Behold, the saviors of Christian Web sites LifeAudio.com, run by four Princeton grads in their mid-twenties, has announced it's taking over Pat Robertson's Christianity.com Web site. It has already pulled one Christian Web site out of the ashes: streaming-audio site Lightsource.com. "In February of this year, we acquired Lightsource.com under circumstances similar to those of Christianity.com, and within three months were able to stabilize it and manage it to profitability," the company explained in a letter to Christianity.com partner ministries. "We hope to do the same thing with the Christianity.com network, while continuing to provide a high level of service and working hard to make the original vision a reality." More news to come, surely. We don't know, for example, what's going to happen to Crosswalk.com (Weblog left a voice mail message this morning).
Nigeria's Shari'ah law gets a lot messier
A young man charged with theft in northern Nigeria had a plan to save his hand from amputation: he told the court he had converted to Christianity, and thus immune from the controversial Islamic law being implemented in much of the African nation. In court yesterday, he recanted his conversion. "I am a Muslim, my parents are Muslims," the thief, Mohamed Ali, said. "I did it under confusion and I regret it. I pray for forgiveness." The court didn't amputate his hand, reasoning that he didn't steal enough to warrant the punishment. He got nine months in prison and 30 lashes instead. Still, Ali's story highlights the problem of Shari'ah law in Nigeria, where Muslims say the laws won't apply to Christians.
Elsewhere in Nigeria, the president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria is predicting a bloodbath after several churches were razed. And in the northern city of Kano, several Muslims killed a Christian truck driver after he accidentally ran over a copy of the Koran one of them had dropped.
Science solves more mysteries of the Bible | More "startling revelations" about the most impossible tales from the ancient Scriptures, including Jonah, manna, Jericho, and other stories (Popular Mechanics)
Mayo study puts prayer to the test | Prayer doesn't affect deaths, heart attacks, hospitalizations, or strokes say researchers (Star-Tribune, Minneapolis)
Court won't hear graduation prayer | Action will likely increase pressure for a stronger religious presence at public school ceremonies (Associated Press)
La. school prayer law ruled illegal | Panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 3-0 Tuesday to uphold a judge's 1999 ruling striking the law down. (Associated Press)
Chinese crack down on religion | President Jiang Zemin has demanded tighter control over religion, state press reported, in a clear indication strict state restrictions over worship in China are not about to be relaxed. (AFP)
Homosexual bias move provokes church row | New laws banning discrimination against homosexuals will be outlined this week, risking a new confrontation between Tony Blair and some religious groups (The Daily Telegraph)
Christian Wahhabists | If we were supposed to root for the Protestants in our high school history texts, shouldn't we be applauding the Islamic "extremists" now? (Barbara Ehrenreich, The Progressive)
Twenty years ago, Republicans, Democrats, evangelicals, gay activists, and African leaders joined forces to combat AIDS. Will their legacy survive today’s partisanship?
The late pastor theologian gave strong counsel to me and so many others in ministry.
Twenty years ago, Republicans, Democrats, evangelicals, gay activists, and African leaders joined forces to combat AIDS. Will their legacy survive today’s partisanship?
The Spirit is at work, but so are the mechanisms around high-production sets.
