty: Eh, a mix of Voodoo and Methodist.