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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...

A significant number of evangelicals believe both that homosexuality is a sin and civil unions for same-sex couples should be legal, according to research recently presented at the American Sociological Association annual meeting. These evangelicals find themselves in the "messy middle," Baylor University researchers Dr. Lydia Bean and Brandon Martinez argue, due to competing notions about how to engage with homosexuals: both wanting to show love and compassion for their gay neighbors, and wanting to remain loyal to the teachings of their faith. Those in the "messy middle," they find, are more similar to conservative than liberal evangelicals. Evangelicals sustain...

August 6, 2013 (Breakpoint) - If I asked you to name the “hot button” social issues of concern to Christians, you’d probably cite abortion and gay marriage right away. Of course, the coarse and hyper-sexualized nature of popular culture might also come to mind. But what probably wouldn’t come to mind is the high incidence of divorce. Given the clear biblical teaching on the subject and its impact on families and children, that is, to put it mildly, more than a little odd. Actually, as one Christian leader rightly puts it, our lack of attention to the subject is a...

Christianity is not just about being happy and feeling good and being liked by others What’s at the root of this movement to back away from moral issues? Here’s what I think is the problem. When you advocate for moral causes like protecting the unborn, or school choice, or freeing the slaves, a bunch of people are not going to like you. Christians in the time of Jesus knew that being bold about their Christian convictions would make a lot of people think bad things about them – they expected it. But young evangelicals have gotten the idea that being...

For millions of readers around the world, a wildly successful free Bible app, YouVersion, is changing how, where and when they read the Bible. Built by LifeChurch.tv, one of the nation’s largest and most technologically advanced evangelical churches, YouVersion is part of what the church calls its “digital missions.” They include a platform for online church services and prepackaged worship videos that the church distributes free. A digital tithing system and an interactive children’s Bible are in the works.

A friend of mine attended a Christian college where almost all of the students, including her, grew up in non-denominational, evangelical Protestant churches. A few years after graduation, she is the only person in her graduating class who is not Roman Catholic, high Anglican or Lutheran. The town I live in has several “evangelical” Protestant colleges: on Ash Wednesday you can tell who studies at them by the ash crosses on their foreheads.Young Christians are going over to Catholicism and high Anglicanism/Lutheranism in droves, despite growing up in low Protestant churches that told them about Jesus. It’s a trend...

Latino Evangelical Leaders to GOP: Legal Status for Undocumented Kids, but Not Parents, Is Unacceptable..........WASHINGTON – Immigration reform legislation that gives legal status to the children of undocumented immigrants, but not to their parents, would be unacceptable, Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said Wednesday in a press conference that followed a meeting with Speaker of the House John Boehner and other Republican leaders. "Legal status for children, at the exclusion of the parents would be egregious," Rodriguez said. "We're pastors. We pastor families, not just children. We stand committed, without compromise, to family unification. So,...

Tony Perkins and a coalition of allies have urged support for Rep. John Fleming’s military religious freedom amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. The Catholic League joins with them. But we are doing more than that: I am calling attention today to the way Mikey Weinstein, the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has smeared Evangelicals. In a report released yesterday, FRC detailed some of the irresponsible comments made by Weinstein, the man who has been leading the fight to censor religious speech in the military. Last month, we prepared our own report: to read “Mikey Weinstein’s Inflammatory...

The McCain/Palin ticket lost in 2008, right? Fiction can change that. ”Christian Nation” is a new novel from lawyer Fred Rich that wonders what would happen if the Republican ticket won in 2008. But Rich goes even further than that, plotting a would-be Palin presidency after McCain passes away in the novel. And although it’s fiction, Rich is dead serious about what a Palin presidency would mean for the country. As the title suggest, Rich is concerned about how religious extremists on the right could upend society. “If somebody like Sarah Palin, who holds so firmly to this conviction that...

U2 frontman Bono, who moonlights as an activist for the poor and sick in Africa, is crediting evangelical Christians and former President George W. Bush for saving 9 million from the ravages of AIDS, a campaign the musician said is blessed by God. "This should be shouted from the rooftops. This is a heroic American story," Bono said in a remarkable radio interview with Jim Daly, the president of Focus on the Family, to be broadcast by the group Tuesday. Talking freely about God, his marriage, and his relationship with Jesus in the interview provided in advance to Secrets, Bono...

America’s Catholic bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention joined forces on Friday, calling on Congress to pass bills that would exempt companies and nonprofits from the contraception insurance coverage mandate in President Obama’s health care law. The Rev. William E. Lori, archbishop of Baltimore, and SBC President Russell D. Moore say companion bills in the House and Senate would “address threats to religious freedom and rights of conscience that have become particularly grave in the field of health care.” [Snip] The bill exempts faith-based nonprofits and religiously devout business owners from a provision in the Affordable Care Act that requires...