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In September 2011, I traveled to Lebanon with members of my church to attend a Christian Conference there in Beirut. During that trip I had the opportunity to travel throughout the country visiting the ancient cities of Byblos, Tyre, and Sidon. I also had the chance to visit the city of Zahle, which is the largest, all Christian city in the Middle East. Zahle sits on the western slope of the infamous Bekaa Valley where many large battles in the Lebanese Civil War were fought. Today, it is a fertile region known for its great wineries. In Zahle, I had...

Speaking on matters beyond the realm of the spiritual, a top Orthodox Church cleric said Russia must play a greater role in responding to ongoing global events that could deteriorate into a world war. "There are many processes occurring in the world in which Russia should play a much more active role,” Vsevolod Chaplin, a high-placed cleric in the Russian Orthodox Church, said in an interview with the Svobodnaya Pressa ('Free Press') publishing house. “The economic and social contradictions that have cropped up in the world are so powerful that they are sure to blow up into serious military operations."...

There was great excitement in the North Georgia Mountains when I’d Climb the Highest Mountain was filmed in Georgia's red clay hills.

The leader of the Russian Communist Revolution, Vladmir Lenin, once declared that: "The capitalists will give us the rope, which we shall use to hang them". For most of American history, capitalism has been a force for good, because most of America's leading capitalists were patriotic citizens, who were also devout Christians. So long as American capitalism is in the hands of patriotic Christians, the forces of capitalism can be harnessed to do a lot of good for America and the world. J. D. Rockefeller's fortune built the University of Chicago and other useful projects during his lifetime. American capitalist...

Based on the love story of two devout Christians, the movie version of "The Vow," starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, strips the tale of its overt religious themes, which has some Christian reviewers concerned. The film is based on the true life story and book, “The Vow” by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, which draws heavily on that couple’s Christian beliefs and the power of God to heal and shepherd a marriage through difficult times.

A little more than a week ago, Jeremy Lin, then a third-string point guard for the NBA’s New York Knicks, found himself suddenly in the limelight after leading his team to a surprise victory over the New Jersey Nets. Before coach Mike D’Antoni put Lin in the game out of desperation, few Knicks fans, let alone anyone else, had ever heard of the Harvard grad already cut from two other NBA teams. But now, as he leads the Knicks on a seven-game-and-counting winning streak, everyone’s talking about Lin, his underdog story, and his faith. Sports commentators call him the “Taiwanese...

During a routine practice with the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin took a minute to talk to a reporter from Fuse TV about his favorite music. Lin, who makes no efforts to hide his religion, named the popular Christian rapper, Lecrae Moore. Lecrae, whose six studio album, "Rehab: The Overdose," was the highest charting Christian Hip Hop album ever on iTunes and debuted at #15 on the Billboard 200, is already a celebrity within the world of gospel-rap and will perform alongside Hip Hop supergroup, The Wu-Tang Clan at the "Paid Dues Festival" this April. ...A talented rapper from an...

A U.S. filmmaker who has a Jewish father and Christian mother today decided to convert to Islam in Iran, where he is making a documentary. But Sean Stone, 27, son of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, insisted the switch did not signal him abandoning the faiths of his parents. He became a Shiite Muslim on Tuesday and has reportedly chosen to be known by the first name of 'Ali', but will not reveal why he converted. ‘The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with,’ Mr Stone told news agency Agence France-Presse. ‘It means I...

While GLAAD is super protected by the media, both liberal and conservative, Christians, in general, are experiencing a renewed full-out onslaught against their faith, pre presidential election. As usual, the faith of those running for the highest office is being scrutinized more than ever, first by Republicans. We never hear much concern about a Dem's faith, because faith is not much of an an issue to Dems. President Obama's religious bona fides came into question, only because his mentor/minister was from a planet even beyond Louis Farrakhan's Mother Ship. Like, who ever knew that Joe Biden is the first Catholic...

Check out the video of the opening of today's Morning Joe. In just over two minutes, the show ran clips of Knicks player Jeremy Lin hitting a three-point buzzer beater last night . . . no fewer than 10 times. But Morning Joe was far from finished. I counted a total of 28 Lin clips during the course of the show. Donnie Deutsch opined that "this is one of the few things where the 1% and the 99% can agree." Mike Barnicle later expressed a similar sentiment. Clearly the Lin story is moving America. But query how long he will...

To be or not to be the science of theology at Russian institutes and universities? At a meeting with a group of spiritual leaders, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed to introduce this subject to their curriculums. However, the possibility of the doctrine of God appearing in the curriculums of higher educational establishments has already stirred controversy in Russian society. The introduction of theology in curriculums in secular institutes and universities is necessary, says the rector of Orthodox University, Hegumenos Pyotr Eremeev in an interview with the Voice of Russia. “This will help students to get acquainted with the treasures of...

With 2.18 billion adherents, Christianity has become a truly global religion over the past century, as rapid growth in developing nations offset declines in Christianity's traditional strongholds, according to a recently released report. Billed as the most comprehensive and reliable study to date, the Pew Research Center's "Global Christianity" reports on self-identified Christian populations based on more than 2,400 sources of information, especially census and survey data. Findings illustrate major shifts since 1910, when two-thirds of the world's Christians lived in Europe. Now only one in four Christians lives in Europe. Most of the rest are distributed across the Americas...

One of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States says Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate to provide all contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, in their health care plans. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told LifeSiteNews.com “we will not comply” with the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring religious institutions to cover abortifacient products such as Plan B, Ella, and the IUD. “We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just...

Perhaps the gravest under-publicized atrocity in the world is the persecution of Christians. A comprehensive Pew Forum study last year found that Christians are persecuted in 131 countries containing 70 percent of the world’s population, out of 197 countries in the world (if Palestine, Taiwan, South Sudan, and the Vatican are included). Best estimates are that about 200 million Christians are in communities where they are persecuted. There is not the slightest question of the scale and barbarity of this persecution, and a little of it is adequately publicized. But this highlights the second half of the atrocity: the passivity...

We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm. Click here to find out more! The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West...

DAMASCUS, Syria -- As the announcement was made Saturday evening that Russia and China had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the actions of the Syrian regime, some Christians inside the country celebrated. One man from the western Syrian town of Qatana called his relatives to say "mabrook," or congratulations, on the result of the vote. A lounge bar in Damascus offered two alcoholic drinks for one in a happy hour offer. But in Christian homes around the country the prevailing sentiment is one of relief rather than delight -- they link the survival of the Assad regime...

The Muslim world is threatened by religious fanaticism. The Western world is threatened by secular fanaticism. Both seek to dominate society and to use state power to do so. Both seek to eliminate the Other -- for Islamic fanatics, that means non-Muslim religions and secularism; for secular fanatics, it means Christianity and virtually any public invoking of God. The Islamists impose Sharia law; the American Civil Liberties Union and the left generally impose secular law. The Taliban wiped out public vestiges of Buddhism in Afghanistan; the ACLU and its allies seek to wipe out public vestiges of Christianity in America...

Understanding the conflicting claims of Catholicism versus Eastern OrthodoxyAmong the lapsed from the Catholic Church in the turbulent post-conciliar period are those Catholics who became so disenchanted with the liturgical disarray and doctrinal unrest evident in Western Catholicism that they became converts to Eastern Orthodoxy. They found themselves influenced by the Eastern Orthodox claim to preserve the doctrinal, sacramental, and liturgical heritage of the ancient Church, and in fact, to be the historical continuation of the true Church of Jesus Christ. Those defecting from the Catholic Church found comforting Eastern OrthodoxyÂ’s professing the doctrine of the first seven ecumenical Councils,...

Speakers at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in the nation’s capital usually keep their talks diplomatic. After all, the room is filled with ambassadors, lawmakers from both parties, Cabinet members, and people of various faiths from around the world. But Eric Metaxas, the featured speaker Thursday morning and the author of biographies on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce, talked to an audience of 4,000 important people about false religion, human depravity, poverty, slavery, and abortion. But the New York author delivered his sharp commentary with his trademark wit, which kept the audience roaring with laughter. The halls of the Washington...

Church And State: President Obama has taken a very powerful name in vain in defense of his class warfare economic policies. In fact, Obama encourages a sin Jesus Christ repeatedly admonished: envy. Attending the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Obama declared that raising tax rates on higher incomes "coincides with Jesus' teaching that 'for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.'" It is disgraceful enough for a president to use a religious event to push an economic agenda that has already insured his place in history as the food stamp president. But Obama began his remarks by...

Tim Tebow is back in the news after cancelling an appearance with a group of pastors spouting the Prosperity Gospel. Apparently, Mr. Tebow agreed to speak before he realized whom he was supporting. The Prosperity Gospel reflects a new variant on an ancient apostasy presuming our material standing proportionate to our moral stature. Many of America's fastest growing churches feature this errant blending of theology with materialism. Megachurches espousing this feel good nonsense litter the landscape while televangelists have been catapulted into the public face of Christianity. It's compelling and easily misleads because it's intuitive. Those who serve God best...

Almost all Christian denominations can be traced to 3 main traditions - the Catholic, the Protestant, and the Eastern Orthodox traditions. All three traditions are based on the Bible. Mormonism is a religion that has a heritage that is very different from traditional Christianity, and is based on the Book of Mormon. The theological differences that separate a Baptist from a Catholic, are not the same as those which separate a Baptist from a Mormon, or a Catholic from a Mormon. In a dispute between a Baptist and a Catholic, they will argue over whether Church tradition prevails over scripture...

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN—Authorities in Uzbekistan are, apparently, unwilling to give love a chance. The Russian news agency RIA-Novosti cited several local media in the Central Asian nation reporting Tuesday that Uzbekistan has cancelled concerts and other events for Valentine’s Day. Instead, residents in the capital of Tashkent can enjoy readings of poems by Mughal emperor Babur, who died in the 16th century. The unofficial ban on romance-related festivities echoes long-standing antagonism in Uzbekistan toward the holiday. Last year, the Turkistan newspaper described Valentine’s Day as the work of “forces with evil goals bent on putting an end to national values.” Although...

A 15-year-old Wisconsin boy who wrote an op-ed opposing gay adoptions was censored, threatened with suspension and called ignorant by the superintendent of the Shawano School District, according to an attorney representing the child. Mathew Staver, the founder of the Liberty Counsel, sent a letter to Superintendent Todd Carlson demanding an apology for “Its unconstitutional and irrational censorship and humiliation” of Brandon Wegner. Wegner, a student at Shawano High School, was asked to write an op-ed for the school newspaper about whether gays should be allowed to adopt. Wegner, who is a Christian, wrote in opposition. Another student wrote in...

On Jan. 12, for the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake, thousands of people flocked to the Shalom Church in Port au Prince, Haiti. The "church" is just a plywood stage under a patchwork of tattered tarps. The crowd was so large that it spilled down a muddy hill toward a tent camp for earthquake victims. Most of the singing, swaying congregation were so far away they couldn't even see the podium. The evangelical mission now claims to have more than 50,000 members and one of the most popular radio stations in Haiti. This church is a product of the...

Mouths open in shock and muscles tensed at the freezing temperatures, these Russian plunge themselves into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark Epiphany. In temperatures approaching -10 degrees, hundreds of Russian Orthodox Church followers brave the dip into especially cut holes in the ice om Tyarlevo village, near St Petersburg, at midnight.

VATICAN CITY, January 19, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a meeting with various U.S. Bishops today, Pope Benedict XVI said that the consensus which once existed in America supporting “ethical principles deriving from nature and nature’s God,” has faded.  “Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such,” he said. The Pope was emphatic in insisting that the threat posed by current trends threatens not only Christianity but “humanity itself.� He said: “To the...

Leftists constantly attack social conservatives for supposedly being hypocrites. Where does this obsession with hypocrisy come from? Christians would argue that we know hypocrisy is wrong because Jesus condemned it. Why do secular leftists revile hypocrisy so much if they don't believe in Christ? I believe that our culture has a deeply ingrained distaste for hypocrisy because Christian culture has opposed it for 2000 years. Even ardent atheists continue to carry this Christian mindset. However, there is is a significant difference between Christ's statements on hypocrisy and how leftists view hypocrisy. Jesus instructed his disciples to follow the instructions of...

The racism bluff By GUSTAVO D. PEREDNIK 12/21/2011 21:46 Judaism brought anti-racism to the world via the idea that all mankind was derived from Adam, the first man. Haitian anthropologist Antenor Firmin pioneered in 1885 the rebuttal of racist theories; since then there has been a constant endeavor to defeat racism through education and legislation. These efforts are undermined by those who deliberately exaggerate the problem of racism in present times in order to avoid criticisms of the many other evils in their societies. In a world in which Barack Obama was elected president of America, and that put a...

Why do they mock Tebow? And why do we let them? In what is arguably the most religiously tolerant society in human history, how is it that, in the modern age, the religious expression of an athlete is the brunt of jokes and the target of mockery? Why don’t we denounce that for the bigotry it is? Because our tolerance is in name only. And it is unevenly applied. In America, intolerance of the minority is rejected, but intolerance of the majority is expected. Tim Tebow is mocked not because he is religious, but because he is Christian. Were he...

The death of Christopher Hitchens on December 15 was not unexpected, and that seemed only to add to the tragedy. His fight against cancer had been lived, like almost every other aspect of his colorful life, in full public view. He had told numerous interviewers that he wanted to die in an active, not a passive sense. Then again, there may never have been a truly passive moment in Christopher Hitchens’ life. Long before he was known as one of the world’s most ardent atheists, he was known as a world-class essayist and a hard-driving public intellectual. Born in England,...

This is my summary of the radio broadcast this week, Dr. McGee used the text from the Gospel of Luke to illustrate the differences between Communism, Capitalism and Christianity. Communism: "What is yours, is mine." Capitalism: "What is mine, is mine." Christianity "What is mine, is yours."

...the US military has been prohibited from helping the local Christians by the administrations of both Bush and Obama. Two years ago, the distribution of Bibles was banned in Iraq, and even the sale to the military of assault weapons with Bible verses on them was stopped. In Egypt, the new authorities helped and financed by the Obama administration and supported internationally by Hillary Clinton, encouraged pogroms against the traditional Christian minority in the country, the Copts. It seems that one of the main strategic goals for the US military presence in the Middle East is the eradication of traditional...

I have officially called off my boycott of the National Football League. I do not care how many felons or frotteurs play the game. Now there is Tim Tebow to redeem it. He can pass and run. He inspires his teammates. He inspires many returning fans like me. I shall follow him through the playoffs and maybe even next year as the season resumes anew. He is an American original -- and he is controversial. I am for him. No, I shall not fall for the NFL's gimmicks. You will not see me wearing a jersey of the Denver Broncos,...

In December 2011 the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (Washington) issued A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population. Some of the data were developed in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (South Hamilton, Massachusetts). The two institutions are responsible for the bulk of reliable statistical information on religion worldwide. They are directed, respectively, by Luis Lugo and Todd Johnson. I happen to know these two gentlemen quite well. They are the religious nose counters par excellence. Ask them how many Lutherans there are in Mongolia, and how many Buddhists...

While discussing on The View recently how North Korean heir Kim Jong Un enjoyed the luxury of being sent to a Swiss boarding school, Whoopi Goldberg said the following, “This is what happens with communism. It’s a great concept; on paper it makes perfect sense. But once you put a human being in power, it shifts. We saw it in Russia; we’ve seen it all over the world.” Not surprisingly, this earned Goldberg some criticism. Yet, to be fair, her sentiment is a common one. It’s that supposedly enlightened, nuanced opinion stating that communism works great in theory — it’s...

The 2012 presidential election is in full swing. The Republicans have lined up to vote for whomever they think shares their values and will beat Barack Obama. There is a large segment of the Republican base known as social conservatives and the “Religious Right.” Often these Christian voters focus on issues like abortion, gay marriage, prayer in schools, etc. However, Christians should also focus on more foreign policy issues, like war and peace, international development, and conflict zones. Christian ethics necessarily means that they have to reject certain international relations concepts, like realism and isolationism. Realism holds that all that...

Leadership: Even before George Washington is said to have taken a knee in prayer at Valley Forge, men and women of faith and courage endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights have guided this nation to greatness. Some 45 million people watched Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow complete that 80-yard touchdown pass play to Demaryius Thomas on the first play from scrimmage in overtime to lead his team over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday's wild card playoff game. They also saw him take a knee and give thanks to the God he believes in, an act that's been dubbed "Tebow-ing."...

After spending at least 15 minutes on contraception and gay marriage, Newt finally had enough and told the media the bigotry question goes both ways and that there’s more “anti-Christian bigotry out there than there is concern on the other side” that the media ignores:

I have a GREAT idea! How about a TV show titled, “All-American Christian”? Christians have been getting a bum rap in cinema and the mainstream media for quite a while. In a spirit of fairness, compassion and tolerance, a TV show promoting Christianity is simply the right thing to do. After all, the last thing we need are Christian-phobic Americans. We must educate Americans to realize Christianity is a religion of peace. Christians are not anti-American. The TV show will confirm Christians are not much different than you and me and just as patriotic. Also, Christians would never attempt...

Like megachurches, homeschooling, and Tim Tebow, “Merry Christmas� has become a religio-cultural Rorschach test. If you prefer that department stores greet you with a “Merry Christmas,� or at least wish they didn’t feel compelled to adopt the anodyne “Happy Holidays,� chances are good you’re a conservative Christian of some stripe. If, on the other hand, you prefer to talk about how ridiculous it is that anyone should care how a department store greets them, or if you prefer to mock that concern and say that people who feel that concern should (a) get a life or (b) stop trying...

Whenever we, as biblical Christians, think that things couldn't possibly become more preposterous in Christendom, we need to call to mind the Scriptures that tell us that the time will come when Christians will not endure sound doctrine, and many will corrupt the Word of God (2 Timothy:4:3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;; 2 Corinthian 2:17; 2 Peter:3:16As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they...

On a sun-drenched day during the week before Christmas, Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre was crowded with pilgrims from Nigeria. They were taking turns kneeling and praying at a marker on the spot where, sacred history has it, Jesus was crucified, entombed, and resurrected. (Other Christians consider the holy place to be the nearby Garden Tomb.) Back in Nigeria on Christmas Day, a wave of murderous bombings by Muslim extremists hit several churches. Plainly, the Christian faith is at once thriving and struggling. Global Christianity, a new report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, describes and...

When Nigeria's Islamist terror was confined to its northern states, politically correct Western opinion was able to get away with spinning the violence as six of one and half a dozen of the other. An outrage in Jos, for example, would be put down to 'religious tensions' between the Muslim and Christian communities. It was almost as if elements in the Western media were desperate for stories of Christians behaving badly. But the politically correct spin is now becoming increasingly untenable following Islamist terror group Boko Haram's Christmas Day attack on St Theresa's Roman Catholic Church in central Nigeria, close...

For a hundred and fifty years the question has been repeatedly asked worldwide, "Are Mormons Christian?" We have struggled through the semantic tangles to answer that with an unqualified "yes." In his heart every Mormon knows that this question is much like asking, "Is Hamlet Shakespearian?" It might be said, "After all, Hamlet is a manifestation of Shakespeare. In fact, Hamlet is Shakespeare." Precisely. And so, the Mormon knows that Mormonism is the most vital twentieth century manifestation of Christ. Unlike Hamlet, it is alive. If it is less than that it is nothing. Here the plan is to reverse the question...

During the 1960s a book Double Helix came out that described Francis Crick and James WatsonÂ’s discovery of the double helix structure that made up DNA. This was a landmark discovery for it enabled scientists to understand how living organisms were able to replicate themselves from generation to generation. DNA functioned as a unique blueprint for each human being: a set of instructions about the color of our eyes, the shape of our nose etc. In the 1980s scientists discovered the presence of telomeres, little bits of DNA located at the end of the chromosome chain. Telomeres function to keep...

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy — For the second time in a week, Pope Benedict XVI has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and saying other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.

As a Jewish convert to Christ via evangelical Protestantism, I naturally wanted to know God better through the reading of the Scriptures. In fact, it had been through reading the Gospels in the "forbidden book" called the New Testament, at age sixteen, that I had come to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our promised Messiah. In my early years as a Christian, much of my religious education came from private Bible reading. By the time I entered college, I had a pocket-sized version of the whole Bible that was my constant companion. I would commit...

Despite many a pundit's tale, it wasn't secular society that just evicted Christ from Christmas. This assault on faith is neither new nor limited to the holidays. Instead of a peculiar people living as salt and light to a lost world, far too many Believers let the divine splendor of Light descending to Earth be eclipsed under the dull luster of consumerism. We Christians seem unsatisfied by Christ's coming and instead compensate through seeking worldly ends. But if we are too busy living the same lives as unbelievers, who else will give an account of the rich hope that's within...

CHRISTIANITY is growing almost as fast as humanity itself, but its 2.2 billion adherents cannot count on safety in numbers. That is partly because the locus of the world’s largest religion is shifting to hotter (in several senses) parts of the world. According to a report published by the Pew Forum in December, the Christian share of the population of sub-Saharan Africa has soared over the past century, from 9% to 63%. Meanwhile, the think-tank says, the Christian proportion of Europeans and people in the Americas has dropped, respectively, from 95% to 76% and from 96% to 86%. But moving...