Colson Dies

Chuck Colson died today at the age of 80 at a Virginia hospital. Colson is best known to the public for his role in the Watergate coverup, though Evangelicals especially know him for his prison ministry. Colson was Richard Nixon's special counsel and known as the president's "hatchet man." He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal and served seven month in prison. After his release, he founded Prison Fellowship, an outreach to prisoners, wrote more than 30 books and hosted a daily radio commentary. President George W. Bush awarded Colson the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2008.

More Millennials Unaffiliated

Religious affiliation is falling in the U.S. A quarter of young adults now say they are "unaffiliated" according to a new report from the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs. More than half of that group also say they went to church when they were young. The Catholic church have lost the most Millennials. The young religiously unaffiliated say abortion should be legal in most cases (82%) and they approve of same-sex marriage (59%).

Dove Winners

Jason Crabb won artist and male vocalist of the year awards last night at the 43rd Dove Awards show in Atlanta. The show will be aired April 24 on GMC (formerly the Gospel Music Channel). Natalie Grant won female vocalist of the year. Laura Story took home five awards including song of the year for Blessings. Jamie Grace won new artist of the year, Kirk Franklin took home contemporary gospel album of the year for Hello Fear. Rapper Lecrae won rap/Hip Hop recorded album of the year and rap/Hip Hop song of the year. NEEDTOBREATHE won group of the year award for the second consecutive time.

Megachurch Removes Pastor

A Maryland megachurch has kicked out its pastor. The board of trustees of Jericho City of Praise Church in Landover fired Joel Peebles after a two year fight over control of the church's finances. Peebles became pastor after the church's founder, his mother, Betty Peebles, died in 2010. Here's a video report from WUSA-TV.

Vandy Student Groups

Eleven student groups at Vanderbilt University are banning together to fight new rules at the school that requires them to accept people as members whether the person agrees with the group's values or not. And that includes leadership roles in the group. The Vanderbilt Solidarity handed out some 4000 MP4 players on campus with a video calling for changes. The student handbook contains a nondiscrimination policy, but the school only choose to interpret it this way when a gay student complained he was not allowed to be a member of a Christian fraternity.

Belief in God

The older you are, the more likely you believe in God. That's the finding of researchers at the University of Chicago. They waded through information from 30 countries provided by the International Social Survey Program. Here are some of the results.

Belief in God:
68 years old - 43%
27 years old - 23%
68 years old - 43%


Belief in God is on the increase in Israel, Slovenia and Russia.

The Philippines had the highest belief in God at 94%.

Western Europe had the lowest belief in God at 13%.

In the U.S., 81% say they had always believed in God.

Bible Classes in Arizona

Arizona will let high schools offer Bible classes to students. Governor Jan Brewer signed the bill into law today. The elective course will focus on the role of the Bible in Western culture.

"Christ" Missing from Bible

A new version of the Bible rephrases verses to make them easy to understand - and drops a few things like the use of "Christ." Here's an interview with CNN about the translation.

Land: I was Sloppy

Richard Land is apologizing for using a Washington Time column on his radio show as if it were his own. The president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission read an article by Jeff Kuhner about the Trayvon Martin shooting without acknowledging it came from Kuhner. Land told his audience he was "sloppy" after a Baylor doctoral student pointed out that the comments were borrowed without attribution. Weaver says Land did the same thing in February, taking portions from another newspaper.

$100k for Tebow

An unidentified Florida couple is spending $100,000 to spend a day with Tim Tebow. They made the "purchase" at a charity auction held by his foundation. They plan to have the New York Jets quarterback meet and play with underprivileged children. The auction was part of the Tebow Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic, which included Masters’ winner Bubba Watson.