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Here are all 6 Youtube video embeds of the Fox News Special Report entitled “Escape from Hamas” in which Mosab Hassan Yousef tells of his conversion to Christianity and reveals an insiders knowledge of the real Hamas.

While Catholics and Protestants both fall under the broad umbrella of Christianity, they practice their faith in different ways. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of regular churchgoers found that 25% of Evangelical Christians read the Bible on a daily basis along with 20% of other Protestants. Just seven percent (7%) of Catholics do the same. At the other extreme, 44% of Catholics rarely or never read the Bible along with only seven percent (7%) of Evangelical Christians and 13% of other Protestants. Consider the divergence among the faiths in other areas, too. (All the figures that follow are based...

Why did 18-to-29-year-old evangelicals vote for Barack Obama despite his apostasy on the fundamental moral issues of abortion and same-sex unions? They voted 32 percent for Obama, twice the percentage of that demographic group who voted for John Kerry in 2004. Many of these young people identify "social justice" as the reason that led them to relegate the prime moral issues of life and marriage to the back burner. But the term "social justice" does not define a moral cause -- it is left-wing jargon to overturn those who have economic and political power. What caused young evangelicals, the children...

The recent furor over President-Elect Barack Obama’s selection of California mega-church pastor Rick Warren to pray at the January 20th inauguration yields a few clues about what evangelicals can expect during the next four years. On the surface, playing the Warren card appears to be a masterstroke by Obama – one that further demonstrates impressive political skills. A day or so after the election, I was asked by someone about what Mr. Obama would do to prepare for his administration. I replied that I thought he would demonstrate significant savvy by – at least for the time being – ignoring...

If 2002 was Mormonism's debutante ball, 2008 may go down as its first semester of college. The Utah-based church made new friends, endured back-stabbing from would-be friends, joined some clubs, got a taste of fame and had a few wrenching exams. From the possibility of a Mormon in the White House to a stream of Latter-day Saints on reality television, from being attacked as belonging to a cult (or mistaken for a polygamous sect in Texas) to participating in California's bitter battle for traditional marriage, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would see their faith in...

Sending a message: Barack Obama and his razor-sharp political team had to know that asking the Rev. Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration would outrage the left, especially gay-rights leaders upset about California's rejection of same-sex marriage. Some commentators think Obama deliberately picked a fight -- a la Bill Clinton vs. Sister Souljah -- to show that he won't be pushed around by a Democratic constituency. More likely: He wants to show he's serious about inclusion (and re-election) by extending a hand to a key Republican constituency and to younger evangelicals whose agenda overlaps his in places. And don't...

Joseph Francis Farah is an Evangelical Christian American journalist and noted homosexual of Lebanese and Syrian heritage." – the first line of my bio in Wikipedia The Internet has brought the world some wonderful sources of information. And it has brought us some perfectly dreadful sources of misinformation. Wikipedia falls into the latter category. And this column is my latest effort to demonstrate just how abusive this so-called "online collaborative encyclopedia" really is. It is not only a provider of inaccuracy and bias. It is wholesale purveyor of lies and slander unlike any other the world has ever known. Wikipedia...

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) does not speak for every evangelical or evangelical church (the Southern Baptist denomination, for example, is not a member of the NAE), but it certainly speaks for a great majority of them. It has been around for 66 years, and represents 50 denominations and more than 45,000 churches. Its national convention in 1983 provided the occasion for Ronald Reagan to denounce the Soviet Union as an "evil empire."

The controversial Washington lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has resigned after he created a stir by expressing support for homosexual civil unions. Richard Cizik has resigned as vice president for governmental affairs for the NAE. In a statement to NAE board members, acting president Leith Anderson cited "a loss of trust in his [Cizik's] credibility as a spokesperson among leaders and constituencies." On December 2, Cizik acknowledged -- during an interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air -- that he voted for Barack Obama in the Virginia primary, and suggested that Christians should not be afraid to...

CBS's 48 Hours is re-airing a special on a unique Christian camp -- and the camp's founder is encouraging people to tune in. The Lord's Boot Camp is located in south Florida's swampland and is run by Teen Missions International. Both were founded in the early 1970s by Bob Bland and offer teenagers an intense two-week training session before they embark on overseas mission trips. Bland told OneNewsNow that the camp portion was created after one of the mission teams encountered some close calls. "And in [19]72 we took a team to Peru and we said, 'Boy, so many things...

Leading social conservatives blasted Newsweek for its current cover story, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," which they said misinterprets both biblical scripture and their own political movement. “It doesn’t surprise me. Newsweek has been so far in the tank on the homosexual issue, for so long, they need scuba gear and breathing apparatus,” said Richard Land, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “I don’t think it’s going to change the minds of anyone who takes biblical teachings seriously.” Tony Perkins, president of the socially conservative Family Research Council, agreed, calling Newsweek’s cover story “yet...

In 2002 and 2004, Republicans ran hard on social issues and the courts — and scored victories at every level of politics. In 2006 and 2008, they left those issues off the table, and got walloped. It follows, naturally, that the social issues are to blame for the Republican defeats. At least, that’s the conclusion that a chorus of commentators has reached. They are attempting to persuade Republicans to soften or downplay their party’s social conservatism and hide its social conservatives in order to resume winning elections. About this campaign to sideline the social Right, three things can be said...

Do we need God in politics? Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker recently penned a provocative column titled "Giving Up on God," wherein she suggested that the Republican Party ditch G-O-D. The piece so rankled James Dobson (Ph.D. in divine insight) that he compared Parker to that seditious bum Benedict Arnold. Among factions of conservatism, there is a general willingness to coexist and -- sporadically -- win elections. Dobson, conversely, employs a saintly litmus test that marginalizes large swaths of his own party. He has redefined "traditional values," an essential ingredient for Republican victory, to mean illogical rigidity. Californians, Dobson rationalizes,...

Beginning the first week of December, Salvation Army bell ringers will set up red kettles on street corners and in malls across the country, hoping to collect more than $100 million in coins and small bills. It's an old-school way of raising money and the Army knows it, so this year, the charity is supplementing its famous Red Kettle Campaign with a Twitter feed, a Facebook widget, and a cell phone text message donation program in addition to its recently introduced online kettle program. The Army, short on volunteer bell ringers, even pays some people to coax passersby into donating...

FRIENDSWOOD — Evangelicals are more likely to sing choruses than hymns. They do not use prayer books, and recitation of Christian creeds is a rare thing in their churches. They tend to view the layers of ritual that their friends and neighbors in the Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal and other liturgical churches enjoy as something like a dense thicket of historical artifacts. But Advent is becoming an exception to these superficial distinctions. As USA Today noted last week, “Evangelical Christians are adopting — and adapting — the rituals of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas that are traditionally celebrated...

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin promised to lead the nation with a "servant's heart," evangelical Christians immediately recognized her as one of their own. Whether before an audience of ministry students or on a national stage at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, the 44-year-old Palin speaks fluently about her faith, striking chords with phrases that evoke Christian virtue. Palin has called on people to pray for the cooperation necessary to build a natural gas pipeline across Alaska, labeled the U.S. mission in Iraq a "task that is from God" and argued that students should be taught the creation account...

Starting today, the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is holding its annual meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. This is the second meeting since the group's then-president Francis Beckwith shocked his peers by announcing his return to the Catholic Church and resigning from the presidency, which he has already described on this site here. Last year Beckwith came to the meeting and gave a well-attended talk, and at this year's meeting Brazos Press will be releasing his book Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic.   As one of the few Catholics at last year's meeting, I found that many people...

In this, the interregnum between the end of one administration and the beginning of another, there’s not much for Republicans to do except look for ways to entertain themselves while Democrats are occupied with the serious business of creating a government. The problem — and the GOP is just waking up to this — is that there is absolutely nothing for them to do but wait. No one cares what they think of President-elect Obama’s choice for attorney general or any other cabinet post. The Clinton drama has always been a Democratic farce and only involved the Republicans as onlookers,...

As the dust settles on Washington following the Barack Obama earthquake, one group more than any other is expecting to be out in the cold. For the past eight years, the so-called Religious Right has enjoyed a warm reception at the centre of White House policy-making, and with the Republican coalition on Capitol Hill. Mainly white, "born again" evangelical Protestants, who adhere to a literal interpretation of the Bible - and oppose abortion rights above all - the Religious Right comprise around 40% of the Republican Party's support. "The Republican Party as it exists today could not exist without the...

Washington, DC -- A new survey that details the beliefs of evangelical voters and why they supported Barack Obama or John McCain finds those voters who supported Obama don't believe government can reduce abortions. Their views appear to be at odds with studies showing pro-life legislation save lives.

Dr. Dave Williams is the Pastor of a large evangelical Protestant Church in Lansing, Michigan called the Mount Hope Church. The Church web site informs the visitor of Pastor Williams that “He has served for 25 years, leading the church in Lansing from 226 to over 4000 today.” The Pastor is repspected in the broader Christian, religious and civic community and the Church has extensive outreaches. This past Sunday, during a Worship Service at the Church, a group of loud and intentionally disruptive homosexual activists stood outside of the sanctuary of Mount Hope dressed in strange pink attire. Using megaphones...

Obama received more than 90 percent of the African-American vote and three-quarters of the Hispanic vote. “[E]thnic voters flexed their muscle and came away with a win. Who would have suspected that African-Americans and Hispanics would have forged a bulletproof alliance?” commented George Barna, who directed the election research. “But they did this time around, and if Senator Obama fulfills his promise and his promises, then 2008 might have birthed a very significant new voting bloc for the future - one that is already 30 percent of the population and growing." In terms of the white vote, Obama won slightly...

The strange bedfellow alliance of Catholics, Mormons and evangelical Protestants that slapped a ban on gay marriage in California last week represents the most “ecumenical union since the fall of Rome.” That’s the view of Richard Hecht, an acclaimed scholar in UCSB’s much-acclaimed religious studies department, whose clear-eyed take on the stunning passage of Proposition 8 cuts through the Babel of political scapegoating and speculation swirling around the election’s biggest surprise. “The issue of traditional marriage brought together this wild, very unlikely coalition,” Hecht told me. “You have the Catholics, who can’t stand the evangelical Protestants, who can’t stand the...

So much for the "new evangelicals." For the past two years, hundreds of articles have appeared in newspapers across America making the claim that the old religious right was moving left and that Barack Obama, with his religiously infused rhetoric and various "outreach efforts," was leading the charge. A year ago, David Kirkpatrick predicted the "evangelical crackup" on the cover of the New York Times Magazine. "Jesus Rode a Donkey: Why Republicans Don't Have the Corner on Christ," "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America" and "Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the...

I was reading an article over at Politico a few days ago which talked about obama's appeal to church-going Christians. Or, should I say, his lack of appeal to church-going Christians. In spite of all that has been written and talked about the obama outreach effort to evangelical voters, only 28% if this large demographic group is planning to vote for obama. In fact, that number is slightly less than John Kerry received 4 years ago. How significant is this? The evangelical vote is about one third of the electorate. This is good news for John McCain. Should anyone be...

I read a depressing poll two days ago that indicated a majority of American evangelicals in their twenties were going to vote for Obama. I'd be curious to see if any Freepers heard anything today at all from the pulpit about the obligations of a Christian in a representative democracy. I can't imagine there would be many pastors courageous enough to mention a name, from the pulpit, but did any of your pastors urged you to vote for the candidate who best represented the values the historic church holds dear--life, liberty, justice? Did any of them mention any of the...

Despite Barack Obama's approval of abortion and homosexual activism, new polling by a prestigious Christian research group indicates that the Democratic presidential nominee is making significant inroads among voters who are classified as "born-again" Christians. The Barna Group for research says Obama is statistically tied (43 percent to 45 percent) with Republican John McCain among born-again Christian voters. "Born-again Christians" are defined by Barna as people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus and believe they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Based on that definition,...

The evangelical movement is fearful on many fronts, Mark Hennessy discovers in Colorado Springs QUIETLY SPOKEN, religiously and politically conservative, and living in the heartland of evangelical Christianity in the US, Daniel Lopez pondered the end of time that could come if Barack Obama becomes president. "When I think of it, it brings to mind the prophecies that the Bible tells us about," said Lopez, sitting in the shade outside Focus on the Family's headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. "On the one hand, it is exciting for us as conservatives because we can actually see what God prophesied coming about;...

Investor's Business Daily and the TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (IBD/TIPP) has released a tracking poll that shows a dramatic shift in opinion that may be a result of the bishops' guidance to their flocks.

In his e-mail to his church members he writes: "For 5,000 years, every culture and every religion - not just Christianity - has defined marriage as a contract between men and women,” Warren wrote. “There is no reason to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2% of our population.” On the Saddleback site there is video of him discussing the issue, here.

What would America look like after four years of an Obama administration? "Hardship," "persecution" and "suffering" are among the prospects in a hypothetical letter from a "Christian from 2012" released today by evangelical leader James Dobson's political activist group Focus on the Family Action. Titled "Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America," the piece clearly targets the many evangelical Christians seeking "change," particularly the young, who could tip the election in favor of the Illinois Democrat . At the end of the letter, the fictional Christian laments that these people "simply did not realize Obama's far-left agenda would take away many...

Nashville, Tenn. (AP) -- Here is a foolproof way for politicians to score points with evangelical voters: Attack the media, an institution widely seen as lacking conservative Christian voices. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and his evangelical running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have done just that at times during the campaign, with repeated jabs at the "liberal media." One way to change this perception, some church leaders, social commentators and journalists say, is for mainstream news organizations to employ — and keep — more evangelicals in their newsrooms. "Journalism has become more of a white-collar field that draws from elite...

I never deliberately set out to turn my column into "my thoughts on taboo dinner party topics," but the recent vice presidential debate brings me reluctantly back to thoughts I expressed months ago on the place of religion in politics - namely, that interrogating politicians on their religious views helps no one, least of all the church. But then there was Gov. Sarah Palin last week behind the debate podium, speaking Evangelical. At the Christian college I attended, we referred to the jargon of our faith as "Christianese," often derisively. We considered it a problem that if we spoke of...

Amid a blizzard of disheartening polls a month out from the general election, the John McCain-Sarah Palin Republican ticket got some great news this afternoon: A clear go-ahead signal to millions of evangelicals across the country from Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of FocDr James Dobson founder and chairman of Focus on the Family who radio program and newsletters reach millions of evangelicals approves a vote for the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palinus on the Family, to vote for the GOP ticket. It couldn't have come at a better time given more polls showing a Democratic...

Last weekend, a few pastors of large, evangelical congregations chose to convert their pulpits into planks for the Republican Party platform. These participants in “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” sought to challenge IRS regulations that maintain a wall between tax-exempt religious activities and taxable political ones. Citing controversial issues like reproductive freedom and same-sex marriage, they claimed that a biblical mandate required them to take a more activist role in instructing their congregants to choose the candidate who matched their political beliefs. Their actions are yet one more indicator of the degree to which purveyors of a reactionary political agenda have continued...

A friend of mine in the media covered the Republican National Convention and brought me back a souvenir: a navy blue yarmulke with “McCain ’08” printed on it in English and Hebrew. I guess there wasn’t time for the campaign to make them up with Sarah Palin’s name, too, which is a shame. With all the disquiet she has evoked in the Jewish community, that would be a collector’s item. Jews themselves, and liberals who feel we belong naturally in the Democratic fold, give reasons for the gathering unease about her. A gaping cultural difference is noted. “Eating moose meat...

DALLAS (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Christians say the culture has gone to hell and it has taken the economy and Wall Street down with it. It is a view which outsiders may find puzzling but has wide resonance in the U.S. heartland: the notion that moral decay and a lost sense of responsibility has brought on the worst banking and credit crisis since the Great Depression. Such a view helps explain the unpopularity in conservative Christian circles -- which have a big influence on the Republican Party -- of a $700 billion bailout plan which the U.S. House of Representatives...

Pentecostals number between 10-30 million in the United States depending on how you define the term and make up one quarter of all Christians worldwide. They are a subset of the larger evangelical movement that numbers about 102 million people in the United States. ABC News recently published this article on the type of churches Sarah Palin has attended at one time or anther. What Does Palin’s Faith Mean For US? As America gets a crash course in Sarah Palin, the question has been raised of how her two decades as a member of the Assemblies of God church in...

Lynchburg, VA (LifeNews.com) -- For the new Barack Obama "faith tour" to have any success, it needs to be able to draw young and evangelical voters. Yet, at its first stop in the Virginia back yard of well-known pastor Jerry Falwell, just 15 people showed up for the event.The Obama campaign has signed up evangelical author Donald Miller, Pepperdine University professor Doug Kmiec and former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer, for the "Barack Obama: Faith, Family and Values Tour."The trio made a stop at Liberty University, which is home to over 10,000 evangelical students from across the county and a...

Barack Obama is not giving up on faith-based voters. While polls seem to show voters stuck in same pattern as 2004, despite the Democrat's persistent outreach and God talk, the campaign is redoubling its efforts and rejecting suggestions that the Palin Effect has caused them to bail on the religious community. Obama's two top lieutenants in faith outreach came out to address dozens of reporters at the annual Religion Newswriters Association conference in Washington late this afternoon to pitch the campaign's new Faith, Family and Values Tour, which will launch next week with aides and representatives for the campaign (including...

Despite an unprecedented ramped-up faith outreach campaign in the last few years that many see as unprecedented for Democrats, Barack Obama has so far made few inroads with one of the main groups the Democratic Party has been hoping to budge -- white evangelical Protestants -- according to a poll released today. The poll was done by the University of Akron, which has been tracking the presidential preferences of voters by faith for the last five presidential elections. It was conducted between June and August of 2008 and involved a random sample of 4,017 adult Americans. Overall, it showed Obama...

John C. Green, the University of Akron political scientist who is the nation's most prominent scholar of how religious affiliation affects voting behavior, is just releasing new survey data showing that, even before John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, Barack Obama was failing to move evangelicals into his camp. Green, releasing initial results of his quadrennial survey of religion and politics at the annual convention of the Religion Newswriters Association, said the most surprising result of his survey was how little had changed since 2004. "The divisions based on religious affiliation are very deep-seated in the United...

A Winning Streak with Evangelicals The Palin pick is only one reason McCain is suddenly doing well with the religious right. Sep 12, 2008 When word leaked the Friday morning before the Republican National Convention that Sarah Palin was John McCain's choice for vice president, a group of 40 religious leaders meeting in Washington all gave a standing ovation. They were convinced that McCain would settle on one of his buddies, Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman, men whose pro-choice views render them unworthy contenders from the Christian-right perspective. They didn't know much about Palin, but the fact she wasn't Ridge...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The "Palin factor" may have boosted support for Republican presidential contender John McCain among evangelical Christians but he should not bank on the religious right putting him in the White House as it did George W. Bush in 2004, analysts said Tuesday. White evangelical Christians were key in getting Bush elected to a second term in 2004, but the US political landscape has changed for this year's contest, analysts from the Pew Research think-tank told reporters at a forum in Washington. For a start, fewer voters, including evangelicals, align themselves with the Republican party. "Since about 2005...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama chastised fellow Democrats on Wednesday for failing to "acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people," and said the party must compete for the support of evangelicals and other churchgoing Americans. "Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters," the Illinois Democrat said in remarks to a conference of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty. ... "It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase `under God,'"...

EP News--- Family Research Council Tony Perkins said, “It’s obviously an outstanding choice. Very smart. Very strategic. Those who might have voted for Obama only because they wanted to be a part of something historic can now vote for the Republicans for the same reason.” Richard Viguerie, the conservative icon who has been brutally critical of McCain, was even more effusive, “She’s perfect.” Setting aside the doctrine of original sin for a moment, religious conservatives do think the selection of Sarah Palin as the vice presidential candidate is pretty near perfect. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and...

When the news came out earlier this week that the family situation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a little more complicated than had originally been disclosed, pundits immediately began speculating whether social conservatives -- not least, evangelicals -- would stick with their woman. Surely a person who allowed her 17-year-old daughter to get pregnant while she was off running a state could not be the type of mother and female politician that conservatives go for. The Daily Kos was filled with sarcastic remarks about the hypocrisy of the "family values" crowd. A poster to Slate noted: "I have been...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New polling data shows if Catholic voters knew Barack Obama voted against a measure to offer medical protection for unborn children they would be more likely to vote against him. The same poll also showed Catholics who are active churchgoers are more likely to oppose abortion and support pro-life candidates. The survey found that, if pro-life groups continue to drive home the point that Obama voted against a bill in the Illinois legislature to protect infants, they could make a dent in his support between now and the elections. The poll, conducted by the National Scientific...

A terrible tragedy happened 10 years ago this month known as the Ben Lomond Crisis. According to these re-published accounts, it was an event characterized by rigidity, intrigue and ethnocentricism on the one hand, and a defiance of legitimate episcopal authority on the other, which ruined Antiochian Orthodoxy’s best hope for a major influx of Evangelical converts. The “Orthodox Moment” among Evangelicals began and ended at Ben Lomond, California. While there are undoubtedly conflicting versions of this event, here are two accounts of what took place in this historic turn for Orthodoxy in America. From Ben Lomond Tragedy: An account...

Palin/McCain’s Winning Coalition Unlike many of my FR posts this one contains no satire. I’ve been following national electoral politics since 1970 or so, and I often try to create models and frameworks to understand the dynamics of how elections are won and lost. One model I use as a tool suggests that the last 72 hours have created an unbeatable coalition for the Palin/McCain ticket. I now believe that unless it turns out that Saracuda is distributing cocaine and Russian sex slaves to the North Slope oil camps, the ticket will win comfortably, perhaps by as much as 10%...