The bank branch is dead. Long live the bank branch?
…forget the teller windows and solid-wood desks of days gone by. Say hello to everything from banks that feature community rooms for free yoga classes to ones that feature video-conferencing stations. It’s all a matter of giving customers something more than a checking account with free checks – such pieces of paper are hardly necessary these days, anyhow — or a CD with a marginally higher rate.
What’s a good recipe for box office and DVD sales success? It seems in 2011, pro-America sentiment mixed with conservative values and faith-centered themes equaled a hit.
This according to an annual study conducted by the Christian-focused entertainment advocacy group Movieguide, which found that in 2011, American audiences preferred movies with strong conservative content and values over movies with liberal or left-leaning values by an almost six-to-one margin.
The 760-page report claims that films with a conservative or pro-American edge, such as “Captain America,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Soul Surfer,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Battle: Los Angeles” raked in significantly more box office green than more liberal films like “Red State,” “Super 8,” “J. Edgar,” “Glee” and “Ides of March.”
Persecution of Christians in the United Kingdom seems to be intensifying. The Telegraph reports:
In a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.
It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work.
A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so.
Christian J. Pinto, independent filmmaker and host of Noise of Thunder Radio, questions Christian historian David Barton’s handling of history. He writes:
Without question, David Barton is the leading history teacher among those who long to hear stories about the Christian founding of America, and as we know, for the past year, he has operated as Glenn Beck’s historian on Fox News. As believers, we all rejoice to hear about those who stood strong in the faith, especially in the face of difficult trials. But does this apply to the Founding Fathers of the American Revolution? Were they Bible believing Christian men fighting to establish a Christian nation? According to teachers like David Barton, the answer is yes. But as we show in the film, The Hidden Faith of the Founding Fathers, much of Barton’s historical information is quoted out of its full context. He gives the false impression that the revolutionaries supported Christianity, when in truth they rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and were even hostile to its precepts.
Russell D. Moore, the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes:
Recently I read a book that kept me awake a couple of nights. It was about “Clark Rockefeller,” and the scare quotes are important. The man was neither “Clark” nor “Rockefeller.” He was a German immigrant who crafted an identity as an heir of one of America’s wealthiest dynasties. He married, fathered a child, and was involved in fraud, theft, and maybe even murder. And no one ever knew, until the very end.
What made me squirm was that fact that the fake Rockefeller’s inroad to all his deception were churches and relationships, particularly with women. He would make the connections he needed in local congregations, and he would charm the women there. At the same time, he would parasitically imitate the men, watching and mirroring back to them their convictions and opinions, even the inflections of their voices. But, behind all of that, there was nothing real but a predatory appetite.
The gospel’s most dangerous earthly adversaries are not raving atheists who stand outside the door shouting threats and insults. They are church leaders who cultivate a gentle, friendly, pious demeanor but hack away at the foundations of faith under the guise of keeping in step with a changing world. Phil Johnson
Do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them. Ephesians 5:11
There is a spiritual battle of epic proportions going on in churches all over the globe that should drive serious Christians to their knees. A whole host of aberrant to downright heretical movements have slithered into contemporary evangelicalism and more are being added to the mix virtually every day.
Unbiblical teaching is rampant in mainline Protestant denominations as well as in non-denominational churches. Inside our churches you will find men and women teaching rank heresy. Sunday after Sunday people flock to churches and become a captive audience to those who preach outlandish lies and half-truths. Televangelists are the worst offenders. Many of them are money grubbing charlatans. As a result of false teachers and cult leaders gaining worldwide access to churches and Christian ministries over these past few decades to spread their false doctrines, evangelical Christianity is experiencing a downward spiral.
Warning: This piece contains sexually explicit language that some readers will find disturbing. Nonetheless, David Kupelian accurately reports on what some Christian pastors with rock star status are preaching in their churches.
There’s a new form of Christianity sweeping the U.S. Its main focus: sex.
Don’t be surprised. We already have a Christian denomination catering to every other worldview, comfort zone and obsession, so why not sex? As I said in “The Marketing of Evil”:
No matter what kind of person you are, a form of Christianity has evolved just for you. There’s a politically liberal Christianity and a politically conservative Christianity. There’s an acutely activist Christianity and an utterly apolitical Christianity, a Christianity that holds up a high standard of ethical behavior and service, and a Christianity for which both personal ethics and good works are irrelevant. There’s a raucous, intensely emotional Christianity drenched in high-voltage music, and there’s a quiet, contemplative Christianity. There’s a loving Christianity and a hateful, racist Christianity, a Christianity that honors Jews as God’s chosen people and a Christianity that maligns Jews as Satan’s children.
So, it was just a matter of time before we got a version of Christianity for people obsessed with sex.
Dr. Albert Mohler addresses an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics that argues for the morality and legalization of “after-birth abortion”:
The debate over abortion comes down to one essential issue — the moral status of the unborn child. Those making the case for the legalization of abortion argue that the developing fetus lacks a moral status that would trump a woman’s desire to abort the child. Those arguing against abortion do so by making the opposite claim; that the unborn child, precisely because it is a developing human being, possesses a moral status by the very fact of its human existence that would clearly trump any rationale offered for its willful destruction.
Christians in A.A. may not see it this way, but they are in agreement with a belief system that lifts up strange gods (Amos 3:3). In Alcoholics Anonymous all gods are called the “higher power,” thus relegating Christ our King to commonality, as if He were simply one nameless deity among many.
I am the Lord, that is My name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to idols. Isaiah 42:8
In 1941, Jack Alexander of the Saturday Evening Post wrote the article that provided A.A. its first national publicity. Describing A.A.’s “higher power,” Alexander noted the alcoholic “may choose to think of his Inner Self, the miracle of growth, a tree, man’s wonderment at the physical universe, the structure of the atom, or mere mathematical infinity. Whatever form is visualized, the neophyte is taught that he must rely on it and, in his own way, to pray to the Power for strength.”
Most Americans are unaware that National Condom Week has been an annual occurrence since the 1970s, commencing the week of 14 February. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) did not give out the customary flowers and chocolates; instead, they distributed condoms to students at universities in the Pacific Northwest. In its effort to promote safer sex, the organization launched WhereDidYouWearIt.com and passed out 55,000 condoms wrapped with smartphone-scannable QR codes that link to the site, so that students can ‘check in’ to their booty call locations.
The Christian Post reports:
Nearly a month after a video showing Rabbi Ralph Messer, who leads the Simchat Torah Beit Midrash congregation in the Denver metropolitan area, “crowning” Atlanta megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long went viral and earned both men a storm of criticism, Messer’s ministry is still evoking questions.
Most recently, a local Messianic Jewish community has officially renounced Messer, who has given the impression that he is a Messianic Jew.
Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis writes:
Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York. He attended Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.
He is known as a good Bible teacher and has a heart for evangelizing New York City. Redeemer Presbyterian’s Hope for New York outreach program seeks to satisfy the spiritual and material needs of those in the community. Hope for New York does sets a high standard for Christian participation in the larger community. But …
In a new article posted this past week, he has grossly misrepresented what I believe and teach. But first of all, let me give you some background.
The Southern Baptist Convention is going through a time of transition it appears with the proposal of a name addition, it being Great Commission Baptists. What are we to do with this idea of name changes?
Just changing a name doesn’t fix an image. This can apply across the board to many names that have a stigma attached to them. Take for example, the Walt Disney name. When Walt was alive, there was a family oriented sense to it and the theme parks were geared around that concept. Now Disney is synonymous with putting out films – even cartoon ones – with questionable material at best. The Little Mermaid, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules – all contain examples of risqué dress and promoting mythological figures for our children to look towards. If Walt Disney saw that his theme parks were turned into a money marketing plethora of these types of characters, we dare say he would not agree. They now support gay pride day at the parks in which his original innocent characters such as Chip and Dale are now paired up in a jaw dropping event.
Are Southern Baptists bigoted and un-American? On more than one occasion Richard Land, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has stated that raising questions about a presidential candidate’s religion is both bigoted and un-American. Yet, most of the Southern Baptists whom I know are very concerned about this matter. It seems ungrateful at best for Land to take the contributions.
This is the question that was running through my head when I recently attended a forum at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, entitled, ‘The Grindstone: Sharp, Theological Discussions On Topics That Matter’. The topic for the evening was ‘The Christian and Politics’ and it featured special guest panelist Richard Land.
The casino stands as the great and most visible monument to the massive scale of the Gambling Industrial Complex in America. Just look across much of the American landscape, and you will see the glaring and garish lights of the casinos that serve to attract gamblers. It was not always so.
Indeed, for all but the last decade of the twentieth century, casinos were basically non-existent, except for those found in the state of Nevada. All that changed when states began to license and draw revenue from casino gambling. As Earl L. Grinols of the University of Illinois has commented: “Most areas of America had no legal casino gambling before 1990.”
In his piece “Why we are all Catholics now” Glenn Beck is making yet another attempt to mainstream the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka Mormonism. Mormonism is not Christian, as Beck would have us believe. Rather the LDS Church is a theological cult. Right off the bat Beck affirms,
I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but today, I call myself a Catholic. Why? Because the state is telling the Catholic Church to violate its principles and teachings. So if you are a person of faith, you must call yourself a Catholic.
The Associated Press reports this deeply disturbing story:
A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.
It’s an issue that raises ethical questions, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.
Sue’s a self-professed Christian who attends church and a Bible study regularly and sings with the praise and worship team. Sue also practices yoga, consults a psychic medium, plays the Ouija Board game with friends and believes in reincarnation.
Sue and her boyfriend sleep together in the apartment she shares with two friends from church. No one questions what goes on behind closed doors. Sue and Tim, who’s an atheist, plan to marry someday so she believes God will overlook this “sin.” Her roommates are on the same page.
Because Sue is skilled at assessing a person’s character and motives—and she’s usually right—she boasts that she has the “gift of discernment.” Her roommates agree.
The National Review has posted a piece entitled ‘Grace Under Fire’:
The Defense Department has announced the opening of some 14,000 new “combat related” roles to women in the military, another incremental win for those seeking to erode the protections that have long kept women out of the most dangerous assignments.
Supporters believe the move, and the eventual removal of all barriers preventing women from combat, represents a great advance in “equal opportunity.” That belief is dubious, but more to the point, it is irrelevant. The purpose of the military is to fight and win wars. Personnel policies should be based, first and last, on combat effectiveness. If putting female soldiers on the front line had even a small adverse impact on combat effectiveness, it would outweigh whatever other, political or symbolic benefits might accrue.
The Media Research Center reports on the Valentine’s Day episode of the TV series ‘Glee’, in which a lesbian student asked a group of Christians to sing for her girlfriend as part of a ‘singing telegram’ performance. This episode of Glee continued the series’ mockery of Christian belief and promotion of homosexuality.
The Orange County Register reports:
We told you last week that the granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul and Jan Crouch has accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of unlawfully distributing charitable assets worth more than $50 million to the company’s directors.
The charges were leveled in a federal lawsuit filed by Crouch granddaughter Brittany Koper against her former lawyers, who also do legal work for Trinity. One of those lawyers said her charges were “outright fiction and wholly without merit.”
On Thursday, Feb. 9 – the same day that our story ran online – Paul Crouch and his son, Matt, were having a live chat on TBN’s Behind the Scenes. Paul was reminiscing about how TBN began back in 1973 — God spoke to him as he was driving on MacArthur Boulevard — and the conversation took a turn that Koper’s attorney finds somewhat menacing.
The Christian Post reports:
A poll instigated by atheist Richard Dawkins’ foundation has claimed that almost three quarters of British Christians believe religion should have no role in crafting public policy, while almost two-thirds believe same-sex couples should receive every right that heterosexual couples are given.
The Ipsos MORI poll was conducted on behalf of The Richard Dawkins Foundation For Reason and Science after the 2011 census was collected. The results were published Tuesday.
When I came to the States in 1964, the great enemy of the Christian Faith was Marxism, with “Commies behind every bush.” My wife recently told me that as a child she would lie awake at night worrying that she would give up her faith when persecuted by godless Soviet commissars. In 1966 at Seminary, I studied the “Death of God” theology, which, we were told, represented the final triumph of secular humanism.
For a century and a half secular humanist scholars predicted the demise of religion, which Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud dismissed respectively as the opiate of the people, and a mental illness. But the materialistic utopia never materialized. Instead, people have awakened to “spirituality.” Not God but materialistic secular humanism is dead.
News Max reports:
Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes that New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s 12 February 2012 piece is perplexing and offensive.