Birth Certificate Leads to Arrest

A homeless man who stole money from the First St. John's Church in York, Pennsylvania left his birth certificate behind. Allen Larry Dawes is now behind bars for the crime.

Jesus Return Expected

A new survey shows 41% of Americans expect Jesus return by 2050. 46% say it will definitely or probably not happen. 58% of those who identified themselves as white evangelicals agreed while only 32% Catholics and 27% of white mainline Protestants share the view. The poll conducted by the Pew Research Center has a 3% margin of error.

Atheist Billboard Campaign

A new billboard campaign in North Carolina is taking a stab at religious values. The boards are sponsored by the North Carolina Secular Association and offer a few words from the Pledge of Allegiance (One Nation Indivisible) but with “under God" missing. The billboards are up along Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte and other spots in Asheville, Winston-Salem, and Raleigh. Two billboard companies refused to put up the billboards. One said the Pledge ad was too controversial.

Offer to Rebuild Jesus Statue

PETA is offering to rebuild a 60-foot-high statue of Jesus that was burned to the ground by a lightning strike. The animal rights group put the offer in a a letter it sent to the Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio. The catch: PETA wants the Jesus image to hold a lamb and these words placed at the foot of the statue: "Blessed Are the Merciful. Go Vegan."

Creation Lawsuit Rejected

A federal court tossed out a creationist school's lawsuit over whether it can offer a Master's Degree. A judge rejected a bid by the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School to challenge a decision by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, rejecting the institute's request to offer master's degree in science education.

Baptists Divided over Budgets and Baptisms

The Nashville Tennessean has a report on the Southern Baptist Convention gathering in Orlando here.

Thomas Nelson Ownership

Privately held Christian publisher Thomas Nelson has been acquired by a group of investors. The company hopes the move will open doors to acquiring other companies. Thomas Nelson has cut its staff from about 600 employees to less than 500 in the past few years.

Statue Burns to Ground

A 60-foot tall statue of Jesus near Monroe, Ohio is gone after lightning triggered a fire that burned it to the ground. The structure outside of Solid Rock Church weighted 16,000 pounds and was made of styrofoam, wood and fiberglass. Intense thunderstorms triggered the lightning strike Monday. No one was injured.

Holy Land Tourism

Israel’s Tourism Ministry says tourism is up 42% from the same period in 2009, making 2010 a potentially record year. Many of these tourists are evangelical Christians.

Tangle & GodTube Bought

Salem has acquired tangle.com and GodTube.com. Tangle is a leading Christian social networking website, and GodTube is a Christian video website. Together, the two sites reach well over 1 million unique visitors a month, with millions of page views and maintains over 800,000 registered users. For its part, Salem Communications owns 96 radio stations and provides programming for approximately 2,000 affiliated radio stations.

Wireless Mic Change Deadline

Churches are scrambling to replace wireless microphones and devices by Saturday, a deadline set by the FCC. The agency is required users to switch wireless microphone systems between 698 and 806 MHz to make room for use by fire, police and emergency services. Many churches across the country us these frequencies. Failing to make the change could lead to a fine of $100,000. The change is costing many churches $10,000 or more.

Column on Gay Parents Controversy

A Boston Catholic paper is apologizing for a column that has stirred gay rights advocates by linking same-sex parents with pornography. Michael Pakaluk, writing in The Pilot says one reason the children of gay parents should not be admitted to Catholic schools is the danger they would pose of bringing pornography into school. He once taught philosophy at Clark University in Worcester and served as a visiting scholar at Harvard. He now teaches in Virginia. Pakaluk has told reporters he would not make the same point if he were writing the article again. Read the column here.

Getting to Know.. David Cerullo

Here are some facts about televangelist David Cerullo.

Runs The Inspiration Network
Salary $1.5 million a year
Married to Barbara Cerullo who got $198,000 in total compensation from the ministry in 2007
Lives in Charlotte, NC
12,000-square-foot lakefront home
His children receive large salaries from his ministry (nearly $400,000)
Building a 93-acre campus in South Carolina
The state gave Cerullo incentives worth some $25 million
Attended Oral Roberts University
ordained by the Assemblies of God in 1974
Father is evangelist Morris Cerullo
Morris Cerullo paid $7 million to buy The Inspiration Network in 1990
The network has more than 300 employees
More than 2 dozen employees make more than $100,000 a year
Not a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability

Premarital Sex Leads to Firing

A former teacher at a Florida Christian school is suing for her losing her job because she got pregnant before getting married. Jarretta Hamilton was a 4th grade teacher at Southland Christian School in St. Cloud when she admitted her child had been conceived about three weeks before her wedding last year. The school issued a letter to its staff explaining the firing by saying in part, "Jarretta was asked not to return because of a moral issue that was disregarded, namely fornication, sex outside of marriage."

Commandments Display Suit

A Utah judge has dismissed a Ten Commandments lawsuit. A group called the Summum wanted to put up a religious display alongside a Ten Commandments display in Pleasant Grove. The marker is in a public park, where it was dedicated a half a century ago.

Christian Singer Dies

Christian singer Dana Key unexpectedly passed away yesterday. A member of the pioneering Christian band Degarmo & Key, the 57 year old died from a blood clot. He served as senior pastor of The Love of Christ Church in Cordova, Tennessee which planned a DeGarmo & Key reunion this Sunday.

Newspaper Ad Upsets Muslims

Ads for the Granite City Baptist Church in St. Cloud, Minnesota is stirring controversy. Pastor Dennis Campbell suggestions Islam is a threat to America. The advertisement was placed in the St. Cloud Times and says Muslims "seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs and by supporting the gay agenda." Campbell has given interviews defending the ad, saying he is not a racist. See the ad here.

Clergy Glut

There are more than 600,000 ministers in the but only 338,000 churches in the US, according to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. For instance, there are four Presbyterian ministers looking for work for every job that's available. At the same time, there are 300 churches that are members of the Tennessee Baptist Convention without a pastor. The average church has only 75 members, so many congregations cannot afford a full-time pastor. The Association of Theological Schools says seminary enrollment is down more than six percent in the last five years, so the number of pastors without churches is likely to fall over the next few years.

Spiritual but not Religious

CNN looks at "Are there dangers in being spiritual but not religious?" here.

Suit: Pages of Bible Stolen

An Armenian church in California is suing the J. Paul Getty Museum over pages from an ancient Bible in the museum's collection since 1994. The Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America filed a $105-million civil lawsuit saying that the institution illegally bought the seven pages. The church wants the pages back because, the suit say, they were torn out of the Armenian Orthodox Church's Zeyt'un Gospels more than 100 years ago. But Getty says it obtained the legally and will fight the lawsuit.