Christian News Network reports:
Despite recent comments that he would never again make statements on political matters that could be construed as public declarations, Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in California, recently posted a message on Twitter to his 800,000 followers reinforcing his opposition to a largely church-supported homosexuality bill that is set to pass this month in the East African nation of Uganda.
Gospel Project Managing Editor Trevin Wax worries that celebrating certain sexual behaviors will curtail freedom in other areas.
Once we celebrate all sorts of sexual freedom, we slowly eliminate expressions of normal physical affection between human beings. Everything gets interpreted sexually, and this causes human beings to move farther apart, not closer together. In the name of freedom, we put ourselves in chains.
Christianity Today (CT) reports that after shifting from reparative therapy to discipleship, the ex-gay coalition has lost many prominent partners. CT informs us that:
Exodus’s shift on reparative therapy has been only one of several therapeutic and theological controversies that divided the ministry this year. Top leaders and dozens of affiliate ministries have defected from the 37-year-old umbrella ministry as it has attempted to reshape its mission and public image.
KETV News shares a story out of Nebraska that illustrates today’s prevailing ecumenical mindset:
A unique vision for religious unity in Omaha is quickly becoming reality.
The concept is to build a Jewish temple, Islamic center, and Episcopalian church all on one property and connected by walkways that meet at a tri-faith center meant to encourage education and understanding.
According to the Mail Online, a team of scientists at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka claim that an abortion can triple a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer later in life. The scientists made the claim while researching how breastfeeding can protect women from developing the killer disease. They concluded that breastfeeding offered significant protection from cancer and also noted that “the highest reported risk factor in developing the disease was abortion.”
Fox News reports:
A painting that features President Obama posed as Jesus Christ crucified on is on display at a community college art gallery in Boston.
The painting by Michael D’Antuono is part of a larger exhibit called “Artists on the Stump – the Road to the White House 2012.” It’s on display at the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery until Dec. 15th.
Fox News reports that 19-year-old Angus T. Jones no longer wishes to be on the popular TV sitcom ‘Two and a Half Men.’ Jones, who attends a Seventh Day Adventist Church in Los Angeles, says that the sitcom contradicts his religious values. In a recent video, Jones pleads with viewers of ‘Two and a Half Men’ to stop watching the show and to stop “filling your head with filth.”
A stage version of the holiday classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas” has “sparked a constitutional controversy” at a grade school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Parents were informed that students would be shuttled to and from an upcoming performance of the show at a nearby church. Fox News shares more of the story:
[A]t least one parent objected to the field trip and contacted the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, a self-described community of atheists, agnostics and humanists.
“The problem is that it’s got religious content and it’s being performed in a religious venue and that doesn’t just blur the line between church and state — it oversteps it entirely,” attorney Anne Orsi told Arkansas Matters.
Life News reports:
Planned Parenthood has taken credit for pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s re-election by openly admitting that their political action committee’s plan relied on partisan scare-tactics.
The abortion conglomerate has been a long-time favorite of Barack Obama, and they were more than willing to spend whatever they had to make sure that their best supporter re-won the presidency – to the tune of $15 million.
10 News in Tampa Bay reports:
Blockbuster charges in a Federal Suit involving the Church of Scientology. It involves accusations of impropriety and some of the most respected members of the judiciary and legal profession.
The allegations are coming from the former number-two man in the organization, and involve what he says is a multi-million dollar cover up of the death of a woman in Scientology care.
Life News reports:
A video featuring Nancy Giles of CBS is making the round this afternoon because it has her attacking white, pro-life Americans claiming they oppose abortion on racist grounds.
During the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on Saturday on MSNBC Giles said white Americans “trying to eliminate all these abortions” “to build up the race.”
John Lanagan of My Word Like Fire reports:
From the Office of Public Relations, Franciscan University of Steubenville, 11/9/12:
“The International House of Prayer (IHOP) was founded in 1999 by Mike Bickle, who says that many IHOP teachings draw upon the works of St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as well as contemporary Catholics including Father Henri Nouwen and Father Thomas Dubay, SM. The IHOP 24 hour prayer room, he says, was inspired by the spiritual practices of Catholic European monks, such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux. ‘I’ve always had a passion for Catholic-Christian unity, and enthusiastically welcome this years Catholic track,’ says Bickle. ‘We may have different religious traditions, but we focus on fellowship, and unity and Jesus being glorified in prayer, worship, and teaching.’”
Christian News Network shares the thoughts of Evangelist Michael Marcavage of Repent America on this most recent presidential election. According to this article, Marcavage believes that President Obama was re-elected due to “prominent evangelical leaders who demand morality in and by the government apart from the moral Lawgiver.”
Americans for Truth About Homosexualty reports on another example of compromise and liberal thought infiltrating the visible church:
Andrew Marin, the controversial founder and president of the Marin Foundation, is speaking next week at Park Community Church in Chicago. This is surprising in that from its website Park Community appears to be a theologically orthodox church.
Marin promotes himself as a bridge-builder between the Christian community and the homosexual community and has written a book on the subject titled Love is an Orientation. It is not Marin’s desire to reach the unsaved that is troubling. We should all seek to bring the good news of Christ’s redemptive work to those who identify as homosexual. Rather, it is his approach and his theology that generate controversy and trouble many Christians.
Life News reports this disturbing news:
Exit polling data has shown the number of evangelical voters was higher in 2012 than in the 2008 election — in what should have been a good sign for the pro-life movement and GOP candidate Mitt Romney.
However, further analysis of the data shows that even though pro-abortion President Barack Obama lost among white evangelical Protestants and white Catholics, almost one-quarter of evangelicals voted for him despite his massive pro-abortion record.
Pastor and writer Daryl Wingerd asserts:
The true Christian who becomes absorbed in the study of God’s word, who spends the largest percentage of his otherwise unallocated time in serious, concentrated and thoughtful Bible reading, who orders his life around this pursuit and the behaviors that flow naturally from it, will rarely suffer long-term defeat in his battle against sin.