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I recently attended a service that might help solve the riddle of the fantastic decline of American Christianity. It was a different church from the one I normally go to. Let me set the scene, perhaps it will sound familiar: I walked in and immediately realized that IÂ’d inadvertently stumbled upon a totally relaxed, convenient, comfortable brand of church. The first hint was the choir members dressed in shorts and flip flops. Sweet, bro. So chill. There were a bunch of acoustic guitars and drums and tambourines and a keyboard. Before the service/concert began, some guy came out to rev...

BREAKING: GotNews IDs Gay Activist Train Engineer Who Caused Amtrak Crash UPDATED W/ PHOTOS! May 13, 2015 by Charles C. Johnson 184 Comments Gotnews.com has independently identified the engineer at the center of the Amtrak crash that has killed at least seven. Brandon Bostian is the 32-year-old gay man who lawyered up after a deadly derailment in Philadelphia. The train was reportedly going twice the speed limit.

<p>A teenager shot by a Zion police officer Saturday died of two gunshot wounds to the back, Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd announced Monday.</p> <p>Justus Howell, 17, was shot twice, with one bullet penetrating his heart, spleen and liver, and the other entering his right shoulder, according to a coroner's news release on the autopsy.</p>

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared Sunday that the 2009 Bar Ilan speech in which he voiced support for a demilitarized Palestinian state is no longer relevant. The Friday brochure Olam Katan that was distributed at synagogues this Sabbath asked the parties running for election where they stood on the idea of establishing a Palestinian state. Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely replied to the brochure in the name of Likud, and said that “The Prime Minister has announced to the public that the Bar Ilan speech is null and void. Netanyahu's entire political biography is a struggle against a Palestinian state.” Following...

A three day pass for The Grateful Dead's "Fare Thee Well" sold out reunion show in Chicago are being offered for as much as $116,000 on online ticket site, StubHub. That price gets fans a spot on the general admission floor in front of the stage. But just to walk in the door will still cost upwards of $1,435 -- and that's an obstructed view seat!

It has been just one month since President Obama visited New Delhi and planted a sacred Peepal tree in the grounds of a Mahatma Gandhi memorial garden. But now the tree has been reduced to little more than a stick after all the leaves suddenly dropped off, causing panic among nervous officials.

Al Bowlly's last recording, from 1941.

NEW DELHI — Officials in India want to make one thing clear: The tree that President Barack Obama planted in New Delhi three weeks ago is not dead. It just looks dead.

Some of us remember America of fifty years ago. Vastly, vastly different than what we see now. In your opinion, what will America be in another fifty years?

DUBAI - A Saudi journalist and a member of the royal family denied rumors on Thursday that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, in hospital since December suffering from pneumonia, had died, according to messages on social media. "All that is being reported about King Abdullah's death is far from the truth," Ibrahem al-Rawsa, identified as a journalist at state-run Saudi Press Agency, wrote on his Twitter account. A member of the royal family wrote: "I give you good news. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is fine and there is no truth to the rumors going around." He was referring...

A Fort Hood soldier who just returned from West Africa and was self-monitoring for Ebola symptoms was found dead on Tuesday outside his apartment, officials said. Killeen police and hazmat teams arrived after 911 calls came in of a man's body on the front lawn of his home, which is just outside the base. Fort Hood said that the 24-year-old man, who has not been named, had returned on January 7 as part of a 87-person team assigned to West Africa for three months and was found dead at around 7.30am. Carrie Williams, director of media relations for Texas Department...

Authorities are investigating and hazmat crews are on scene after the body of a soldier who just returned from deployment in West Africa was found Tuesday morning in Killeen. The body was found in a home in the 3300 block of Cantabrian Dr. A Fort Hood official on scene confirmed the body found was a soldier who had just returned from deployment in West Africa.

Whether the name of Richie Urso ever makes it into the corruption trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich next June is anybody's guess. You've probably never heard of Richie Urso. But the FBI sure has heard of him. His is a classic Chicago story, about a beefy yet charming guy born on Grand Avenue, who got in trouble with the law as a kid, only to make political friends and become extremely wealthy. He was arrested once for jewelry theft in the '60s by the Outfit's top Chicago police detective, William Hanhardt. Urso's alleged partner in the theft was the...

Congressman Charlie Rangel who is quick to slander the tea party with charges of racism, was a guest on Monday's "The Ed Show" on MSNBC, where he made a statement that appeared to be startingly racist: "I was in combat, and I’m telling you, I saw more dead people, but I never was moved until I saw dead people that looked like me in my uniform." Rangel was on the show to discuss the police who turned their backs on Mayor De Blasio during Sunday’s funeral for slain New York Police Department officer Wenjian Liu. When asked to comment, Rangel...

Two dead fetuses wrapped in a blanket were discovered at the front gate of a Fallbrook home Friday evening. Homeowner David Branford said he first mistook the bundle for a discarded doll when he saw it at about 9 a.m., leaving to do morning chores. It was placed outside his home in the 1700 block of St. Peters Drive, San Diego County Sheriff's officials say. But when he returned at about 1:45 p.m. and looked under the blanket, he found two, nearly full-term fetuses. The fetuses were dead, fire crews confirmed. "It's absolutely disturbing to hear something like that in...

**SNIP** The man had been shot in the head. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. He was identified as Hakizimana Scott, of the 800 block of North Laramie Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Hours earlier, a 20-year-old man was slain in the 7800 block of South Lowe Avenue in the Gresham neighborhood about 8:55 p.m., police said. Officers responded to a calls of a person shot and found the 20-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his chest in the basement of a building, police said....

FULL TITLE: Newborn baby found dead on moving conveyor belt at waste recycling plant after he was thrown out with the rubbish - and he can't be identified A newborn baby boy was found dead on a moving conveyor belt at a waste recycling plant after he was thrown out with the rubbish, an inquest heard today. The body was discovered by a horrified worker operating a picking line at Associated Waste Management in Shipley, near Bradford, West Yorkshire. At the time, the worker was separating mixed household and business waste including glass and paper. Today the hearing was told...

Suspect Bradley Michael Stone, 35, reportedly found dead in Pennsylvania woods near his homeStone's ex-wife, her sister, brother-in-law, 14-year-old niece, mother and grandmother named as shooting victimsHis wife's 17-year-old nephew in serious but stable condition on Tuesday after suspect reportedly cut three fingers off and shot him in the headStone and his ex-wife had been locked in a court fight over their daughters' custody since 2009 divorce; the girls were unharmed in shootingsBrad Stone remarried last year and according to court records, has an infant son. His new wife and boy were not hurt A Marine veteran accused of...

Tack disappeared on November 5th... Impeccable. Sporty. Cared for. Successful. Just some qualifications that are attributed to the 52-year-old from the Belgian Geert Tack Haaltert.  Geert Tack worked as a private banker for ING and managed portfolios of wealthy clients. The Belgian had a lot of respect in the financial world and was known as an up and top professional. His sudden disappearance was also smashed like a bomb. "If Tack himself was having trouble he has managed to keep it well hidden", say colleagues. Nobody then could have guessed that the man would not return on Wednesday, November 5th to his...

A Phoenix police officer shot to death an unarmed black man during a struggle and authorities said the officer believed the individual had a gun, in the latest fatal incident amid national turmoil over the policing of black communities. The Phoenix Police Department said Rumain Brisbon, 34, was sitting in a black Cadillac SUV outside a convenience store on Tuesday evening, and that two witnesses told the officer the occupants of the vehicle were selling drugs. With police forces across the country under increased scrutiny over killings of unarmed black men, Phoenix police said in a statement that its officer...