An Evangelical Manifesto

This morning a group of Christian leaders will present what they are calling an Evangelical Manifesto. It chastises Evangelicals for being used by the political parties, suggesting the focus on politics has diminished the Gospel. Among the 80 signers: Megachurch pastor Rick Warren, author Os Guinness, Fuller Theological Seminary president Richard Mouw and Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School. Among those who did not sign the document: Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Richard Land, head of the public policy arm for the Southern Baptist Convention. Read the Manifesto here.

Christians & Politics

Are Christians too involved in politics? Those responding “no”.

Christians - 52%
Evangelicals - 72%

Source: LifeWay Research

Just 4 Votes Short

A Nashville megachurch fell just four votes shy of tossing out 71 dissatisfied members. The group is suing the leadership of Two Rivers Baptist Church for mishandling finances. Pastor Jerry Sutton put the ouster vote on the table. 663 voted to dismiss the plaintiffs, while 337 voted “no.” The dissenters say Sutton used church funds for his daughter’s wedding among other questionable expenses. Many top leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention attend the church.

SBC Presidential Possibilities

Here are some of the people expected to be nominated for the position of president of the Southern Baptist Convention when the group meets June 10-11 in Indianapolis:

Frank Cox, pastor of the Atlanta-area North Metro First Baptist Church

Wiley Drake, First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California

Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia

Bill Wagner, former Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary professor

Avery Willis, retired SBC International Mission Board executive

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler dropped out of the race for health reasons.

The Wright Effect

Half the people voting in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries today said Barak Obama’s former pastor was an important factor in their decisions, according to exit polls. About 70% of those who said it was important in Indiana also said they were voting for Hillary Clinton. Whites and blacks were about as likely to call the situation important. But whites were much more likely to vote for Clinton if they said it was significant.

From Pornography to Bible Park

He once shot photos for Penthouse magazine. Now he wants to help build a Bible park in Tennessee. According to the The Tennessean newspaper, Amnon Bar-Tur who was born in Israel and immigrated to the US, shot cover and centerfold photos of nude models in the ‘70s. He later helped to form SafeHarbor Holding. The company is proposing a 282-acre theme park called Bible Park, USA be built in Rutherford County near Murfreesboro. It would feature re-enactments of life Bible times, theaters and other attractions based on stories from Scripture. The developers say the Penthouse connection is irrelevant to whether to build the park - which they claim could pull in a million-and-a-half visitors every year.

Online Bible Quiz

An online quiz for pastors and church leaders about the Bible is sparking a lot of discussion. More than 30,000 people have answered the 20 questions developed by Leadership journal and created by Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University in Chicago. Here’s how the numbers break out according to the journal:

The conservative hermeneutic group scores 52 or lower.
Moderates generally score between 53 to 65.
Those who score 66 or more can be seen as leaning toward the progressive side.

Take the Quiz

Rosie O'Donnell on Rev. Wright

“This man is, is following a tradition of black preachers and that there is a righteous indignation about people who were only considering three-fourths of a person until fairly recently in our history. And that his anger, which annoys some and forces some to look at issues that America is not really ready to face, is the actual issue. That racism does exist in this country and it's still thriving. And that some of the things that Jeremiah Wright says he's held accountable for. But there are things that white preachers have said that are just as insane. Pat Robertson saying that, you know, gays and feminists were responsible for the 9/11 catastrophe. Here's what I think. There is a place in the world, an inspirational, liberational kind of preaching that Reverend Wright does. You know when you read what he says, I was not as offended as the people in the polls that I read. I listen to him, and frankly, it made sense to me. I totally understood what he was saying."
- Rosie O'Donnell speaking on the "Today" show

Megachurch Facts

Number of megachurches in the US - 1210

Average Yearly Income - $6 million

Combined Incomes - $7.2 billion

Average Attendance - 3,585

Combined Weekly Attendance - 4.4 million

Percentage By Region:
South 49%
West 25%
Northcentral 20%
Northeast 6%

States with the Most:
California (14%)
Texas (13%)
Florida (7%)
Georgia (6%)

Percentage Belonging to a denomination - 66%

Denominations with the Most:
Nondenominational 36%
Southern Baptist 25%
United Baptist 9%
Assembly of God 5%

Note:
For a church to be counted as a megachurch in this survey, it had to have a weekly attendance of at least 2000
Source: Megachurches Today 2005
Survey conducted by Leadership Network and the Hartford Institute for Religion Research

Aid Groups Mobilize

Christian relief organizations are scrambling to get aid to Myanmar (also known as Burma). The Southeast Asian nation is cleaning up from a cyclone that may have killed more than 15,000 people. A World Vision spokesman says, "The destruction is unbelievable.” The humanitarian organization is appealing for $3 million in donations. Church World Service issued an appeal for $50,000 to help disaster victims. Catholic Relief Services is also raising funds and sending a team to the area. The US has economic sanctions in place against the country because of human rights abuses.

Chuck Norris at Commencement

Actor Chuck Norris will be the commencement speaker this Saturday at Liberty University. A supporter of Mick Huckabee's presidential campaign, the star of Walker, Texas Ranger is the author of several Christian books including The Justice Riders. The Lynchburg, Virginia school was founded by the late television evangelist Jerry Falwell who died a year ago at the age of 73. Jerry Falwell Jr is now Liberty’s chancellor.

Why Oprah Left Wright’s Church

Oprah Winfrey was once a member of Jeremiah Wright's church. But unlike Barak Obama, she stopped going back in the 90’s because she was uncomfortable with some of his anger-filled sermons, according to Newsweek magazine. The daytime TV diva also left Trinity United Church of Christ because she had grown tired of organized religion. Winfrey has declined to comment on the report.

Evangelical on Dem Platform Committee

Christian author and speaker Tony Campolo has been appointed to the committee that will review the Democratic Party’s platform. Campolo says he will defend pro-life issues at the national convention in Denver this summer. In the last few years, the party’s platform has directed supported a “woman’s right to abortion”.

Church Raises Millions in Two Days

Kensington Community Church located in Detroit’s suburb of Troy has come up with $17 million in pledges from its 11,000 members in just two days. The megachurch has a full-time directors of development on staff to coordinate fundraising efforts. Kensington hired Greg Gibbs from Cargill Associates, a Texas-based church fundraising and consultant firm. Kensington’s budget is more than $10 million. The new funds will go toward construction of a new 72,000-square-foot church building.

CS Lewis Screening

The CS Lewis Society of California will get a private screening of the new film Prince Caspian Saturday, May 17 at San Francisco’s Metreon. The film based on CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series opens on the big screen the night before. The first Narnia film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, took in $740 million. Sales of Lewis's Narnia series have topped 100 million copies. The event includes a presentation by Cambridge professor Michael Ward who wrote Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis.

The Wright Effect

Barak Obama's unfavorable rating among independents before the Wright controversy broke was 27%. It’s now 36%.

About 25% of Americans who are following the controversy say their "best guess" is that Obama agrees with the views of his former pastor, despite Obama’s repeated claims that he finds them offensive and wrong.

Source: USA TODAY/Gallup Poll

Obama on Joining Wright's Church

"I think that the American people understand that when I joined Trinity United Church of Christ, I was committing not to Pastor Wright, I was committing to a church and I was committing to Christ. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. What he said did not bring the country together; it divided the country. It fed into all of the racial antagonisms and divisions that have haunted this country for so long, and, you know, I did not want to give a platform for that." - Barack Obama on NBC's Meet the Press

TIME's Top 100

TIME Magazine has picked Richard Cizik for its top 100 most influential people in the world for 2008. The Evangelical Presbyterian minister heads up the Office of Government Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. His views and work on environmental issues such as global warming brought him to Time’s attention - and earned him criticism from fellow Evangelicals. Cizik first hit the political map a quarter of a century ago when he invited President Ronald Reagan to talk to his group. That speech to the NAE is still remembered for Reagan's reference to the Soviet Union as the "evil empire".

Getting to know… Jeremiah Wright

▪ Born in Philadelphia, September 22, 1941

▪ His father, grandfather and an uncle were pastors

▪ Enrolled in the seminary at Virginia Union University but dropped out

▪ Served six years in the Marines and the Navy

▪ Earned two masters' degrees and one doctorate from Howard University

▪ Became pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ in 1972 when the church had less than 100 members

▪ Trinity now has more than 8,000 parishioners

▪ Oprah Winfrey was once a member but stopped going in the 1990s

▪ The motto of Trinity Church is Unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian

▪ Barack Obama titled his second book after a sermon given by Wright called The Audacity to Hope

ORU Leaking Students

Oral Roberts University is losing students. Many are transferring before graduating to avoid association with the school that has been rocked by a financial scandal involving former president Richard Roberts. Enrollment is expected to be at least 150 lower this fall than last year. Some reports put the figure closer to 400 (or more than 12% of the student body). Applications to the Tulsa, Oklahoma school are down as well.