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Conservatives like to extol so-called small-town virtues, of the sort immortalized in song by John Cougar Mellencamp. Small towns are supposedly the home of “real Americans” and bastions of virtue. Small towns, we are told, are the home of God-fearing family values Christians. Mellencamp sang about being “taught to feel Jesus in a small town” but there is feeling and then there is feeling. Televangelists use Jesus like a weapon to not only fire up their congregations but to be armed and fired at their foes. Liberals do not always understand, because they have not seen it for themselves, the...

I could just say: “Read this magnificent post.” but being long-winded I cannot. American Protestants, especially Evangelicals, are not loved by “outsiders.” Nobody writes romance novels about them they way they do about the Amish. Nobody thinks they have cool hair, the way they admire Orthodox beards. No movie like the “Bells of Saint Mary’s” has ever featured a pop star like Bing Crosby as a noble Calvary Chapel pastor . . . no “Pit Band of The Gathering” will ennoble the pop-religion of those strip mall churches. Atheist wrath is so often directed against Evangelicals that popular atheist debaters...

'I'm not here to be preaching hate, pushing people down' God “absolutely” approves of everyone — including homosexuals — declared one of America’s most well-known evangelical pastors The Houston megapastor and best-selling author Joel Osteen, whose followers include the likes of Cher and Oprah Winfrey, is hitting the talk-show circuit to promote his new book, “Break Out! Osteen, the very visible face of Lakewood Church in Houston since 1999,  talked to the Huffington Post about his thoughts on prayer, the pope and the homosexual lifestyle. HuffPo Live host Josh Zepps quoted from Osteen’s new book: “It doesn’t matter who...

Last month, after being sure to get his caffeine fix at Starbucks, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land went where few evangelicals had dared to go before: the Provo campus of Brigham Young University, the intellectual heart of Mormonism. After lecturing on "family, faith, freedom and America," Land attended a BYU football game with LDS leaders and joined them to hear James Taylor sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Days later, George O. Wood, the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, also visited BYU, followed by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptists’ flagship seminary. Is there...

Seven years ago this fall, a young journalist named Collin Hansen wrote a cover story for Christianity Today titled "Young, Restless, Reformed: Calvinism Is Making a Comeback—and Shaking Up the Church." In it he remarked: Partly institutional and partly anecdotal, [the evidence for the resurgence] is something a variety of church leaders observe. While the Emergent "conversation" gets a lot of press for its appeal to the young, the new Reformed movement may be a larger and more pervasive phenomenon. Two years later, Hansen released his movement-defining book Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists (Crossway, 2008). Traveling to destinations like the Passion...

Now that the government is back up and running, advocates of comprehensive immigration reform are ramping up their efforts, with Evangelical Christians taking center stage. The Evangelical Immigration Table has been particularly active, organizing a “Pray4Reform” campaign that (per the National Immigration Forum) has had more than 400 “prayer events and gatherings” in the last fortnight. And on October 21, the group sent a highly publicized letter to members of Congress praising them for their success thus far in moving toward reform and admonishing them to keep fighting the good fight. So Evangelical Christians must have all gotten together...

Aurora, IL-(ENEWSPF)- As momentum for broad immigration reform continues to build in the evangelical community, leaders from Aurora met Friday morning to pray for immigration reform rooted in the biblical values of welcoming the stranger among us.This morning’s gathering in Aurora was one of more than 400 gatherings and events happening across the country Oct. 12-20. Evangelical Christians are meeting as part of “Pray4Reform: Gathered Together in Jesus’ Name,” a week of prayer that continues the Evangelical Immigration Table‘s ongoing Pray for Reform campaign. Nationwide, more than 187,000 people have signed onto the effort as prayer partners. With immigration reform...

Lighthouse Trails has watched in dismay over the past few years as Charles Stanley’s In Touch magazine has made the decision to promote contemplative/emergent names. When our editors picked up a copy of the August 2013 issue and saw a feature article written by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, we decided to call In Touch Ministries to find out who was responsible for the content in the magazine. Sadly, the response we received from the editorial department at In Touch left us with a sinking feeling that the evangelical church has been seduced and there was no turning back. We’ll talk about the...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Evangelicals: Vital for American Support for IsraelPosted By Ronn Torossian On October 14, 2013 @ 12:30 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments American Jewish support has long been viewed as vital for the State of Israel’s political interests. The particulars of the recent high-profile Pew Research Center survey of American Jews should result in radical re-thinking of that theory (with the exception of Orthodox Jews.)  Those who are concerned with Israel’s future must now consider placing even more emphasis upon the Evangelical Christian community.  The study found that Christians are more supportive of,...

For 15 years, Heather Ann Clement was a faculty member at Azusa Pacific University, an evangelical Christian school in Southern California. But that changed last month, with the start of Azusa’s new academic year, when Heather came out as a transgender. The professor of theology began referring to herself as Heath Adam Ackley. And she even started to develop a more masculine appearance. The professor of theology formerly known as Heather demanded that Azusa officially recognize “his” new name and gender change. So university administrators sat the prof down for several “thoughtful conversations.” After hearing out Heather/Heath, it was abundantly...

Chuck Smith, the evangelical pastor whose outreach to hippies in the 1960s helped transform worship styles in American Christianity and fueled the rise of the Calvary Chapel movement, died Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, after a battle with lung cancer. He was 86. Diagnosed in 2011, Smith continued to preach and oversee administration at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (California), where he'd been pastor since 1965. In 2012, he established a 21-member leadership council to oversee the Calvary Church Association, a fellowship of some 1,600 like-minded congregations in the United States and abroad.

(CHRISTIANITY TODAY) Chuck Smith, the evangelical pastor whose outreach to hippies in the 1960s helped transform worship styles in American Christianity and fueled the rise of the Calvary Chapel movement, died Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, after a battle with lung cancer. He was 86. Diagnosed in 2011, Smith continued to preach and oversee administration at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (California), where he’d been pastor since 1965. In 2012, he established a 21-member leadership council to oversee the Calvary Church Association, a fellowship of some 1,600 like-minded congregations in the United States and abroad. Smith was known for expository preaching as...

Billy Graham’s grandson: evangelicals ‘worse’ than Catholics on sex abuse Sarah Pulliam BaileyAUSTIN, Texas (RNS) The Christian mission field is a “magnet” for sexual abusers, Boz Tchividjian, a Liberty University law professor who investigates abuse said Thursday (Sept. 26) to a room of journalists.While comparing evangelicals to Catholics on abuse response, ”I think we are worse,” he said at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, saying too many evangelicals had “sacrificed the souls” of young victims.“Protestants can be very arrogant when pointing to Catholics,”  said Tchividjian, a grandson of evangelist Billy Graham and executive director of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE),...

Comedian Bill Maher has no plans to run for public office. In fact, he believes his outspoken atheism would be a major barrier to any potential candidacy. But at the same time, the “Real Time” HBO host also sees changing tides on the horizon when it comes to the treatment of non-believers in America. In an interview Monday with entertainment news outlet TheWrap, Maher said that atheism will be “the new gay marriage.” What does he mean by this? With the nation becoming more understanding and accepting of same-sex unions, it seems Maher believes that atheists, who have frequently been...

A granite monument of the Ten Commandments that sits across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court was toppled by vandals sometime over the weekend. The monument sits in the front yard of 209 Second St. NE, the headquarters of Faith and Action, an evangelical Christian group led by the Rev. Rob Schenck. The 3-foot by 3-foot granite sculpture weighs 850 pounds.

The majority of Americans are Christians, but we're not treated with respect by the culture, the schools, or by our politicians. "Vengeance" may be the Lord's to dish out, but that doesn't mean Christians have to support the people who are attacking us or meekly stand by when other followers of Christ are denigrated and oppressed for their faith. The habitual wimpiness of so many Christians is particularly grating because when Christians shine a spotlight on these attacks and say, "That's enough," more often than not we win. So, if Christians across the country were consistently willing to speak out...

After Steve Chalke and Rob Bell joined the ‘Accepting Evangelicals’ Group in affirming faithful same-sex erotic relationships earlier this year a new group of ‘post-gay’ evangelical Christian leaders has emerged. Their testimonies are clear, powerful, hugely encouraging and most welcome at a time when many young evangelicals are genuinely confused about the issue. These are men in pastoral ministry who admit to feelings of same sex attraction but who also see the Bible’s prohibitions on same-sex relationships as non-negotiable. The core of this new group, recently interviewed by Christianity magazine, are Sam Alberry, a church leader in Maidenhead, Sean Doherty,...

So beware Christians: the Grand Old establishment has long since used you as a political tool, but now sees you as so gullible, pliable, and dumb that it can openly join forces with the left when it so desires and move you right along as well.

Fantastic news for angsty progressive-ish 15-year-olds everywhere: Finally — finally! — after a wait that must have seemed interminable, this readership has gotten its very own Ayn Rand, thanks to Frederic C. Rich and his debut novel, Christian Nation, a story with all the subtlety of a Slipknot video and artfulness of a Chick tract. By way of disclosure: I haven’t read Ayn Rand since high school. I read her a lot when I was like 17, and then had to stop because I realized it was making me insufferable. But (bummer for me) I remember her work pretty well,...

According to a new report from USA Today, GOP mega donor Paul Singer is helping fund the National Immigration Forum (NIF) for its Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) initiative. Singer is the founder and CEO of Wall Street hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation and the man who made Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign for president happen. “Ali Noorani, the forum's [NIF’s] executive director, said financial resources for the Evangelical Immigration Table's efforts are coming from a range of supporters, including new conservative donors such as Paul Singer -- a hedge fund manager and major donor to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign,” USA...