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Two small parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia have quit the denomination over gay ordination and joined a like-minded group of dissident churches based in Northern Virginia. The break-away Anglican District of Virginia announced Friday that Christ Church in Emporia and Grace Church in Purdy had become members. The district now includes 23 parishes that have cut ties with the Episcopal Church. Church of the Messiah in Chesapeake quit the Episcopal denomination in 2006. Grace Episcopal Church in Newport News quit a couple years earlier. The Southern Virginia diocese has about 120 parishes, including more than two dozen...

Obama's Faltering Religious Outreach Revs Up by Deal W. Hudson 9/22/08 This week the Obama campaign attempts to restart its religious outreach with a month-long tour of its religious surrogates, titled "Barack Obama: Faith, Family, and Values." The stars of the tour will be Catholic law professor Doug Kmiec, ex-Congressman Tim Roemer (also a Catholic), Methodist theologian Shaun Casey, and Evangelical author Donald Miller. Obama's religious outreach program has been on the rocks, not yet producing its expected results. Support for Obama among both Evangelical and Catholic voters has dwindled: 57.2 percent favor McCain, versus 19.9 percent for Obama. These...

John C. Green, the University of Akron political scientist who is the nation's most prominent scholar of how religious affiliation affects voting behavior, is just releasing new survey data showing that, even before John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, Barack Obama was failing to move evangelicals into his camp. Green, releasing initial results of his quadrennial survey of religion and politics at the annual convention of the Religion Newswriters Association, said the most surprising result of his survey was how little had changed since 2004. "The divisions based on religious affiliation are very deep-seated in the United...

Younger evangelicals split over Palin choice as VP Sun Sep 14, 12:50 PM EDT When Jessica Stollings learned on Facebook that John McCain had named Sarah Palin as his running mate, the 26-year-old from Bristol, Tenn., took the day off and picked up some campaign yard signs. Just like that, she went from "just a voter" to a McCain evangelist. "He's a lot more visionary than I thought," said Stollings, a blooming evangelical activist for her generation who believes God has raised up Palin "for such a time as this."Similar excitement built on the Virginia campus of conservative Christian Patrick...

A Washington Post "On Faith" religion blogger, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, is so affected by PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) that she has launched a hate-filled screed against Palin's religion. This might seem an uncharacteristic thing for an ordained minister to do but not when you find out a bit more about Our Miss Brooks. Her bio on the Washington Post site describes Thistlethwaite's area of expertise as "contextual theologies of liberation." Liberation theology which is another way of saying Marxism wrapped in a phony religious wrapper to make it seem more palatable. Thistlethwaite launches a distinctly un-Christian snarky attack upon Palin...

(This is from an email forwarded to me that allegedly came from a local pastor. I have followed up with the pastor personally, and he confirmed that the email was indeed originally sent by him, and accurately represents his experience. Even though he did not specifically ask me to do this, I have redacted the most easily identifying information - but I will provide it to folks who FReepmail me with a specific request for it.) Gentlemen, I never write mass emails and am repulsed by hyped up causes that are emailed to me. But I am writing to you...

Senator Barack Obama took (D-Ill.) umbrage at the denigration of his reputed meager executive experience by speakers at the Republican National Convention and enumerated on the uncredited executive experience he has had. “Let me first point out that I am the executive in charge of my own presidential campaign,” Obama said. “I’ve got 19 months of that under my belt. This is 80 times the one week of campaign experience Governor Palin has. And she isn’t even going for the top spot.” “I was a community organizer for three years,” Obama added. “I was director of that operation. There were...

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Sen. Barack Obama's foes seized Sunday upon a brief slip of the tongue, when the Democratic presidential nominee was outlining his Christianity but accidentally said, "my Muslim faith." The three words - immediately corrected - were during an exchange with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on This Week, when he was trying to criticize the quiet smear campaign suggesting he is a Muslim. But illustrating the difficulty of preventing false rumors about his faith from spreading, anti-Obama groups within one hour of the interview had sliced it out of context and were sending it around via email. They...

CANTERBURY, UK, August 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Gene Robinson has castigated a fellow Anglican bishop for publicly disapproving of his crusade to inculcate "gay" values into the Anglican Communion. In an interview with SXNews, an Australian homosexual news website festooned with explicit sexual advertising, Robinson complained that the Sydney archdiocese is "bigoted" because its archbishop, Dr. Peter Jensen, boycotted the Lambeth conference, held this month in Canterbury, England. Gene Robinson is the active homosexual whose consecration as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire caused a crisis in the global Anglican Communion. He called the Sydney archbishop's defence of Christianity "ironic" given...

Eye of the storm Wednesday, 13 August 2008 By his very existence, the Reverend Gene Robinson – the openly gay Anglican bishop of New Hampshire – is an agent for change in his church, and society at large. He spoke with Peter Hackney. He is friendly, mild-mannered and avuncular. He doesn’t seem like someone who’d tear an entire church apart. Yet Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the history of the Anglican Church, has been accused of doing just that. So controversial is he that at the recent Lambeth Conference, the decennial conference of Anglican bishops from across...

Rowan Williams believes that gay sexual relationships can “reflect the love of God� in a way that is comparable to marriage, The Times has learnt. Gay partnerships pose the same ethical questions as those between men and women, and the key issue for Christians is that they are faithful and lifelong, he believes. Dr Williams is known to be personally liberal on the issue but the strength of his views, revealed in private correspondence shown to The Times, will astonish his critics. The news threatens to reopenbitter divisions over ordaining gay priests, which pushed the Anglican Communion towards a split....

An explosive article appeared Wednesday in the London Times entitled “Rowan Williams: Gay relationships 'comparable to marriage'”. Ruth Gledhill, the Religion Correspondent of the Times may have blown the lid off of the perceived pause in the internal battles threatening the the Church of England after the Lambeth Conference. Ms. Gledhill wrote: “Rowan Williams believes that gay sexual relationships can “reflect the love of God” in a way that is comparable to marriage, The Times has learnt. Gay partnerships pose the same ethical questions as those between a man and woman and the key issue for Christians is that they...

<p>New York (AP) -- The spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans is urging an extended ban on consecrating another gay bishop until their troubled fellowship can be healed.</p> <p>Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams made the plea Sunday, the final day of the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade Anglican meeting in Canterbury, England.</p>

Focus on the Family's James Dobson said on his July 21 radio broadcast he is rethinking his previous views on the presidential election and that he "might" endorse Republican John McCain, who the pro-family leader has criticized in the past. Dobson and guest R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, spent most of the program discussing Democrat Barack Obama's views on abortion and homosexuality before the two men closed the program by talking about McCain. In the past — particularly during the GOP primary — Dobson had said he couldn't support McCain. Dobson, speaking on his...

Focus on the Family is speaking out against a new pro-Obama radio ad airing on Christian radio. The ad calls for "a better Christian witness in politics." The new liberal political action committee Matthew 25 is running pro-Barack Obama ads on Christian radio. Salem Radio affiliate KBIQ 102.7 FM in Colorado Springs, Colorado -- home to Focus on the Family -- aired an ad that came in response to Dr. James Dobson’s recent criticism of the presidential candidate's theological views. Following is an excerpt from the radio ad: "You know it’s an election year when certain people start grabbing headlines...

History's humongous wheel turns and turns and turns again. Over time, mud and sludge accumulate on even the sprucest institutions. Take the 500-year-old Anglican family of churches, Christianity's third-largest, after Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy. With Anglicanism's biggest family event under way - the every-10-years gathering of bishops and archbishops in England - what the world sees, accurately or not, is a family in moral and spiritual disarray. --snip--For all that, Anglicanism's public troubles proceed from the takeover of Western Anglicanism by theological activists whose purpose is the remolding of Christianity into something less like the old-time religion than like the...

It's about a hundred degrees and getting hotter in the Big Top at Lambeth but the £1 million black hole in the budget at the Lambeth Conference means they can't afford air conditioning. Expect fainting bishops to be ferried out by ambulances any moment now, if they don't start shooting each other first. The press conference this morning was a farce. Communications officers declined to comment on who is here for reasons of 'security' but declined to say what the 'security' issues were. Apparently there are some Nigerian bishops at the conference but we are not allowed to know who...

Bruce Reyes-Chow "PCUSA" is a "mainline" denomination of 2.3 million members. This is the spirit of the times (zeitgeist): certainly not the Holy Spirit. According to a story from the Catholic News Agency: San Jose, CA., Jul 8, 2008 / 11:57 pm (CNA).- Reaction continues to the decisions of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), which took place between June 21 and June 28. The assembly nullified proscriptions against sexual behavior outside of marriage and called for a vote to delete the church’s constitutional standard requiring fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness. It also...

San Jose, CA., Jul 8, 2008 / 11:57 pm (CNA).- Reaction continues to the decisions of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), which took place between June 21 and June 28. The assembly nullified proscriptions against sexual behavior outside of marriage and called for a vote to delete the church’s constitutional standard requiring fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness. It also initiated a process that could remove mention of the Bible’s prohibition against homosexuality form the Heidelberg Catechism. The moves are seen by some as an attempt to clear a path for the eventual ordination...

CNN) -- Democrats have usually conceded the evangelical vote during presidential elections, but Sen. Barack Obama is trying to change that by mobilizing what some call the "Christian left." As part of his outreach to evangelical voters, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Tuesday will tour the Eastside Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio, and give an address on how he plans to build what he calls a "real" partnership between faith-based organizations and the White House if he becomes president. Obama's outreach to evangelical voters has also included private summits with pastors, an effort to reach out to young evangelicals and...

WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics. It's a move that's caught some conservative evangelicals off guard. They say they are surprised and dismayed to see a liberal-minded politician attempting to conscript their troops. At the same time, they say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has done little to court their affections. "I've never seen anything quite like it before," said evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George W. Bush" and has a forthcoming book about Obama. "To be running against...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany could elect its first openly gay Lutheran bishop next month, a move conservatives say would alienate many Christians and open divisions in the Church. The July 12 election brings to Germany the question of gay clergy and same-sex unions which has caused rifts in several countries and faiths, including the Anglican community. Horst Gorski, a senior cleric from Hamburg, is standing for the post of bishop of Schleswig in northern Germany against Gerhard Ulrich, a senior cleric from the Schleswig area. The incumbent bishop is retiring in September. Gorski is a widely respected theologian and he...

An Anglican church has held a homosexual "wedding" for the first time in a move that will deepen the rift between liberals and traditionalists, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose. Two male priests exchanged vows and rings in a ceremony that was conducted using one of the church's most traditional wedding rites – a decision seen as blasphemous by conservatives. Rev Peter Cowell and Rev Dr David Lord The ceremony broke Church of England guidelines and was carried out last month in defiance of the Bishop of London, in whose diocese it took place. News of the "wedding" emerged days before...

This Father’s Day, one of most popular pastors in America will open his megachurch to homosexual dads, an event that would usually signal an extreme weather alert from old guard Republican evangelical leaders. Rick Warren. (Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press)But by welcoming gay fathers into his Southern California flock, Rick Warren, author of the “The Purpose Driven Life,” is not just living up to the highest standards of Christian fellowship, he’s turning the page on a particularly embarrassing part of our politics. Just to refresh: it was televangelist Pat Robertson who predicted “earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly even...

Left-wing evangelist Tony Campolo, one of Bill Clinton’s post-Monica counselors, has declared that America’s ostensibly aggressive war policies against Muslims are inhibiting the spread of the Gospel. And he rather uncharitably lambasted American evangelicals who do not share his leftist perspective as “jingoistic” and motivated by oil “lust.”

The Brody File’s good friend, Dan Gilgoff over at Beliefnet.com has a great interview with Evangelical Public Relations Executive Mark DeMoss. DeMoss has a good read on the climate among Evangelicals. He’s well respected. He believes Barack Obama could get up to 40 percent of the Evangelical vote this November. Read below and then get my take. Gilgoff: Barack Obama is trying hard to win evangelical voters. Does that effort stand a chance? DeMoss: If one third of white evangelicals voted for Bill Clinton the second time, at the height of Monica Lewinsky mess—that’s a statistic I didn’t believe at...

One of Canada’s largest Christian ministries dedicated to caring for the disabled was fined $23,000 recently by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario for allegedly discriminating against a former homosexual employee. Connie Heintz claimed discrimination against Christian Horizons after she said she was “subjected to a poisoned work environment” and pressured into quitting her job after she entered a homosexual relationship – which was in violation of her work contract back in 2000. In line with its Christian foundation and principles, the ministry requires that all its employees sign “morality statements” vowing to abstain from immoral behavior, including pornography, pre-marital,...

I can't decide if Gene Robinson should be made an honorary member of Herman's Hermits (second verse same as the first) or just be named Crybaby of the Decade. Sure does a lot of book tours for someone who wants to just be a simple country bishop. Can't you just hear the heavy sigh? Robinson is in London to promote his new book, In The Eye of the Storm. It is a spiritual memoir aimed, he says, at showing that he is more than "a one issue guy". The last of its five sections, however, sets a course for the...

N.B. bold red-letter emphasis is mine. The original article's emphasis is making the case that Barack Obama is a Muslim. My emphasis is that Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ claims to have "many Muslim members." --Dajjal http://www.sonsofapesandpigs.org/2008/02/press-release-america-is-being.html Press Release: America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! [posted by] ibn Misr on February 15, 2008 We ask for your immediate attention, and viral dissemination of this news. America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! "YES, MUSLIMS ARE MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH." "WE HAVE MANY MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH WHO ARE MUSLIMS." I am Usama K. Dakdok,...

Pelosi Says She Heard Disputed Bible Verse from Priest By Pete Winn CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer April 29, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Fox News last week that Pelosi heard the disputed Bible "passage" she used in her April 22 Earth Day message from a priest in San Francisco. Brit Hume reported last Thursday on "Special Report with Brit Hume" that Pelosi's office had told Fox News that the Speaker had "heard a priest quote the verse many years ago during a mass in San Francisco." On Thursday, Friday, and again on Monday,...

Why I left the Episcopal Church by Dr Moheb Ghali April 22nd, 2008 Occasionally I am asked why I found it necessary, after four decades of committed service, to leave the Episcopal Church. My answer is: I had to choose whom to believe. On many issues central to my faith what Jesus and the Apostles say and what the leaders of the Episcopal Church say are incompatible. I chose to believe in what Jesus and the Apostles say, and that made it necessary to leave the Episcopal Church. The Bishops of the Church, who are the Ecclesiastical Authorities in their...

(AP) Religion is supposed to be Barack Obama's strength. Unlike many Democratic candidates before him, Obama speaks with ease about his faith. He attends Sunday worship and knows his Bible. His supporters believe he can pry some committed churchgoers away from the GOP. But the furor over comments by his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, broadcast again and again on TV and viewed by millions on YouTube, is tempering those hopes. "It certainly gives people pause," even in the Democratic Party, said Corwin Smidt, a Calvin College professor who studies religion and politics. All the top Democratic presidential contenders...

THE HAGUE, 19/03/08 - In a joint statement yesterday, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), the Council of Churches in the Netherlands, the Muslims and Government Contact Body (CMO) and the Islam Contact Group (CGI) expressed their "great concern" about the anti-Islam film that Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Wilders wants to bring out. "Although our freedom of speech allows the publication of this film, we consider such provocation undesirable," the statement said. It is "reprehensible if the sacred (elements) in our religions are ridiculed and our faith offended. We therefore forcefully reject it if the Koran and the...

** EXCERPT ** FORT WORTH, Texas — Controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s longtime minister is not deterring a Texas divinity school from honoring the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at a ceremony later this month. But Texas Christian University, the campus where Brite Divinity School is located, issued a statement Monday opposing that decision in light of video that shows Wright delivering racially tinged sermons and him railing against the United States. Wright is to be honored March 29 at the Black Church Summit and Awards Banquet, a $125-per-person banquet at the divinity school. Despite being on the TCU campus, Brite is a...

NELSONVILLE, Ohio (BP)--Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama defended his belief in same-sex civil unions March 2 by referencing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and then implicitly criticizing those who view Romans as a binding teaching on homosexuality. Obama made the comments during a question-and-answer session with voters in Nelsonville, Ohio. A local pastor asked Obama how he plans to win the votes of evangelical voters when they disagree with him on moral issues. "I believe in civil unions that allow a same-sex couple to visit each other in a hospital or transfer property to each other," he said, referring to...

Among the latest exploits of the United Methodist Women’s Division is a children’s book intended to instill anti-Israel themes among Methodist younsters. Innocuously called, “From Palestine to Seattle; Becoming Neighbors and Friends,” the booklet portrays Israel as an oppressor of Palestinians while omitting all mention of terrorism. It was written by Mary Davis, a former United Methodist missionary in “Palestine,” where she led “study tours,” whose political content no doubt was predictable. The United Methodist Women’s Division, with over $60 million in assets, $30 million in annual income, and nearly 700,000 members, is one of the most powerful women’s groups...

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- Donald Miller still loves God and Jesus. Don't misunderstand him. His problem is with Christianity, at least how it's often practiced. "It's a dangerous term so I try to avoid it," said Miller, who considered giving up his career as a Christian writer and leaving the church in 2003 because he couldn't attend services without getting angry. For him, the word conjured up conservative politics, suburban consumerism and an "insensitivity to people who aren't like us." To quell his rage, he sat in his boxer shorts and banged out a memoir of his experiences with God,...

The Rev. Michael Dowd gave up a permanent home to travel the country spreading his gospel in the hope of reconciling disparate beliefs. But the former pastor's gospel may shock many Christians. Dowd preaches "evolution theology," a view that promotes evolutionary science and God as the ultimate reality. In Dowd's mind, you can have Darwin and the divine. Dowd is so committed to spreading his message that he offers his book — "Thank God for Evolution! How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World" — as a free download on his Web site. The...

IntroductionThe purpose of this book is not to decide the religious issue of the present day, but merely to present the issue as sharply and clearly as possible, in order that the reader may be aided in deciding it for himself. Presenting an issue sharply is indeed by no means a popular business at the present time; there are many who prefer to fight their intellectual battles in what Dr. Francis L. Patton has aptly called a "condition of low visibility."[1] Clear-cut definition of terms in religious matters, bold facing of the logical implications of religious views, is by many...

(CNSNews.com) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- who won the Republican caucuses in Iowa Thursday night, just as the polls indicated he would -- will be all over the air waves Friday morning, trying to translate his Iowa victory into momentum in New Hampshire. Polls show that Republicans Mitt Romney and John McCain are running neck-and-neck in the Granite State. "We've learned that people really are more important then the purse," Huckabee said Thursday night. He frequently mentions the fact that he was outspent 15 to 1 by Romney. Nevertheless, Huckabee beat Romney, 34-25 percent. Huckabee's populist message and...

The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches.And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Fla., area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed...

Religious right is deadBILL PRESS 26.DEC.07 No matter who becomes the next president of the United States, the American people have already won a great victory — with the total disintegration of the once all-powerful religious right. Starting in 1979 when Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, Christian conservatives have been the most powerful voting bloc in the Republican Party. Ironically, they began by casting out of the White House a born-again Christian who continued, as president, his lifelong practice of teaching Sunday school, and replacing him with a divorced and remarried man who seldom stepped inside a church. But...

THE leader of the world's Anglicans has described the Christmas story of the three wise men as nothing but a "legend" and has said not all followers must believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has picked apart elements of the Christmas story, including how a star rose high in the sky and stood still to guide the wise men to Jesus's birth place. Stars simply don't behave like that, he told the BBC during an interview. Dr Williams said there was little evidence that the three wise men had existed at all....

The Bible is against abortion. Hillary is for killing womb babies. The Bible is against active homosexuality. Hillary endorses sodomy. The Bible is against other gods than God. Hillary is polytheistic in that any deity is fine for her. Yet Hillary quotes then from the Bible in a sanctuary. So what’s new? Per AP, “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton used an appearance at one of the nation’s largest evangelical churches Thursday to sketch a broad agenda to take on disease around the globe, calling it ‘the right thing to do.’ “The centerpiece of a speech laced with Biblical references and reflections...

Australia will hold a referendum on removing the Queen as head of state after Kevin Rudd, the Labor leader and a staunch republican, swept to power at the weekend, bringing an end to 11 years of Conservative rule. Mr Rudd, 50, a former diplomat, has promised to hold a plebiscite on severing links with the monarchy. He said yesterday that he would withdraw Australian troops from Iraq and ratify the Kyoto pact on climate change. With 53 percent of the vote, Mr Rudd brought an emphatic end to the 11-year tenure of John Howard, an avowed monarchist who was set...

Sitting in sight of her father and grandfather, both Lutheran ministers, Jen Rude on Saturday became the first ordained lesbian pastor since the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America urged bishops to not penalize congregations who violate the celibacy requirement for gay clergy. Several of the more than 100 congregants present wept as the 27-year-old stood before them, a beaming smile drawn across her face. Under church policy, homosexual ministers are required to make a vow of celibacy before they can be ordained. But heterosexual ministers are not, and Rude, who is not in a relationship, refused to make that vow...

Remember the warm reception that Rudy got when he spoke at Regent University back in July? Conservative televangelist Pat Robertson all-but-endorsed him then, and just made it official the other day at the National Press Club in Washington.The announcement came on the heels of Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (MA) snagging endorsements from Moral Majority co-founder Paul Weyrich, and Bob Jones III; Sen. Sam Brownback (KS) throwing his support to erstwhile presidential rival Sen. John McCain (AZ); Christian activist Gary Bauer becoming a Fred Head; and Rick Scarborough giving his nod to fellow Baptist, Fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee (AR) – along...

IRVING, Texas — New Beginnings church hasn’t endorsed anybody in the 2008 presidential race, but God probably has, pastor Larry Huch said Sunday. The Almighty, who chose a Goliath-slayer to reign over Israel years ago, apparently has selected an Arkansan to rule over the United States, the Irving pastor repeatedly told his congregation as Mike Huckabee stood nearby. Huch, saying he believes he has a word from God for the Republican hopeful, quoted a Scripture passage from 1 Samuel that ends with the Lord declaring: “Arise and anoint [David to lead the nation ] for this is the one.” The...

NOT ALL OF Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's encounters in New York during his recent trip were testy. The Shiite theocrat had what the New York Times called a "warm, even friendly exchange" with 150 church officials at the United Methodist Women's Church Center for the United Nations. One sponsor, the Mennonite Central Committee, called the gathering a "time of dialogue and prayerful reflection among the children of Abraham." A Mennonite official further explained that "mutual respect and graciousness in this conversation blunts the demonization which is part of the current rhetoric of both governments." The meeting is the third between...

After speaking to an evangelical church on Sunday in this traditionally conservative South Carolina city, Sen. Barack Obama said that Republicans no longer have a firm grip on religion in political discourse. During the nearly two hour service that featured a rock band and hip-hop dancers, Obama shared the floor with the church's pastor, Ron Carpenter. The senator from Illinois asked the multiracial crowd of nearly 4,000 people to keep him and his family in their prayers, and said he hoped to be "an instrument of God." "Sometimes this is a difficult road being in politics," Obama said. "Sometimes you...