News

Quotation Marks

Recent remarks on Pat Robertson, surprise persecution simulations, and more.

“Banks are nervous about lending to churches right now …. The last thing banks want is to own a church.”Todd Whittaker, president of Service Realty Inc. in Denver, on the record number of church foreclosures (138) in 2011.Source: The Denver Post

“Even as God used sinful Balaam to accomplish his purposes, so he used our sin to … mak[e] the whole world acquainted with the Bible.”Harold Camping, calling his insistence that Christ would return on May 21 last year sinful and wrong.Source: FamilyRadio.com

“Pat Robertson still has an audience of millions of people, and they respect what he has to say.”Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, after Robertson agreed on his 700 Club broadcast with the group’s goal of legalizing marijuana use.Source: The New York Times

“I would find a way that we could continue to keep the shock value. But I would find a way to inform the parents.”John Lanza, pastor of Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Middletown, Pennsylvania, on the church youth group’s surprise persecution simulation. Two gunmen covered students’ heads, put them in a van, and drove them to the home of a pastor, who appeared beaten. The district attorney’s office is considering felony false imprisonment charges.Source: WHTM

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Past “Quotation Marks” columns are available from April 2012, March 2012, February 2012, January 2012, December 2011, November 2011, October 2011, September 2011, August 2011, July 2011, June 2011, May 2011, April 2011, March 2011, February 2011, and earlier issues of Christianity Today.

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My Top 5 Books On Fatherhood

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Works and Words: Why You Can't Preach the Gospel with Deeds

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Brave New Web: Navigating the Conflict Between Pluralism and Freedom

Teach Us to Pray: Learning from Prayer Partners in History

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Quebec: Canada's Prodigal Province

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Touched by Jesus: Healing Body and Soul

Miracles in Mozambique: How Mama Heidi Reaches the Abandoned

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Marketing Martyrs: Does Iranian Pastor's Theology Impact Advocacy on His Behalf?

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The Choir's Steve Hindalong: Celebrating Sobriety

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Sensation Before Scholarship: Gospel Fragment Tantalizes Experts

Private Faith and Public Policy: Where Obama and Santorum Agree

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Forced Out: Pastors' Fight and Flight

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Dollars and Moral Sense: What Money Can't Buy

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Subversive Kingdom

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How God Became King

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Migrant Ministries: European Churches Revitalized by Asian Diaspora

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Passages

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Go Figure

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Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us

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The โ€˜Monstersโ€™ Among Us: Child Sex Abusers in Our Midst

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