Anti-Gay Church Gets ACLU Help

The Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church is getting help from an unusual source. The Topeka-based church, known for protesting at soldiers’ funerals against gay rights, is suing the city of St. Joseph, Missouri for refusing to let members stage a protest. Now, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri is joining Westboro in its effort to get the ordinance declared unconstitutional. This past fall, an appeals court ruled the group has the right to picket at soldiers’ funerals in the state of Missouri.

Tim Tebow's Faith

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow led his team to a national championship last night by beating the Oklahoma Sooners. What many sports fans may not know is that Tim was homeschooled and has spent a lot of time in the Philippines (where he was born) with his parents doing missionary work. The family still makes annual pilgrimages to help the poor. Tebow has often spoke before gatherings of high school students about his Christian faith. Last year, he won the Heisman Trophy. But his siblings are doing big things as well: His sister, Christy, is a full-time missionary in Bangladesh and brother Robby is the area director for the Northeast Florida Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Brother Peter is an intern at the University of Florida’s Campus Crusade for Christ.

So Help Me God

The Senate Historical Office says President Washington never said So help me God during his inauguration. Historical editor Beth Hahn says she always assumed Washington said it. And even said so in a film called So Help Me God that you can watch on the website of The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. But after some research, she decided the first time was during the inauguration of Chester Arthur during 1881. However, she does admit it was often used to end oaths of office in Washington’s day.

While it may be debatable whether the first US president concluded his presidential oath with those four words, he did mention God in his speech.

Washington began with "fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe.. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good.. No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States."

He ended with "the benign Parent of the human race, in humble supplication..” and asked for God's "divine blessing" for the nation.

Clergy blessings have been a part of presidential inaugurations for more than two centuries without much attention.

Atheist Michael Newdow has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent God from being mentioned during Barack Obama's inauguration.

2nd Trimester Abortions

The University of Wisconsin plans to give women second-trimester abortions (between 13 and 22 weeks) at the Madison Surgery Center in Madison. All that’s needed is the Center’s board of trustees to approve the move later this month.

A conservative Christian legal group is protesting the move. The Alliance Defense Fund questions the plan's legallity because a state law prohibits state or federal money from being used to pay doctors or clinics to perform abortions.

The Center says insurance and the patients will foot the bill for the abortions and not the state.

Neuhaus Dies

Richard John Neuhaus has died at the age of 72. The Catholic priest and theologian founded First Things and promoted conservative views in his writing. Neuhaus was battling cancer. TIME magazine put him on a list of America’s 25 most influential Evangelicals in 2005. More from the National Catholic Register.

Hall of Fame Inductees

These artists will be inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame this year:

• Michael W. Smith: won three Grammy Awards and 42 Dove Awards during his two decades of creating contemporary Christian Music
  
• Dolly Parton: a Kennedy Center Honoree as well as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame
  
• Bobby Jones: His Bobby Jones Gospel program first aired in 1976, won Grammy and Dove Awards along with a NAACP Image Award
  
• The Dixie Hummingbirds: formed in 1928, sang with Paul Simon on Loves Me Like A Rock and Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions album .
  
• Lari Goss: has worked with The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, The Gaither Vocal Band, Glen Campbell and many others
  

Library Lawsuit Settled

The Clermont County Public Library in Batavia, Ohio has settled a lawsuit with a couple who wanted to hold a financial planning seminar. The library turned them down because they wanted to use the Bible.

The library will pay George Vandergriff and his wife $2 and $1 will go to the Institute for Principled Policy which was part of the suit. But $10,000 will go to their attorneys. The library has also changed its policy and will no longer allow outside groups to use its meeting rooms.

Atheist Bus Ad Campaign

Plagiarism by Best-selling Author

The man who wrote the best-selling series Conversations with God admits he borrowed someone else’s anecdote and presented it as his own. Neale Donald Walsch says he didn’t do it on purpose. Nevertheless, Beliefnet.com has taken down his blog on spirituality because he “failed to properly credit and attribute material from another author”. Here's the website's full statement.

Walsch told the story of his son playing in a Christmas concert where kids held up letters that spelled out Christmas Love. But one child held his m upside down changing the cards to read: Christwas Love. But this was Candy Chand’s story. She found the Walsch version through a search engine.

Inauguration Protests

The church that likes to protest against gays at military funerals plans to show up at Barack Obama’s inauguration. The US Park Service has granted a permit to the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas for more than a dozen people. They will be located at the northeast corner of John Marshal Park.

There will be other protests as well. The Christian Defense Coalition expects several hundred to turn out at the Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the Coaltion has been granted a permit to protest against abortion.

The demonstrations will start at 7am on January 20th, Inauguration Day.

The Daily Show & the Church of Universal Love & Music

Attorneys for the Church of Universal Love and Music are asking a judge to not allow jurors see a segment of John Stewart’s Daily Show. The group claims to be a church and that the county is discriminating against it. But County officials say the organization shouldn’t get that status when it comes to zoning laws and a bit that ran on the Daily Show confirms it. During the program, Church of Universal Love and Music founder William Pritts told viewers, "God never said you can't party on." The county believes that was his real intention is not religious but promoting concerts. They denied him permits to hold his “services” featuring rock and jazz music. Pritts sued for $1 million, saying the concert ban violates his religious freedoms. Trial is set for next month.

See The Daily Show video here.

Trying to Live Like Jesus

Retired megachurch pastor tells USA Today, "If you get serious about the Bible, it will really mess you up." Ed Dobson spent 2008 trying to eat, pray, talk and even vote as Jesus would. He got the idea from A.J. Jacobs' book The Year of Living Biblically. Dobson celebrated Jewish holidays, witnessed in bars, grew his hair out, gave strangers rides, and even drank wine occasionally instead of abstaining. Making things more difficult: Dobson is battling Lou Gehrig's disease.

Religion Waning in US?

Most Americans believe religion is losing significance when it comes to how they live. Here's the results from a recent survey and how it compares to other years.

2008, all Americans:
Religion can answer all or most of today's problems – 53%
(an all-time low)
Religion is largely old-fashioned and out of date – 28%


Do you think religious influence is waning?

2008, All Americans:
Falling- 67%
Rising – 27%

2008, Weekly church attenders:
Falling – 74%
Rising – 24%

1957:
Falling – 14%
Rising – 69%

2001:
Falling – 24%
Rising – 71%

Source: Gallup Poll

Robertson's Predictions

Pat Robertson is predicting America will move toward socialism during Barack Obama’s term in office.

“What the Lord was saying, the people are willing to accept socialism to alleviate their pain. Nothing will stand in the way of a plan by Obama to restructure the economy in the same fashion as the New Deal in the ‘30s.”

As for the economy, Robertson told 700 Club viewers:

“Cast off the gloom and the doom because things are getting ready to turn around. I’m flying in the face of all of the experts or most of the experts who say, ‘Oh no, no, no, it’s going to get worse,’ but I don’t think so.”

Inauguration Week Sermons

The Library of Congress is asking churches to video tape sermons during inauguration week. The library's American Folklife Center wants to save them for posterity. The goal is to provide historians with a sense of how Americans reacted to Obama’s historical January 20th inauguration.

Arrest For Nun's Murder

A Brazilian man has been arrested for ordering the murder of an American nun. Regivaldo Pereira Galvao is accused of having 73-year-old Dorothy Stang killed in an effort to get people in the area to give him their property rights. The area is under dispute in the Amazon. She had defended the rights of landless farmers in a land distribution project called the Project for Sustainable Development (PDS). The Brazilian government says 100’s of people have been able to earn a living because of its success.

A film called They Killed Sister Dorothy with narration by actor Martin Sheen, tells her story and has won international praise. Some interviews in the documentary will be used against some of the suspects including Galvao who maintains his innocence.

More Focus vs Beck

More in this article from The Christian Post on the Focus on the Family's decision to take down an article from its website on talk show host Glenn Beck.

Obama Leans to the Religious Left

Barack Obama’s top aides has met with more than a dozen religions groups since the presidential election. Among the groups that have had numerous meetings with the transition team include The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and The Public Policy arm of the United Methodist Church. Most of them are left-leaning and focus on global warming, economic relief for the poor, support for organized labor, and healthcare. Some want more sex education and the government to increase its services for pregnant women.

The Southern Baptists and James Dobson’s Family Research Council along with other conservative groups say they have not received invitations at all.

Obama's version of Bush’s faith-based initiative office is called the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Instead of looking for ways the government can work with religious groups, the Council has discussed how to further separate church and state.

Man Accused in Major NYC Church Swindle

New York prosecutors say Bryant Rodriguez stole more than $600,000 from Upper Manhattan church-goers in a Ponzi scheme. A judge released Rodriguez on $2 million bail this week despite claims he is a flight risk. They say he sent most of the money from El Camino Church, a small evangelical congregation, to banks in the Dominican Republic. Prosecutors say he did the same thing to other churches. But pastors and members of those churches packed out the courtroom to show they still support Rodriguez.

Fired for Getting Married

Marquis LaFortune lost her job at Central Catholic High School in San Antonio because she was about to cause a “scandal”. She was planning to get married. The 25-year-old has filed a complaint with the EEOC and may file a law suit. The problem for the school was that her husband-to-be was divorced.