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Less than a year ago, Mark Driscoll, an evangelical pastor, was flying high. His hometown Seattle Seahawks were in the Super Bowl, and the brash pastor scored a big, faith-fueled interview with five of the team's top players, including quarterback Russell Wilson. But in a remarkably fast fall from grace, Driscoll resigned Tuesday as pastor of Mars Hill Church, a congregation he founded 18 years ago and turned into a force in the mostly secular Pacific Northwest. In a statement, Mars Hills' board of overseers said Driscoll hadn't committed any acts of "immorality, illegality or heresy" -- sins that have...

Inflamed by American Prophecy, Brazilian Evangelicals Want a Woman for Brazil Presidency By Julio Severo The most important events for Brazil in 2014 are the World Cup — where the Brazilian team suffered its worst and most shameful defeat in such football event — and the presidential election. Prophecy said Brazil would win the World Cup From a rational standpoint, the election will bring another shameful defeat, because the main contenders — incumbent Dilma Rousseff and Marina Silva and Aécio Neves — are socialists. This week, these three major candidates have, joined by homosexual activists and federal prosecutors, condemned...

In fairness, the culture-war right has done less damage than the neocons and the super rich have. But they’re still the ones on the ropes.I’m not sure what’s come over me and I suppose it’ll pass, but at just this moment I’m feeling a little bit sorry for evangelical conservatives. They were apparently pretty droopy, these proceedings over the weekend at the Values Voter Summit, as my colleague Ben Jacobs described things. Oh, yes, Ted Cruz fired them up, and some of the old stalwarts put in respectable appearances, but they have to know deep down that they’re like the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton is the one figure uniting religious conservatives frustrated by a leaderless Republican Party that's divided over foreign policy, immigration and social issues. The prospect of another Clinton White House stirred anguish at the Values Voter Summit this weekend where hundreds of conservative activists debated the GOP's future and warned that the acknowledged but unannounced 2016 Democratic front-runner would cement what they see as President Barack Obama's attack on religious freedom....

At the Values Voter Summit, the Texan highlights his strong beliefs on conservative issues.In an already crowded field of likely contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Ted Cruz has found his way to stand out against potential primary opponent Rand Paul: championing the most fundamental planks of the conservative base. In a passionate speech Friday morning to conservatives at the Values Voter Summit, Cruz left no room for doubt about where he stands on the social issues that—albeit amid party conflict—still define the GOP. "How do we win? We defend the values that are American values," he boomed. "We...

Christian conservatives are often the subject of study by academics, who seem to find their culture as foreign as that of Borneo tribesmen. And this is a particularly interesting time for brave social scientists to put on their pith helmets and head to Wheaton, Ill., Colorado Springs or unexplored regions of the South. They will find a community under external and internal cultural stress. It is fair to say that some cultural views traditionally held by evangelicals are in retreat. Whatever the (likely dim) future of political libertarianism, moral libertarianism has been on the rise. This is perhaps the natural...

WASHINGTON — Gov. Mike Huckabee encouraged pastors to speak out on political issues and for social conservatives to get more fellow adherents registered and to the polls. Social conservatives are not in trouble because of the actions of government, they are in trouble because social conservatives are not speaking out and are not voting in large numbers, Huckabee said Friday at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit. Huckabee estimated that there are probably over 100 million social conservatives in the United States. Using just the example of Evangelicals, he said there are about 80 million, but only half of...

I had to read the penultimate paragraph of Ross Douthat’s New York Times piece on “friendless Middle East Christians” before the enormity of it sunk in. Douthat wrote: If Cruz felt that he couldn’t address an audience of persecuted Arab Christians without including a florid, “no greater ally” preamble about Israel, he could have withdrawn from the event. The fact that he preferred to do it this way says a lot–none of it good–about his priorities and instincts. In so many words: Jew-hatred among Middle Eastern Christians is so rampant that it should be ignored in the interests of saving...

Reaction to the launch earlier this week of a group calling itself "Evangelicals for Marriage Equality" heralded by an op-ed in TIME by its spokesman, was met with harsh criticism from some Christians, including the assertion that no "real arguments" were made to support same-sex marriages. "I eagerly await the young evangelical that finally convinces me that the Bible and human history are wrong on marriage and that justice requires that both Christianity and society bestow marriage on same-sex relationships," wrote Andrew T. Walker, director of Policy Studies for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention....

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Many social conservatives say they feel politically isolated as the country seems to be hurtling to the left, with marijuana now legal in Colorado and gay marriage gaining ground across the nation. They feel out of place in a GOP increasingly dominated by tea party activists and libertarians who prefer to focus on taxes and the role of government and often disagree with social conservatives on drugs or gay rights.

ooks by megachurch Pastor Mark Driscoll have been pulled from 180 Christian stores. LifeWay stores have temporarily suspended sales of his books, including "A Call to Resurgence" and "Real Marriage." "LifeWay Stores and LifeWay.com are not selling Mark Driscoll's books while we assess the situation regarding his ministry," the company said in a statement. lRelated Lauren Bacall on writing: The most complete experience I've ever had Jacket Copy Lauren Bacall on writing: The most complete experience I've ever had See all related 8 Driscoll founded Seattle's Mars Hill Church in 1996; it has grown to a reported 13,000 attendees and...

With each trip to an early primary state, potential 2016 Republican candidates are defining the issues and their own experience in ways that will bolster their presidential prospects. Pundits call this sort of activity “creating a narrative,” but whatever you call it, it can provide insight into the candidates’ self-image and what they think the primary electorate will want in a nominee. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), in an Iowa visit, sought to define five conservative victories: “Stopping the gun legislation that followed the Newtown shooting;” “stopping a bill reforming the International Monetary Fund that would have put more taxpayer money...

Full Title: Tips For Hospital Visiting, Here are some tips to help you when you're engaged in hospital visitation ______________________________________ Recently I was re-reading Brian Croft’s great little book, Visit the Sick: Ministering God’s Grace in Times of Illness, and thought I’d put together a few of his tips with some of my own gathered over 20 years of hospital visitation with the hope that it might encourage more of this ministry among Christians. Remember this is not something just for pastors and it also enters into our assessment at the final judgment: “I was sick and you visited me”...

Mystified by all the news lately that “conservative, evangelical Christians” have suddenly become very worried about climate change when none of your conservative, evangelical Christian friends have done so? Perplexed by reports that “conservative, evangelical Christians” spoke out in favor of the federal EPA’s new proposed rule requiring 30% cuts in CO2 emissions from power plants by 2030? There’s a pretty easy explanation, the old newspaper editor’s rule of thumb: “Dog bites man, no news. Man bites dog, news.” News, because it’s so unusual. America’s mainstream media always go gaga when they can find a few outspoken conservative, evangelical Christians...

Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Basics, disaster, Ecumenism, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, Papa, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sickness, the return. I have avoided over the past week or more the incredibly damaging and scandalous actions and statements by Pope Francis with regard to his evangelical buddies in the hopes these scandals might go away. But eventually it became too much to avoid. Apparently, TFG has been meeting and cavorting with these hucksters all summer. Scandal has piled on scandal. This is not a matter of translations, or spin. The statements are too cohesive, too similar, and repetitious...

Polling consistently shows overwhelmingly support for Israel among American evangelicals, one of the factors that explain why the modern Republican Party has become so supportive of Israel. Critics have attempted to dismiss this support, however, by insinuating that it’s actually rooted in end times prophecies. David Brog, director of the 1.75 million strong Christians United for Israel, said that this couldn’t be further from the truth. “Any one who says that evangelical support for Israel is all about somehow speeding the end times, bringing Jesus back, [and killing or converting Jews] ... any one who does that is showing their...

An April 2014 Urban Institute study predicts that if current marriage rates do not rebound, just 69 percent of Millennial women (and 65 percent of men) will marry by the age of 40. By contrast, in 1990, 91 percent of U.S.-born women had married by the age of 40. Almost none of this retreat from marriage will be felt among college-educated white Americans. The majority of college-educated Millennials will marry and have their children in marriages that last until the death of one partner. Meanwhile, the average American lives in a world where sex is plentiful but stable families are...

Americans feel warm toward Jews, Catholics and Evangelicals but they are colder toward Muslims and atheists, according to a new Pew Research Survey. Respondents were asked to rate each faith group according to a "feeling thermometer" ranging from 0 to 100, 0 reflecting the coldest and most negative rating and 100 being the warmest, most positive. The outcome concluded that U.S. adults are more fond of individuals who share their same or similar faith. "In a society like the United States, where religion is such an important part of life, of how people view the world, how people approach politics...