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"Left Behind: World at War," a full-length film about the Second Coming of Christ, hits the big screen this weekend -- but in churches, not cinemas. About 115 Virginia churches, including 15 in the Richmond area, are among the 3,200 in the U.S. and Canada showing the film. It is the third movie based on the Left Behind series of best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Some churches have scheduled five or six showings, which began last night and will continue through tomorrow. Many churches are offering the movie free. Others are asking for a small donation. Some...

Tens of thousands of evangelical Christian youths, families and leaders from more than 800 area churches will converge on the District Saturday and Sunday for the D.C. Festival, with music, activities and faith. The free festival is open to Christians and non-Christians alike, said organizer Luis Palau, an Argentina-born evangelical minister whom some call the "new Billy Graham." "We want people to realize that following Jesus is a normal part of everyday life," Mr. Palau told The Washington Times. "Symbols become passe and people would instantly turn it off. We want to draw in people who would be turned away...

Spawned by the South Asian earthquake, seismic waves rolling deep within the Earth made Virginia well water rise and fall by 3 feet, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Strong oscillations at a 450-foot-deep well near the Round Meadow Country Club in Christiansburg in western Virginia started about an hour after the magnitude 9 quake struck some 9,600 miles away. Seismic waves travel through the Earth at about 7,400 mph. "It took another five hours for that sloshing to settle out," USGS groundwater specialist David Nelms said yesterday. "That water's going up and down, up and down, up and down in...

HOT SPRINGS - Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore attacked his presumed rival for the 2005 governor's race today and took a stand against tax increases. The Republican spoke to a packed luncheon meeting at the Virginia GOP's 21st annual "Advance" at The Homestead resort. Kilgore, who is expected to receive his party's nomination to face Democratic Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, assailed Kaine as "John Kerry with a Richmond address." Kilgore pledged to resist tax hikes and said the recent projected state budget surplus showed he was right when he spoke out against increases enacted in the last General Assembly...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq - Hunched and haggard, Sgt. Evan Byler hobbled around his camp in Northern Iraq yesterday, wondering how a suicide bomber could have infiltrated the chow hall. "It's kind of a shock that something like that was allowed" on the base, said Byler, a Fauquier County resident and member of the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion. "It is something we have been trying to prevent." "Basically, everyone is going to have to step up their alertness and have an eye out for anything suspicious. Home is coming up, but we still have a long way off." Byler...

Virginia helped put President Bush over the top yesterday. Not that it mattered. By the luck of the draw, Keith C. Drake of Albemarle County, an information technology manager, cast what will be the 270th Electoral College vote for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney when Congress tallies the votes on Jan. 6. The elector from Virginia's 5th congressional district said the state-by-state count, done alphabetically, came down to his name to cast the 270th ballot for Bush and Cheney - the amount needed to win. < snip > Gov. Mark R. Warner, welcoming the electors to the state Capitol,...

Virginia's Mark Warner for President in 2008? UNDATED (AP) - Some Democrats think their best choice to return to the White House doesn't live too far away from it. The Washington Post reports, a growing underground and Internet movement is promoting Virginia Governor Mark Warner as a candidate for president in 2008. His name has been tossed around by major media outlets in their coverage of the just-completed election and the question of where the Democrats go from here. Observers say Warner has succeeded in the South by supporting fiscal conservativism, gun rights, and some limits on abortion. At the...

Unless you're blindly guided to a partisan decision on Nov. 2, you face a difficult choice for the next president of the United States. Thinking voters, who genuinely weigh a myriad of issues on the table for the upcoming four years, face an extraordinarily tough set of compromises unthinkable in recent memory. It's no wonder the race is so close. Reaching our conclusion, we have itemized several critical points, and here is our scorecard: l Would we now support the pre-eminent strike against Iraq, now knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction, and now knowing the administration did so...

SNIP It is said that presidential elections turn on the state of the economy, but few Americans realize just how badly the economy was hurt by the terrorist attacks. Flying airplanes into the World Trade Center was more than a symbolic act, it had ripple effects on both the airline and financial industries at a time when the high-tech stock bubble burst. No reasonable person can blame all of that on President Bush. Four years ago, when Bush was an untested governor running for president, we wrote: “We don’t know what challenges our next president will face, so we have...

President Bush deserves a new term The terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, continue to change life in America in ways that were never considered in the first eight months of the presidency of George W. Bush. Those attacks led to the war on terror in Afghanistan, then Iraq and ultimately throughout the world wherever the terrorists, with their bloody handiwork, exposed themselves. President Bush has led the world’s fight against terrorism. He has stood firm and resolute in the face of terrorists, pledging to root them out wherever they try to hide. In the process,...

10/21/2004 Tough choices await voters Nov. 2 in local, national races This week, The Times editorial board lays out the case for whom it is supporting in the local congressional and presidential races. We will not presume to change your mind or make it up for you. We offer our thoughts as another in the assault of opinions launched in this high-stakes election. Regardless of what is said here or what you think or write us about it, we feel passionate that everyone should get out and vote on Election Day. In the 11th Congressional District, we continue to...

George W. Bush ‘Right Man, Right Place, Right Time’ On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, George W. Bush was in Florida, reading to a class of elementary schoolchildren. Mere minutes into his presentation, he was informed that hijacked aircraft had plunged into the “twin towers” of the World Trade Center in New York City. In that instant, America changed, and the world with it. So did the presidency of George W. Bush. If it is accurate to say that the true measure of a man is best ascertained through trial and adversity, through storm and strife — and we...

The Free Lance-Star endorsement WHEN CONSIDERING the political endorsement of an incumbent, a practical way to proceed is to ask whether past performance justifies retention: Does he deserve to be "rehired"? This is the crucial question most Americans are asking--actually, most long ago answered it--about George W. Bush. You have probably not met a person who says, "I love John F. Kerry and I always have!" The Nov. 2 election is fundamentally a referendum on the policies of the president. The arguments against renewing Mr. Bush's contract to lead this nation are weighty. At a time when federal entitlements consume...

On September 11, 2001, Americans awoke to a lovely dawn. Reality soon roused them from a long slumber. The airliners slamming into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania countryside supposedly shattered American innocence. Ignorance more accurately describes the pre-attack attitude. The incidents did not represent something unprecedented, but were instead the latest battle in a war only one side had been waging for a decade and more. The days following the enormities found a wounded nation ready for decisive action. Flags displayed everywhere reflected love and resolve. If the image of firefighters raising the Stars and Stripes resembled...

They dot lawns across Virginia - sometimes unsightly and often annoying to residents who'd prefer that neighbors keep their opinions to themselves. But with the presidential race and some local campaigns under way, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is warning localities against enforcing time restrictions on privately posted political campaign signs. On Thursday, the state ACLU said it sent letters to all 323 local governments in Virginia, reminding them that the General Assembly had passed a law protecting the right of individuals to post campaign signs on their land. The law took effect July 1. CONTINUE...

TOMORROW FAITH & VALUES Reaching out:The Church of the Holy Comforter rallies to help a Liberian mother and her two daughters after their arrival in Richmond. Ordination of practicing homosexuals in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) could "very possibly" split the denomination, said the co-leader of a key task force at the church's 216th General Assembly meeting this week at the Greater Richmond Convention Center."We have a long history of significant disagreements. Presbyterians have been fighting since we first started in this country [in the 1600s], but we always get back together," said the Rev. Gary W. Demarest, a retired...

When the Rev. Lon Solomon says he aims to persuade every soul in Washington to believe that "Jesus is the only ticket to heaven," it is a vow not to be taken lightly. From the wealthy of McLean to the poor of Southeast Washington -- all are in his sights, especially the area's Jews, whose conversion Solomon considers his God-given calling. While other Christian leaders might have similar goals, none has the advantage of Solomon's perch as pastor of McLean Bible Church, a glitzy megachurch with an evangelical mission that might seem an unlikely fit for Washington's most affluent suburb....

<p>RICHMOND, Va. - Former President Ronald Reagan was remembered fondly by politicians in both parties Saturday in a state where he enjoyed wide support during his political career.</p> <p>Former Republican National Committee chairman and former Gov. Jim Gilmore called Reagan one of the five greatest presidents of the U.S., and said he was an inspiration for him to enter politics.</p>

<p>RICHMOND, Va. - Free-speech advocates warned Thursday they will file a federal lawsuit if officials at a public park block a baptism planned for this weekend in the Rappahannock River.</p> <p>Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said he has prepared a temporary restraining order against the park if officials try to interfere with an Episcopal pastor's plans to hold a baptism there on Sunday.</p>

<p>Scott Erwin came from his job in Iraq to walk across the stage with his University of Richmond graduating class on May 9.</p> <p>Last year Scott Erwin put his college education on hold to go to Iraq and teach democracy.</p> <p>He risked his life because he wanted to help.</p>