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According to numbers released in December by the Episcopal Church, that denomination’s membership dropped by 3 percent in 2008. That doesn’t sound like much, but I am a bit of a demographics junkie, plus I researched and examined a lot of church membership and growth data in writing my book A Lover’s Quarrel With The Evangelical Church. I can tell you that I have never heard of a major denomination that has ever lost 3 percent of its membership in a single year. What’s even more interesting about these numbers is that the Episcopal Church now says it has only...

A Vermont court ordered a Christian child taken away from her mother and given to a lesbian ex-partner, setting up, according to a lawyer for the Christian family, a dispute that the U.S. Supreme Court likely will have to resolve. Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, told WND the recent order from the Vermont judge that Lisa Miller turn over her young daughter, Isabella, to the lesbian ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, on New Year's Day is being appealed. In the interim, a separate court hearing on the dispute is scheduled to be heard in a Virginia court during this coming week....

BREAKING: Diocese of Los Angeles Elects Non-Celibate Lesbian As Suffragan Bishop

(CNSNews.com) - When asked whether al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden should have the right to remain silent and be given a lawyer, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) told CNSNews.com that everyone who is accused of a crime should have the same "basic rights" afforded by the U.S. Constitution.. On Capitol Hill on Nov. 19, CNSNews.com asked Kucinich, “If and when the U.S. captures Osama Bin Laden, should he have the right to remain silent and be given a lawyer--told he can get a lawyer?” Kucinich said: “I think that America does best when the values that we want other nations...

The Arts Council has given a epileptic dancer £14,000 to stop taking her medication and have a seizure on stage. Rita Marcalo’s 24-hour performance, involving strobe lights and sleep deprivation, is billed as a study of the “conceptual and physical interfaces between dance, movement and epilepsy”. Epilepsy charities said that the event turned a much misunderstood condition into a freak show and warned of the potentially severe dangers of coming off epilepsy drugs. Marcalo said that she wanted to raise awareness of epilepsy as “an invisible disability” and would use next month’s adults-only show at Bradford Playhouse to explore “my...

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. -- Romans 5:1-2a November 19, 2009 Sisters and brothers in Christ of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I greet you with the words of the apostle Paul to the Romans: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:1-2a). Where does the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) - The White House says President Barack Obama has narrowed down his decision for an Afghanistan strategy to four options. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the president will discuss those options with his national security team on Wednesday. Gibbs did not provide any details about the options, and says the president's decision on troop deployments is still weeks away.

Fort Hood Tragedy -- Barack Obama Gives "Shout-Out" Before He Comments on Shooting -- FOX News

ELCA synods will not have the option of upholding traditional Christian teaching on marriage and homosexuality in their standards for pastors and other rostered leaders according to a draft of candidacy rules released Oct. 10 by the ELCA churchwide organization. No synod or bishop may make decisions on ministry standards that differ from the new policies of the ELCA churchwide organization as defined by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, the policy draft explains. The ELCA now allows pastors and other rostered leaders to be in committed same-sex relationships. “By the governing documents, all candidacy and call decisions are made on an...

(In August the churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted proposals to make it possible for Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.) In the wake of the ELCA assembly vote to allow gay and lesbian people to serve in the clergy or other leadership positions, the denomination's Presiding Bishop, the Rev. Mark Hanson, has told his bishops and laity to expect some congregations to leave. Whether ELCA congregations will defect in large numbers to more conservative Lutheran denominations remains to be seen. However,...

There are plenty of questions being asked in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America following a decision in August to allow pastors to be involved in committed, same-gender relationships. In response to the decision, there will be a series of meetings at churches in the ELCA's southeastern Minnesota synod during the coming weeks, including a three-week series starting Sunday at Zumbro Lutheran Church in Rochester. Bishop Harold Usgaard recently recorded a videotaped message to prompt discussion about the fundamental questions raised by this issue. The questions include: Who is welcome in ELCA congregations and who is not? Usgaard also wrote...

Just when you thought Keith Olbermann couldn't get any more vile or vulgar . . . Opening this evening's Countdown, Olbermann said that Rush Limbaugh's observation that Glenn Beck was the result of his success "is like congratulating yourself for spreading syphyllis." Olbermann made his crude comment in teasing a segment on Rush's interview with NBC's Jamie Gangel. View video.

Dear Diocesan Family, A panel of the Virginia Supreme Court will hear our petition for appeal on October 21 and, while it is unfortunate that these legal proceedings were necessary, I trust that this hearing will bring us one step closer to resolution. I am proud that the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church have chosen the path consistently to defend loyal Episcopalians, and to safeguard and to protect the Church's legacy and the Church from unwarranted governmental and legislative interference. It is with the same determination to stand by the people, traditions and legacy of our diocese that...

ELCA NEWS SERVICE October 9, 2009 ELCA and ELCJHL Bishops Deepen Conversations among Christians and Muslims WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, were among 1,000 people who attended the fourth major Muslim-Christian dialogue conference here Oct. 7-8. "It has been both the challenge and the hope for this conference that common words would lead to common deeds," said Hanson. "We have heard stories of places where particular Muslims and Christians are deepening their understanding of...

Man pleads guilty to raping preteen girl BY KEITH EPPS A Spotsylvania man yesterday admitted that he raped a preteen girl earlier this year. Richard Eugene Smith Jr., 38, pleaded guilty to rape in Spotsylvania Circuit Court. He faces the possibility of life in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 2. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutor Amy Harper dropped a second rape charge against Smith. According to the evidence presented by Harper, Smith had sexual relations with the 12-year-old girl twice between June 1 and July 22. The second incident ended when the girl's mother walked into the...

ELCA Bishops Told of Possible Changes in Domestic, Global Relationships 09-223-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Since the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the church's global mission personnel have been reaching out to partner Lutheran churches worldwide. While some churches have expressed disagreement with a significant decision of the assembly, only one church to date has said it will change its relationship with the 4.6-million member ELCA. In August the churchwide assembly adopted proposals to change ELCA ministry policies to make it possible for Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates...

St. Paul, Minn. — Members of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minneapolis decided to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after a 96 percent vote by members on Sunday. The decision to leave came after the ELCA Church-wide Assembly vote on Aug. 21 in Minneapolis, that allowed gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Before the ECLA's decision, gay clergy were allowed to be ministers only if they were celibate. Some church members object to the new policy, saying it goes against Scripture. The St. Paul's congregation's council set a policy in October 1990 that...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans say it's payback time for the recent reprimand of one of their own for heckling President Barack Obama. They want a Democratic lawmaker to apologize or face a reprimand for saying the GOP wants Americans to "die quickly" if they get sick. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla. – a first-term congressman known for a provocative style – refused to back down on Wednesday. As Republicans threatened to introduce a resolution disapproving of his remarks, he returned to the House floor and mocked their outrage by citing research showing that nearly 45,000 people die each year for lack...

Congressman Joe Wilson was sanctioned by the U.S. House of Representatives in a resolution that condemned his outburst "YOU LIE" by saying it brought "discredit" and violated the "decorum" of the House. GOP House leaders were quick to also condemn's Joe's outburst. But when a Democrat speaks from the floor of the U.S. House and suggests the GOP wants sick people to die, there is a deafening silence from Democrats! [VIDEO AT SITE] Will there ever be real civility in the political process where Democrats are completely exempt from the standards they daily demand of Republicans?(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net

Oh joy. Please God, help us relocate by then..... COLOGNE, Germany — The Federation of Gay Games announced this afternoon that Cleveland will be the site of the 2014 games. The city was chosen over Boston and Washington, D.C., after a year-long site-selection process, the organization said in a news release issued at 1 p.m. "Cleveland demonstrated to the Federation of Gay Games that they understood the mission of the Gay Games and our principles of ‘Participation, Inclusion, and Personal Best’," said Kurt Dahl, of Chicago, and Emy Ritt, of Paris, FGG Co-presidents.

MARTIN COUNTY, FL -- A 23-year-old Stuart woman stabbed and killed her dog Sunday, according to an arrest affidavit.According to our news-partners at Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, Cassandra Danielle Lauderdale who lives in the 1700 block of Southeast Salerno Road was charged with cruelty to animals and was being held at the Martin County Jail in lieu of $2,500 bail Monday. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office was called about the incident about 10:30 p.m. Sunday at Lauderdale’s home. Deputies found several people inside, including Lauderdale, who appeared agitated. The people at the home told deputies she had taken the dog...

Glenn repeated some of the prayer, it kind of sounds like the Lords prayer only to Obama, to be released to the internet in 15 minutes ... It's a group of community organizers praying to him as if he were God.

More Photo Galleries 1 of 13 John Ruys, left, of San Ramon embraces friend Stephen Yardbrough of San Francisco at the annual Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco on Sunday. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2009/09/25/folsom_st_fair.DTL&o= [Sorry, this was filed under animals]

The latest Zero dollar, hot off the presses. Use in your continued efforts to educate others about Obamacare, socialized medicine as the democrats think it should be. Bring to the next rallies, give to others, leave in places for others to find, mail to your (and any other) congressmen and the president. Think how much they cheer YOU up, it'll do wonders for them! For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Archive of Zero Bills"

The 2009 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly made grievous decisions that will not help the denomination in the years ahead. Those decisions were the adoption of a social statement on sexuality and four resolutions that approve of sexual relationships outside of marriage and direct a change in the ELCA’s ministry standards to allow for practicing homosexuals to serve as ordained pastors and lay ministers. One biblical phrase kept coming to mind in the weeks leading up to the ELCA churchwide assembly and very often during the August assembly—“ears to hear.” The phrase occurs repeatedly in the Old and...

ANOTHER boy has turned up at school as a girl, it emerged yesterday - this time aged NINE. Parents rapped the primary school in southern England for not alerting them, and for telling pupils at a special assembly. Yesterday The Sun revealed that a boy of 12 had started the new term at secondary school as a girl. Classmates of the nine-year-old sex-change boy were told he had left and been replaced by a girl. The pupil returned to school the next day - in female uniform, with long hair in a ponytail, tied in pink ribbon. Parents faced a...

A FILM about Tasmania's cannibal convict Alexander Pearce has caused some audience members to vomit. The Mercury reports Van Diemen's Land follows Pearce's 1822 escape from the penal settlement on Tasmania's Sarah Island with seven other convicts, and the brutal dispatch of his fellow escapees. Director Jonathan Auf Der Heide said he was surprised people had reacted so strongly. "The vomiting thing was a real surprise to me - we had two people vomit in New Zealand, and a couple of people have fainted during the first killing scene," he said.

A mother who killed herself and her disabled daughter in a blazing car had faced constant abuse and threats from a gang of youths, an inquest heard today. Fiona Pilkington made dozens of calls to the police and council officials to complain about the way her daughter, Francecca Hardwick, was being picked on. The single mother was told to ignore the 16-strong gang. When Miss Pilkington called to complain that youths were trampling her hedge, police told her to close the curtains in her front room. The 38-year-old set light to her car with Francecca, 18, and herself inside.

Parents Who Claimed Their Disabled Daughter Had Been Kidnapped Are Charged With Her Murder By PETER ALLEN 13th September 2009 Victim: Marina Sabatier's body was found three days after she was reportedly abducted [Pic in URL] The parents of an eight-year-old schoolgirl have been charged with murder after beating her to death and hiding her corpse in a trunk load of cement because she was ‘greedy’. The Mafia-style disposal of the body of Marina Sabatier, from the French city of Le Mans, followed months of abuse by Eric Sabatier, 37, and his partner Virginie Darras, 30. Prosecutors today told how...

During a visit to Ukraine, the singer said he and his partner David Furnish were keen to become parents to a 14-month-old they had met there. "David and I have always talked about adoption," he said. But as Mr Furnish held baby Lev on his knee, Sir Elton revealed he had changed his mind. "Having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him. I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart. The singer said the death of his long-term keyboardist, Guy Babylon, had also helped change his mind about children. "It broke my heart...

San Diego County Man Guilty Of Killing Baby, Former Lover Dennis Potts, 25, was convicted of first-degree murder in the strangling deaths of his 10-month-old son and the boy's mother, Tori Vienneau, who was pushing for a paternity test. Associated Press September 10, 2009 A San Diego County man was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday for strangling his 10-month-old son and the baby's mother because she was pressuring him to take a paternity test. A Superior Court jury deliberated for two days before convicting Dennis Potts, 25, of killing 22-year-old Tori Vienneau and their child, Dean, in 2006. In closing...

One normally expects to see paeans to one-party rule and dictatorships in fringe publications sponsored by International ANSWER or World Can’t Wait. Usually, the New York Times offers those sentiments in more subtle terms than it does in today’s Thomas Friedman column. Friedman extols the Chinese form of government while deriding the fact that political opposition keeps Obama from imposing the policies Friedman likes:

The other day President Obama issued a special message to the Muslim world for the annual Ramadan holiday. Tonight, before leaving Wednesday for the rest of his stay-cation at Camp David, the president hosts a White House banquet to celebrate the same holiday. Invited guests include three cabinet secretaries, numerous diplomats, five members of Congress including the lone Muslim, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization mission. Here is the list of invited guests, as provided by the White House: Cabinet: Defense Secy. Robert Gates, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and Kathleen Sebelius, Secy. of Health and...

We freep polls all the time, but now we need to freep an online petition. Brianna lopez, killed by her own parents in 2002 after being brutalized in ways unimagineable to a half-normal human being. She was just 5 months old when she died in July 2002. Her body laid in the morgue, no one claiming it until the community came together to claim the little girls body and bury her. Her parents and uncle that brutalized and killed her are in prison, but other family members have come forward, claimed the gravesite and erected a cage around it, blocking...

Pr. Cory Johnson, N Great Lakes moved amendment B-MP-7. This would add the following wording in the second resolved: RESOLVED, that this church, because of its commitment to respect the bound consciences of all, declare its intent to incorporate structured flexibility in decision-making into its policies and procedures so that synods, bishops, congregations, candidacy committees, and others involved in the candidacy process and in the process of extending calls will be free to act according to their convictions regarding the approving or disapproving in candidacy and the extending or not extending of a call to rostered service of a person...

Much of the damage may be gone but there's a lot of blame left behind after a tornado touchdown in downtown Minneapolis. The storm struck the cross at Central Lutheran Church. Crews spent Thursday removing it from the steeple. Some bloggers say what happened to the church is a reaction from God to what's going on across the street. John Piper the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, wrote in a blog: "the tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin." Nearly 2,000 Lutherans from...

The world's first Muslim cartoon superheroes have taken the Arab world by storm, and now they are headed for British television screensNamed the 99, as each possesses one of Allah's 99 attributes, the characters include a burka-clad woman named Batina the Hidden and a Saudi Arabian Hulk-type man named Jabbar the Powerful. They have proved a hit from Morocco to Indonesia and were recently named as one of the top 20 trends sweeping the world by Forbes magazine. Now they are being brought to British television by Endemol, the production company behind Big Brother, with a mission to instill Islamic...

The Assembly began with breakfast and “table talk,” small group discussion around tables, and then they convened in plenary As the public session began, two speakers expressed great concern that following the adoption of the social statement yesterday, there was loud applause and cheers. It was noted that our rules declare this kind of response to be out of order, and the PB did nothing to call the assembly to order. The cheers were hurtful to those whose “bound conscience” were sorely wounded. The PB agreed, and apologized for his mistake. Kirsten --- (didn’t get her name or synod) urged...

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made. "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

WASHINGTON — It was a stirring scene: Bill Clinton, the former president, and Al Gore, his former vice president, back together, sharing a long and emotional hug as Mr. Clinton delivered back to American soil from captivity in North Korea two journalists who worked for Mr. Gore. There on the tarmac in California were the two dominant Democrats of the 1990s, having helped to ease an international crisis on behalf of an administration in which Hillary Rodham Clinton serves as secretary of state to the man, President Obama, who defeated Mrs. Clinton last year in a bitter race for the...

Gay, lesbian priests nominated for bishop LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Two Episcopal priests in same-gender relationships are among the nominees for assistant bishop of Los Angeles, officials said Sunday. The Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool of Maryland will be among six candidates on the ballot when lay people and clergy vote in December, despite a long-standing request from world Anglican leaders for a moratorium on consecrating openly gay bishops. Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno said in a statement Sunday that he was "pleased by the wide diversity" of the nominees. Separately, the...

Episcopal Church leaders in Los Angeles today nominated an openly gay priest and an openly lesbian priest as bishops, becoming one of the first dioceses in the national church to test a controversial new policy that lifted a de facto ban on gays and lesbians in the ordained hierarchy. The nominations of the Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool of a Baltimore-based diocese are likely to further inflame theological conservatives in the U.S. church and their global partners in the Anglican Communion, who have repeatedly warned about the repercussions of such action....

Valerie Beale, 23, smiled at her baby's father as she was brought into the courtroom to be charged with attempting to murder their 13-month-old girl. The smile might have been unexpected since it was the baby's father, Alan Charbonneau, who provided the statements to police that got Beale arrested. Police say the incident happened Sunday evening in the couple's Burlington apartment when their baby daughter wouldn't stop crying and Beale became enraged. "At some point in time she picked up a knife, she went to shut the baby up in her words, and to carve a smile on the baby's...

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - A Duluth man wanted for allegedly breaking into a medical clinic and slashing rubber exercise balls has turned himself in. Christopher Neil Bjerkness, 31, was arraigned Monday. He turned himself in early Saturday after calling police and was taken into custody without incident. Bjerkness has a history of burglary to satisfy a self-professed sexual fetish for slashing large rubber exercise balls. He is accused of breaking into the St. Marys/Duluth Clinic West building last May, where he allegedly slashed exercise balls.

A mass-kissing protest near the Mormon church temple Sunday drew a shouting match between gay activists and a group of faithful Mormons. For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people gathered to stage a "kiss-in" to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both gay and straight couples exchanged kisses during the protest. Demonstrators were greeted at the south entrance by a group of faithful Mormons carrying large signs that denounced homosexuality, prompting a heated verbal exchange....

Durham, N.C. — Duke University has fired an employee who faces federal child sex charges. Frank M. Lombard, 42, of 24 Indigo Creek Trail in Durham, was let go from his position as associate director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke, a spokesman said. Duke Vice President for Public Affairs Michael Schoenfeld said Lombard was placed on unpaid leave at the time of his arrest June 24 and was fired Monday. Schoenfeld added that the university was cooperating with the investigation. Lombard faces extradition to Washington, D.C., to face charges that he solicited an adult to have...

Episcopal Church officials voted yesterday to allow bishops the latitude to bless same-sex unions -- the second vote this week in favor of gay rights and one that may further divide the worldwide Anglican community. On the last day of the church's triennial national convention in Anaheim, Calif., officials stopped short of creating liturgical rites to bless same-sex unions, but approved a compromise measure that allows bishops, especially in states where same-sex unions are legal, to bless the relationships. The key portion of the legislation says bishops "may provide generous pastoral response" for such unions. The vote came three days...

A 3-month-old Westwego girl covered in rat bites was found dead in her home Thursday, and authorities were trying to determine whether they played a role in her death. Natalie Hill was found shortly after 7:30 a.m. in her crib by paramedics responding to an emergency call. When paramedics and police officers arrived, they found the child's father standing in front of the house in the 700 block of Central Avenue, yelling that his daughter was dead inside, said Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch Sr. The parents were identified by neighbors as Robby Hill and Casey Laine. Munch said the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman accused of killing her four daughters told police in an interview that the girls were possessed by demons and that she got rid of most of the family's possessions to contain the evil spirits. A District of Columbia Superior Court judge spent a second day Tuesday reviewing a recording of a police interrogation of Banita Jacks. The decomposing bodies of Jacks' daughters — ages 5 to 17 — were discovered in January 2008 when U.S. marshals came to evict her from her southeast Washington home. Judge Frederick Weisberg was to decide whether to admit the...

Litchfield – Litchfield school officials reacted swiftly to an outcry from parents concerned about stories students were assigned to read in a Campbell High School English class. "Some of these stories contained explicit, vulgar and gratuitous language and school administrators have determined that these stories are not appropriate for a high school curriculum," School Superintendent Elaine Cutler said in a statement yesterday. She said some stories assigned in the Short Stories class have been immediately removed from the curriculum and the entire course will be "reviewed and revised" over the summer. The statement comes one day after approximately 25 parents...