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Faith Digest
Posted: 12/14/07
Faith Digest
Court rejects faith-based prison program. An Iowa prisoner rehabilitation program run by evangelicals oversteps church-state boundaries and should not receive government funds, a federal appeals court has ruled. InnerChange Freedom Initiative runs a program “dominated by Bible study, Christian classes, religious revivals and church services,” according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. While participation in the program was voluntary, prisoners who signed up got better cells, were allowed more visits from family members and had greater access to computers than other inmates, the court found. The prison program, affiliated with Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministry, received state funds from Iowa beginning in 2000. Part of that money must be returned to the state, the court ruled, but it reversed the decision of a lower court that would have required InnerChange to repay the entire $1.5 million it received in government funds.
Religion website acquired by Fox. Beliefnet.com, one of the country’s leading websites devoted to religion and spirituality, is under new management as part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the Fox Entertainment Group. The acquisition adds to News Corp.’s $64 billion media empire, including the 20th Century Fox film studios, the Wall Street Journal, MySpace, the Fox Faith film division, and HarperOne and Zondervan, two of the biggest names in Christian publishing.
12/13/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Does ‘Compass’ point kids in the wrong direction?
Posted: 12/14/07
Does ‘Compass’ point
kids in the wrong direction?By Heather Donckels
Religion News Service
NEW YORK (RNS)—The holiday season means it’s time for another Hollywood wintry blockbuster with a cast of talking animals, witches and an earnest child to point the way to truth and justice.
But some Christians who applauded the Christian allegory in The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings now worry that The Golden Compass, the recently released silver screen adaptation of Philip Pullman’s book, will poison kid’s minds with atheism.
Nicole Kidman (Mrs. Coulter) and Dakota Blue Richards (Lyra) star in The Golden Compass. Some critics complain the film may steer children toward atheism. 12/13/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Laredo ministry seeks to offer children in need a healthy start
Posted: 12/14/07
Laredo ministry seeks to offer
children in need a healthy startBy Haley Smith
Baptist Child & Family Services
LAREDO—Imagine going 24 hours without electricity or running water. Consider what it would mean to someone in an emergency if they had to walk blocks to meet an ambulance because it would not cross the county line into their neighborhood.
Cristina De Bosquez doesn’t have to imagine. She works daily with people who live in exactly those situations.
Vibrant smiles, like this young girl’s, are both the aim and the reward for staff members in the Healthy Start Laredo program of Baptist Child & Family Services. (Photo/Martin Olivares/BCFS) 12/13/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 12/14/07
Texas Baptist Forum
God & science
Too often, Christians believe science is an enemy of the Bible. On the contrary, the sciences magnify the glory of God.
• Jump to online-only letters below Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
“The coldest of seasons, winter is like the 4-year-old crashing a birthday party. No matter if it’s his or not, all of him says, ‘I’m here, and I’m taking over.’”
Don Newbury
President emeritus of Howard Payne University“I had a wedding or a funeral, I can’t remember which. Anyway, I don’t pre-empt a wedding or a funeral for a presidential candidate. Because I’m a pastor.”
Leith Anderson
President of the National Association of Evangelicals, describing how he reacted when contacted by a presidential campaign to meet with a candidate (Associated Press/RNS)“Health care should be part of foreign policy; it makes friends. Does God have favorites? Yes he does; he loves the poor.”
Rick Warren
Pastor/author/poverty advocate (RNS)In the Old Testament, Joshua 10:12-14 can be explained through science. Astronomy tells us Earth revolves around the sun. Physics tells us that if Earth were to stop turning, it would be the end of all life on earth. Phenomenology tells us we experience physical life through the phenomenological perceptions of our senses; therefore, we can understand this Scripture reference was inspired in the terms of the writer’s phenomenological understanding. Through science, we know the sun did not actually stop, but Earth stopped turning for about a full day, and the moon held its place. The magnitude of this miracle demonstrates the awesome power of God.
This is a compact example of how the church can—from behind the pulpit and in Sunday school classes—make Holy Scripture relevant in today’s culture. “The very core of the secular culture in the United States today is their view of knowledge through the senses … they see any thing outside the realm of the senses as a matter of how one feels about it … a dangerous philosophy,” notes J.P. Moreland of Biola University.
12/13/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Romney garners praise, criticism for church-state views in speech
Posted: 12/14/07
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivers an address titled “Faith in America” at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station. (REUTERS /Jessica Rinaldi) Romney garners praise, criticism
for church-state views in speechBy Robert Marus
Associated Baptist Press
WASHINGTON (ABP)—Mitt Romney’s speech on faith and public affairs elicited both praise and criticism from a broad spectrum of observers—and it didn’t always break down along traditional right-left lines.
The highly anticipated speech by the Republican presidential contender was designed to allay the fears of evangelical Christians, who make up a large proportion of GOP voters in Iowa. Recent polls have shown churchgoing evangelicals are more likely than any other major group to harbor doubts about electing a Mormon president.
12/13/2007 - By John Rutledge
