News-Record.com

Instead of giving a man a fish, he wants to teach him to fish. Or at least to serve it with a glass of sweet tea.
"My business and spiritual life go hand in hand," Noble says. "And one of the things I know is how to run a restaurant."

The 32-year-old Candadian Todd Bentley looks more like a biker than a minister, with body piercings and tattoos all over his arms and neck. But the crowds don't seem to mind how he looks. They just want what they believe Bentley has -- the ability to heal them.

Not everyone's a believer.

I read with some sadness that Barack Obama left his church of two decades. My thoughts weren't on the latest controversy, involving a visiting preacher who made fun of Hillary Clinton. It's the idea that finding a church or house of worship or gathering that you love is often such a personal and deep connection and fit. It's akin to actress and singer Beyonce who said she, too, had to leave her church because people were always watching her.

Justin Catanoso, executive editor at the Business Journal and a former reporter at the News & Record, has written a book about his cousin, an Italian priest named Gaetano Catanoso, who became a saint.

Addressing a conference of 6,000 Methodist youths in North Carolina last year, Bishop Thomas Bickerton held up his own $10 and told the crowd: "This represents your lunch today at McDonald's or your pizza tonight from Domino's. Or you could save a human life."

The lights were so bright that he could see only what was happening at his feet. "They just showered the stage with $10 bills," Bishop Bickerton said. "In 30 seconds, we had $16,000. I’m just lucky they didn't throw coins."

His sin? Kmiec, a Catholic who can cite papal pronouncements with the facility of a theological scholar, shocked old friends and adversaries alike earlier this year by endorsing Barack Obama for president. For at least one priest, Kmiec's support for a pro-choice politician made him a willing participant in a grave moral evil.

Kmiec was denied Communion in April at a Mass for a group of Catholic business people he later addressed at dinner. The episode has not received wide attention outside the Catholic world, but it is the opening shot in an argument that could have a large impact on this year's presidential campaign: Is it legitimate for bishops and priests to deny Communion to those supporting candidates who favor abortion rights?

If passed, the Colorado constitution on 'personhood' would define 'person' as "any human being from the moment of fertilization."
Kristi Burton, a 20-year-old law student, heads Colorado for Equal Rights. She, her group, and their web site are not discussing the changes that would result if the referendum were passed. She notes that the constitutional amendment:
"... doesn't outlaw abortion, it doesn't regulate birth control. It's just a constitutional principle. We're laying a foundation that every life deserves protection. ... We'll see what happens after that."

Seen during First Presbyterian Church's drive-thru food drive on Tuesday:
Forbis and Dick (a church member works there) pitched a tent to shelter workers as they collected food. Not to be outdone, another funeral service, Hanes-Lineberry (where another church member works), quickly pitched a tent of their own.
The winner: all the workers sheltered from the sun!

A junior high school principal who allowed a group to make a presentation about Islam to students is no longer on the job.

Council on American-Islamic Relations president Tarek Hussein said he contacted the principal about the educational presentation (Islam 101) after hearing from a father who said his son was physically attacked at the school because he is Muslim. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim students often get teased and called terrorists, Hussein pointed out.

A personal and political connection.
"Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech."

UPDATE: Sorry! The newspaper's Web site interchanged the story I was try to lead you to, with this one and it's impossible to get to it even when clicking on the headline for the correct story at that site.

LOS ANGELES--A self-ordained bishop has been charged with defrauding an 87-year-old Claremont woman of her home. Leroy Dowd was charged Wednesday and is facing arraignment Monday on grand theft, forgery and other charges.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office says Dowd headed the now-defunct Triumph Church of God in Los Angeles. Prosecutors say he met the woman through the church in 2006 and tricked her into signing over the grant deed to her $800,000 home by telling her he could help her secure widow's benefits.

An autistic boy has been banned from Mass at a Catholic parish. He's too 'disruptive' church leaders say. The Rev. Daniel Walz wrote in his petition for the restraining order that Adam -- who already is more than 6 feet tall and weighs more than 225 pounds -- has hit a child, has nearly knocked over elderly parishioners while bolting from his pew, has spit at people and has urinated in the church.

I know some churches have soundproof and separate rooms with sound for young children or this situation. Others say 'let everyone be' and in the sanctuary. Did this church go too far?

SALT LAKE CITY --- Thirty years have passed, but Heber G. Wolsey still cries when he recalls the day the Mormon church abandoned a policy that had kept black men out of the priesthood.

Until 1978, black men could attend priesthood meetings but could not pass sacraments or give blessings, even on their own families. They could not enter Mormon temples for sacred ceremonies, including marriage

The only openly gay U.S. Episcopal bishop has entered into a civil union with his partner.

Nuclear war will begin next Thursday, or sooner, according to the latest prediction of self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins, the founder of a religious sect in Abilene, Texas.

According to the Vatican's chief astronomer, believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God. Don't just take my word for it.

The Southern Baptist Convention has a new president, the Rev. Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga.

And, here's what else the Baptists are doing in Indianapolis:
Rejected sex-abuse database
Heard from Colts coach
Listened to pre-recorded Bush

but I'll stop in with posts, and so will some of my friends (I hope). If there's something you want to discuss, here's my invitation to start the conversation right now!

KUWAIT CITY -- Naif al-Mutawa was in a London taxi with his sister when she asked when he'd go back to writing children's books. Mutawa, a Kuwaiti psychologist with two doctorates and an MBA from Columbia, said the question sparked a chain of thoughts:

To go back to writing after all that education, it would have to be something big, something with the potential of Pokémon, the Japanese cartoon that was briefly banned by Saudi religious authorities. God would have been disappointed by that, he thought; God has 99 attributes, or names, including tolerance.

"And then the idea formed in my mind," Mutawa said. "Heroes with the 99 attributes."

but I'll stop in with posts, and so will some of my friends (I hope). If there's something you want to discuss, here's my invitation to start the conversation right now!

Many people live a good life without an organized faith, so why do they need one?

Could there be...nothing?
Or are those pearly gates real?
Just something to ponder.

More than 10,000 deeply committed Christians are no longer waiting for the Second Coming -- they believe it's already here.

So where's Jesus? In Siberia. And he's (gasp!) a vegetarian.

From the ABC News story:

Deep in the heart of Siberia's birch forests lies one of the largest and most remote religious communes of the planet. More than 5,000 people have left their families and their homes to move here and join the Church of the Last Testament, which has more than 10,000 followers worldwide. The church centers on one man. He is known simply as Vissarion, meaning "he who gives new life," or simply as the teacher, and he claims that he is Jesus Christ.

And who am I to say he's not?

I just hope this doesn't end up blowing up in the faces of thousands of Russians, like the last time they put their faith in a false prophet...

An Alabama woman is arguing she and her husband should be released from jail on marijuana charges because...wait for it...they did it for Jesus.

From the Press-Register story:

BAY MINETTE — For years Brenda Williams Shoop struggled in a journey to get closer to God, she told a judge Thursday.

---

Looks like their church -- the Universal Orthodox Church (have to love the name, even if you're not high), is legit. Or, you know, as legit as any other church. It's based in Atlanta (where Big Boi and Andre 3000 of OutKast have been toking up...ahem...religiously for years) and believes the wacky tobbaccy to be related to "God's Holy Oil" as described in Exodus 30:22-25.

For those of you who don't have that one memorized (or have long since killed the brain cells where it resided with...over-worship), it goes a little something like this:

This shall be a “holy anointing oil” unto me throughout your generations. Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people. Exodus 30:31-33

I posted a link to this on Culture Shock last week, but I thought this audience might be interested as well:

There's a new line of t-shirts from Wear Science that encourage creationists to "teach the controversy" in theories beyond evolution.

I've heard a lot of people saying they dig the one with the Aliens and the pyramids, but my personal favorite is the one with the universe revolving around the Earth.

You guys certainly kept yourselves busy -- and I thank you (and Joe Killian, who kept it lively and visual).
Who knew the pastor of the hemp-smoking church would come aboard with his thoughts?
And the discussion on the Dead Sea Scrolls has been among the liveliest in recent posts.
Now, on to new stuff!

Is this just a matter of conscience for the owner or is this just the old American Way:

When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore, reports the Washington Post. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.

The pharmacy is one of a small but growing number of drugstores around the country that have become the latest front in a conflict pitting patients' rights against those of health-care workers who assert a "right of conscience" to refuse to provide care or products that they find objectionable.

Really?

"There is a distinction between intentional first-degree murder on the one hand and nonhomicide crimes against individual persons, even including child rape, on the other," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in what will be a term-defining decision for the court, according to the Washington Post.

While the latter may be "devastating in their harm," Kennedy said, "they cannot be compared to murder in their severity and irrevocability."

Who's going to get the evangelicals?
Obama has his problems -- he's even exchanging words with prominent evangelical James Dobson of Focus on the Family.
McCain is also struggling to gain traction -- and he and Dobson have their own problems.

I came across a column by free-lance columnist Mary Ann Kretizer that begins with, "One of the most effective proselytizers drawing Christians away from the faith today is not a minister, mullah, or rabbi. She is entertainer and New-Age guru Oprah Winfrey." (rest after the break).

I'm hearing this sentiment a lot in casual conversations with religious types. Has Oprah's faith explorations had that much impact on us or is it that people are discovering life outside of Christianity?

It's hard not to feel for this family's loss and for the young man, but those signs are posted for a reason. A private detective is being hired, so this might just end up being another personal responsibility case going to court.

Could this meeting help?: COLUMBUS, Ohio--- If Christian conservatives stay on the sidelines during the fall campaign, presidential hopeful John McCain probably stays in the Senate.

Sparks are flying in the 2008 culture wars.
The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched a website yesterday titled "James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me." The site is a jab at Dobson, a stalwart of the religious right who this week called Sen. Barack Obama's interpretation of the Bible in a 2006 speech distorted "to fit (Obama's) own world view, his own confused theology."

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), bitterly divided over sexuality and the Bible, set up another confrontation Friday over its ban on ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians.

The denomination's General Assemblyvoted 54 percent to 46 percent to drop the requirement that would-be ministers, deacons and elders live in "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between and a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."

LONDON (AP) — The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke out Monday against plans by conservative Anglicans to set up their own global fellowship of those who rejected the liberal teachings of north American and British churches.