The recent merger of Mount Washington Baptist Church and the Greater New Home Baptist Church brought together two unlikely demographics. Predominantly white Mount Washington faced a dwindling membership. Greater New Home, a mostly black church, was running out of space.
Read the original here:
Churches find common ground in merger
Indy Channel News today reports that in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed earlier this month, the Fairfield, Indiana school district board voted unanimously yesterday to end a Bible class that was offered in the district’s New Paris Elementary School.
See more here:
School Board Drops Bible Class In Response To Lawsuit
The government is urging councils across the country to stop giving hundreds of thousands of pounds in tax breaks to the Church of Scientology . The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, said a majority of the public did not want the “controversial organisation” to be given the kind of favourable treatment usually reserved for charities and questioned this use of public money.
See the original post here:
UK Government urges councils to stop giving tax breaks to Scientology
“Allahu Akbar!” For anyone who paid attention to the news last year, the words shouted by the gunman responsible for a rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Food Hood, Texas, come as no surprise. In widespread news accounts, witnesses reported that Maj. Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim, shouted the Arabic phrase for “God is great!” before opening fire.
Read the original here:
Do all readers speak Arabic?
Have you ever seen uber-offensive pieces of “art” that completely demeans Christ, and you can’t do a thing about it? Don’t get me wrong, they are pieces of something but you still can’t bury them. There are pictures like this mess – not done in fun, not meant to make people think, not intended for
Original post:
Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Well, and this chic’s.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom this week sent a letter ( full text ) to President Obama urging him to highlight the importance of religious freedom during his upcoming visits to Indonesia and India. On Indonesia, the letter said: In our visit earlier this year, USCIRF was impressed by the commitments made by officials from different levels of government to advance religious freedom and related human rights as essential to Indonesia’s democratic future.
Read the original:
USCIRF Urges Obama To Raise Religious Freedom Issues On His Trip To Indonesia, India
Islamic banking is growing fast in Malaysia which is promoting itself as the world’s center for Shariah compliant financial products. Bloomberg Business Week reports today that Malaysian banking assets that comply with the Islamic ban on interest rose to the equivalent of $109 billion (US)– 20% of Malaysia’s total banking assets. Also Islamic insurance (takaful) now accounts for 9% of Malaysia’s insurance industry.
Continued here:
Malaysia Promotes Islamic Finance
Water has always been an important symbol for Christians. We use water in our baptism ritual. Christ turned water into wine and Catholics mix water into the wine that becomes Christ’s blood during our Mass.
See the original post here:
Water: A Basic Human Need
On 28 September 2010, Beijing celebrated the birth anniversary of ancient philosopher Confucius at his 14th century temple in Guozijian quarter. This was the first time the country’s atheist government had allowed Beijing to hold such an event since the founding of communist China.
Read the original post:
China becoming more generous in granting religious freedom
I had an enjoyable conversation with a friend today about note takers in church. Some preachers love it when listeners are taking notes. After all, it means they are listening, learning and will be going over the message again later. But actually it doesn’t. They are half-listening, may be learning, may or may not go over it again later. I’ve read research that suggests the best way for listeners to learn from a message is to listen attentively, and then have time immediately afterwards to make some retrospective notes. That allows them to give full attention to the message, rather than trying to recall and write while you are preaching. It also allows them to immediately distill main point and applications of the message, rather than fooling themselves into thinking an outline equates to learning or life change. Attention given to one thing means less attention given to something else. If people are writing, then their minds are distracted from what is being said at that moment
See the original post:
Preaching and Note Takers