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Plug pulled on Power for Living in Germany
You've probably seen TV ads for Power for Living, in which celebrities talk about how God saved them. The ads are sponsored by the evangelical DeMoss foundation, and offer to send a book explaining the Christian gospel. In Germany, however, the ads haven't been taken so well, reports The New York Times. In the first two days of the $4.5 million campaign, about 50,000 people called to order the book. But the campaign didn't last much longer than that. The German government banned the ads (a national law bars all religious ads on TV and radio).

• Church challenges transit authority's removal, rejection of subway ads | Groups ad said early church didn't celebrate Christmas, but subway officials were more worried about what it said about Santa (Associated Press)
• San Francisco reaction to anti-gay ads ruled okay | Resolutions decried hate crimes, court says (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Plus: Religious groups can't sue city for condemning anti-gay ads (Associated Press)

They paved Boxen and put up an apartment block
Developers want to build six small houses in the garden of C.S. Lewis's boyhood home, but fans of the author are opposing the move. "It is not merely the fact that Lewis lived there, but his whole dramatic imagination developed there. The aspect of the house inspired the Narnia cycle," Local Assembly member Ian Adamson tells The Belfast Telegraph. "There is an attic where Jack and his brother escaped the adult world. They could see the shipyards where the Titanic was being built. The attic looks over the Holywood Hills, which many people think was more or less Narnia. … The building of houses would destroy the garden and the aspect of the place." The owners of the house are looking to move out now that their children have moved away.

• Under a bushel? | Missionaries face a daunting challenge: how to share their faith without violating the laws and customs of their host nation (Associated Press)
• Missionary continues his witness after wife and daughter die in Peru | Jim Bowers is making his third trip to Peru since the April tragedy (Religion News Service)
• Barber's pulpit | In Old Sacramento, religion is on the cutting edge (The Sacramento Bee, thanks to HolyWeblog for the link)

• Lawsuit alleges free parking on Sundays is illegal | A Newport Beach man says a city policy exempting meter fees for churchgoers violates the separation of church and state. (Los Angeles Times)
• Struggling with churches as neighbor | Land use conflicts between religious institutions and those who reside nearby (Marci Hamilton, FindLaw.com)
• Group vows to take school-mural dispute to Supreme Court | Appeals court sided with school district's decision not to allow a cross to be painted on a mural promoting Trojans Loving Christ, a student Bible club, in spring 1998 (Associated Press)

• Bishop needles China on arrest | But Hong Kong leader can't help detained Bible vendor (MSNBC)
• Judge rules chaplains' suits may continue | "Chaplains should be selected for promotions based on their fitness as officers and as chaplains, rather than the religious message of their sermons," says judge (Religion News Service)

• Church names ditching tradition for spirit | Names are now designed to convey a vision or theme of ministry that explains and invites (Modesto Bee; thanks to HolyWeblog for the link)
• Doubting dean is urged to resign | Cleric does not believe Jesus was God (The Belfast Telegraph)

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January (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46