The Front Pewtag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew/92008-07-04T12:30:04ZInteract with religion reporter Nancy McLaughlin.Movable Type 3.34Happy Fourth!tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.258682008-07-04T12:27:29Z2008-07-04T12:30:04ZNancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.comRunning the gamut on faith and non-faithtag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.258672008-07-03T22:11:51Z2008-07-03T22:26:50ZThe Pew Forum claims 1 in 5 atheists believe in God. Atheists have the will to believe?...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
believe in God.
Atheists have the will to believe?]]>
Proof that you can find anything on Craigs listtag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.258652008-07-03T22:06:48Z2008-07-03T22:09:34ZWiccan kit -- $150 OBO....Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
Wiccan kit -- $150 OBO.]]>
One of the country's fastest-growing religions might surprise youtag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.258142008-07-02T15:32:28Z2008-07-02T15:38:01ZThe number of neopagans roughly doubles about every 18 months in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Neopaganism, whether a careful reconstruction of ancient practice or a completely modern interpretation of ancient...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
neopagans roughly doubles about every 18 months in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.
Neopaganism, whether a careful reconstruction of ancient practice or a completely modern interpretation of ancient lore, is now among the country's fastest-growing religions. ]]>
Courting conservativestag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.258132008-07-02T15:22:18Z2008-07-02T15:26:43ZObama wants to continue -- while tweaking -- Bush's faith-based programs , which would allow religious groups to compete for government funds to perform community social work....Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
faith-based programs , which would allow religious groups to compete for government funds to perform community social work.
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Is your town "Hotter than Hell?"tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.257932008-07-01T21:58:05Z2008-07-01T22:02:30ZA novel marketing idea: In honor of the spicy, bold taste of our signature Hot Wings, KFC wants to know if it really is "Hotter than Hell" in your town. If it is, you have a chance to win free...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
idea:
In honor of the spicy, bold taste of our signature Hot Wings, KFC wants to know if it really is "Hotter than Hell" in your town. If it is, you have a chance to win free KFC Hot Wings!
Just how hot is Hell?
Now through July 4, visit kfc.com each day to verify the high temperature for Hell, Michigan. If your town is "Hotter than Hell," enter your information for a chance to receive $3 in KFC gift checks to try KFC's Hot Wings (you pay all applicable sales tax). ]]>
Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit to open in Raleigh June 28thtag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.253942008-07-01T10:10:32Z2008-07-01T22:10:27ZUPDATE: "So what I would like to know is, does this exhibit tell the truth?" Dead Sea Scrolls student See never-before-exhibited fragments of Genesis and Deuteronomy in an exhibit created specifically for N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences....Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
exhibit created specifically for N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.]]>
More controversy over "a man and a woman"tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.257682008-06-30T22:27:27Z2008-06-30T22:33:59ZThe 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...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
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.]]>
"James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me"tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.257552008-06-30T19:06:25Z2008-06-30T19:23:53ZSparks 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,...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
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."
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As McCain looks for his footingtag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.257542008-06-30T19:00:17Z2008-06-30T19:04:10ZCould 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....Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
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.]]>
Beyond the headlinetag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.257522008-06-30T18:51:30Z2008-06-30T19:05:14ZIt'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...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
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.]]>
Oprah: Most effective in drawing people away from the Christian faith?tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.257062008-06-27T13:06:34Z2008-06-27T13:10:03ZI 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...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
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?
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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.
Oprah calls herself a Christian, but she evangelizes for the New Age. For years she has intermingled false spirituality with makeovers, menus, and interviews. While her television show blends the bland with the bad, her daily radio program offers the full package in the form of A Course in Miracles, led by her friend Marianne Williamson. The course is also available on her website.
Although Miracles claims to be "mind training," even a cursory review exposes it as warmed-over values clarification (VC) and mind control. The purpose of VC is to throw out the past and start over. There are no good or bad values; there is no such thing as doctrine. The individual discovers his own values, not through reason but through feeling. Man is his own god, his own savior.
The course, which uses self-hypnosis techniques, begins by eliminating the past. Nothing has meaning, neither the things in the world nor the person’s own thoughts. By lesson 10, the mask is lifted: “This idea [that my thoughts don’t mean anything] will help to release me from all that I now believe.” If this sounds like brainwashing, it is.
The course also mimics the language of faith, but meaning is twisted. By lesson 45, titled God is the mind with which I think, the individual is morphing into god. Several lessons later he is the light of the world whose function is to save it. No need for Jesus; man is the world’s savior. And that’s only lesson 64; there are 301 to go, one for each day of the year. Anyone following the daily exercises to create his own reality would befuddle his mind, the perfect milieu for controlling it.
No longer anchored in truth, a follower can be swept up easily by every new fad offered by the pleasure-seeking world, no matter how deceptive or destructive. Those without doctrinal truth -- the house built on rock -- are easily swayed to accept abortion, gay marriage, contraception, every lie offered by the world. How many have heard a person tempted to commit a serious sin say, "I don't know what I believe any more." In truth, the problem is not that he does not know what he believes; the problem is that what he believes is in conflict with what he wants.
Miracles prepares the soil so the seeds of temptation can take route and flourish, which is exactly what the prince of the world, Satan, desires. When the people of Israel were following other Gods, Joshua challenged them to "decide today whom you will serve… As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Miracles trains people to be controlled by the evil one who uses every kind of pleasurable vice to enslave them in sin, at the same time fostering the delusion that they are in control of their own lives.
What makes the program even more dangerous is that it mixes truth with lies. Those not grounded solidly in Christian doctrine can easily be taken in. Williamson sounds Christian; she is not. In fact, according to Carrington Steele, author of Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid, Williamson has described herself saying “I’m a magical witch, and I can feel it in my bones.”
Oprah’s New-Age promotion does not end with the Williamson course. In January, with the zeal of a missionary, she began a 10-week program with Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth. The live program allows viewers to ask questions and actively participate. Already over 2 million log on for the 90-minute class, which includes guided meditation.
According to Steele, Oprah’s and Eckhart’s show teaches, “Heaven is not a location” but an “inner realm of consciousness.” Jesus on the cross is an “archetypal image” who represents “every man and every woman.” Steele documents other teachings from Eckhart’s website: “My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy. My holiness is my salvation. My salvation comes from me. Let me remember that there is no sin. Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’ The only message of the cross is that you can overcome the cross.”
Oprah is running the largest weekly church service in the world, complete with meditation and the “liturgy” of the word. The richest woman in the United States, with 15-20 million viewers, has a television show, a website, a radio station, a YouTube presence, and who knows what else? Her New-Age promise of peace and happiness is seducing millions of people away from Jesus Christ, and many of her followers are impressionable teens and young adults. Christians must expose this danger and work to rescue the vulnerable who can fall prey to it.
Now that it's down to two major candidates...tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.256872008-06-26T15:58:48Z2008-06-26T16:16:03ZWho'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...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
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.]]>
The Supreme Court ruling on child rape and the death penaltytag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.256852008-06-26T15:44:42Z2008-06-26T15:58:20ZReally? "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...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
Washington Post.
While the latter may be "devastating in their harm," Kennedy said, "they cannot be compared to murder in their severity and irrevocability."
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'Patient rights' vs 'right of conscience'tag:blog.news-record.com,2008:/staff/frontpew//9.256812008-06-26T15:40:57Z2008-06-26T15:44:28ZIs 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...Nancy McLaughlinhttp://www.news-record.com
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.
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