4 killed in church and mission attacks

This is really strange. There were gunmen in two different locations but there appears to be a link between the killings:

A gunman shot four staff members at a missionary training center near Denver early Sunday, killing two, after being told he couldn't spend the night. About 12 hours later and 65 miles away, a gunman fatally shot a parishioner at a megachurch and wounded four other people before a guard killed him, police said.

The police chief in Arvada, a suburb about 15 miles west of Denver where the mission workers were shot, said the shootings may be related to those at the Colorado Springs church but declined to elaborate. Arvada authorities said no one had been captured in the shootings there.

The gunman at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs was shot and killed by a church security guard after entering the church's main foyer with high-powered rifle shortly before 1 p.m. and opening fire, Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers said. Four others were wounded, Myers said.

The church's 11 a.m. service had recently ended, and hundreds of people were milling about when the gunman opened fire. Nearby were parents picking up their children from the nursery.

Police arrived to find that the gunman had been killed by a member of the church's armed security staff, Myers said.


[...]

The mission training program in Arvada has a small office at the church's World Prayer Center on the New Life campus.

About 7,000 people were on the Colorado Springs campus at the time of the shooting, Boyd said. Security at the church had been beefed up after the early morning shootings in Arvada, he said.

[...]

Arvada Police Chief Bob Wick, asked whether he believed there was reason to think the shootings are related, responded, "Yes, there is reason to believe that."

Thank the Lord that more people weren't killed!

Huckabee whines that he's getting asked too many questions about religion!

Unbelievable! He makes his Christian faith a major part of his campaign, speaks about it on the stump and even features it in his campaign ads and yet he complains when the press ask about it:

Huckabee bristles about the depth to which he’s asked questions about his faith in an interview with GQ and contends that, comparatively, Romney gets far less scrutiny of his Mormon faith.

“No one’s just kept pressing and pressing and going into the details of his doctrine,” Huckabee says of Romney.

Here’s an excerpt:
So, generally, do you think it’s fair for people to take a candidate’s theological convictions into consideration at the polling place?
As long as everyone gets the same scrutiny. That’s what I don’t think is fair: I’ve been given an unusual level of scrutiny. No candidate gets quizzed to the depth that I do about faith.

Really? Even Mitt Romney?
He hasn’t gotten nearly as much for his Mormonism as I have for being a Baptist. I mean, I’ve never heard the kind of interviews with him that I got from Bill O’Reilly or Wolf Blitzer. No one’s just kept pressing and pressing and going into the details of his doctrine. Not that I’ve heard.

In the past, being a minister was your job.
Okay, but are you quizzing Rudy Giuliani about being a lawyer? I haven’t been a pastor in sixteen years. I mean, if you want to go back sixteen years and ask Fred Thompson, “What were you doing?” I don’t mind; I just think that there’s—

Here's an idea. If you don't want people asking about it, then maybe you should stop talking about it. Don't make it an issue. Campaign on other issues beside your faith, it would make some of us Christians a lot more comfortable with your campaign.

If the Republicans nominate Huckabee as our candidate, Christianity and the Republican party will have been joined together so tightly in such a way as they have never been joined before. Huckabee is making his religion a selling point and if we buy, then we are buying a Christian president.

As a Christian, I'm totally against the Republican party being thought of as a Christian organization. I think that it coops the message of the gospel and makes Christianity about political power. The government is not an arm of the church and we shouldn't be looking to them to solve the ills of our society. The only solution to the moral problems of our society is the gospel.

I'm not against a Christian president, obviously but I am against a candidate who makes his Christianity the main focus of his campaign, the single issue to vote for him.

Pastor fathers a child with his brother's wife

It's an amazing sight to behold when a man of God tries to hide who he really is and it brings down his entire empire.

The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her.

Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test.

In truth, this is not the first - or even the second - sex scandal to engulf Paulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair.

The living proof of that lie is 34-year-old D.E. Paulk, who for years was known publicly as Earl Paulk's nephew.

The archbishop, his brother and the church are being sued by former church employee Mona Brewer, who says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. Earl Paulk admitted to the affair in front of the church last January.

[...]

In a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer. But the paternity test said otherwise.

[...]

At its peak in the early 1990s, it claimed about 10,000 members and 24 pastors and was a media powerhouse. By soliciting tithes of 10 percent from each member's income, the church was able to build a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide TV ministry and a $12 million sanctuary the size of a fortress.

Today, though, membership is down to about 1,500, the church has 18 pastors, most of them volunteers, and the Bible college and TV ministry have shuttered - a downturn blamed largely on complaints about the alleged sexual transgressions of the elder Paulks.

(via)

What an incredible waste of the Lord's money. Churches based on personalities, not denominations may want to heed this warning. You can't base your church on just one man -- if he falls, the church could fall as well and take all that you've invested with it.

Thompson leads in churchgoers

Thompson leads in the polls by 10 points among church goers:

Fred Thompson may have failed to impress Beltway insiders when he finally launched his run for the White House last month, but he is winning over a critical segment of the Republican coalition, new polling suggests.

Conservative Christians favor Thompson by a 10-point margin over his closest rival, Rudy Giuliani.

It’s a sharp reversal for Giuliani. The putative GOP front-runner had been winning social conservative backing despite his history of support for abortion rights and gay rights.

Thompson has changed that.

Giuliani leads Thompson 29 percent to 21 percent among Republicans generally, the new national CBS News poll suggests.

But weekly Republican churchgoers back Thompson by a margin of 29 percent to 19 percent for Giuliani — roughly tying John McCain.

It's surprise that Giuliani is polling so well among conservatives considering the fact that he isn't one and makes no bones about it in this video. In fact he very proudly proclaimed that he was a liberal. I think the video would make a nice Thompson ad.

A fake Rick Warren blog?

Sometimes the church can be soooo derivative (via)! I'm afraid the bar has been set pretty high. Though I thought this was pretty funny.

Now we're going to have to analyze the writing so we can figure out who it is.

Update: Kathy Griffin's acceptance speech

After reading this post, I've rethought my view of the Kathy Griffin acceptance speech. I think the post is a much more charitable and mine lacked graciousness. I was outraged that the faith of my brethren was impugned by Griffin but I should have exhibited more of a sense of humor.

I don't think the church should throw it's weight around and drive the networks to do it's bidding. Maybe it would be better if we turned the other cheek. God gave her the freedom to speak her mind about him and it's not up to the church to take her freedom away.

"Hey Brother, I'd like to speak to you in love"

Hehe!

(via)

Is Thompson's move to the Presbyterian church a political ploy?

It turns out Reagan was a Presbyterian! Whoa! Now, who will be the first to write an article about how Thompson has joined the Presbyterian church to further his association with Reagan?

(via)

Related Post:
Is Thompson now a Presbyterian???

Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III wants to reconcile with Juanita Bynum

He would attempt to reconcile with her but he's not allowed to make contact (as a condition of his bond):

Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III still holds out hope that he and his wife, popular televangelist Juanita Bynum, can be reconciled, he said in a statement released today by his attorney.

“If that is not possible, he is committed to working things out amicably and will only litigate as a very last resort,” Weeks’ attorney said in the statement.

"Litigate as a very last resort?" I've never heard of divorce stated this way.

And then there's this:

Bynum said earlier this week that she wanted to go from being a victim of domestic violence to an advocate.

“I believe domestic violence will be my new mantle,” Bynum said during a news conference.

(via)
Um, why would she want to be an advocate for domestic violence? That seems strange to me.

Paintball for Jesus?

So, we slap Jesus' name on an activity and it becomes a ministry?

Church youth leader Jeff Tomerlin contends, however, that paintball is the perfect ministry.

His church, New Life Christian Fellowship, wants to play paintball on 15 acres of county land.

"I really wanted to do something for the youth where they could see godly adults acting as mentors. We thought about going the skateboard route, but none of us are skateboarders," said Tomerlin, 45.

After church on the third Sunday of every month, a group of teens and adults from New Life cook up a big meal of hot dogs, give testimonies about Jesus in their life, suit up in camouflage and grab donated paint-shooting guns ("markers" in paintball terms).

They have affectionately nicknamed their paintball and Jesus games PBJ.

Tomerlin hopes the lessons of discipline and teamwork that families pick up while playing will have the sticking power of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"They learn life lessons like depending on each other, and they learn that sometimes if you go out on your own you get hurt. It can sting when you get hit."

Look, why not just be honest here? You want to show the kids a good time and entertain them, why not just say that. If you really want to minister to the kids and give them examples to live by, how about focusing on what Jesus focused on. How about teaching them the word of God and then teach them how to share that word with others?

BTW, the whole "packing heat" aspect of the story is silly:

The church's youth group saw Paintball for Jesus as good, clean fun. But many in the community recoiled at linking the Prince of Peace with packing heat -- even if disciples are inflicting only paint splatters.

Ted Haggard's overseers disapprove of fundraising letter

It appears that Haggard wasn't exactly truthful in his fundraising letter:

Ted Haggard's recent request for money to keep his family afloat while he attends school was "inappropriate" and "unacceptable," according to a statement Wednesday by the group that oversees the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Haggard had e-mailed a Colorado Springs television station a letter requesting financial help while he studies for his master's degree. He also said he was planning to move to the Phoenix Dream Center, a half-way house for the homeless, those coming out of prison recovering alcoholics, drug addicts and prostitutes. "I can identify," he said in the letter.

The letter implied that he would be doing ministry there, but the overseer's statement said Haggard will not be moving in or working with the Dream Center.

[...]

In the recent letter soliciting money, Haggard said that if supporters want a tax deduction for their gift, they could mail it to Families with a Mission.

But the organization's head, Paul Huberty, told The Gazette in Colorado Springs that the organization was not aware of Haggard's appeal for money and is not soliciting donation for the family.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that it's time for Haggard to support his family on his own. and not look to share the burden with others. Many people have put themselves through school while working full-time.

Baptism by Fire Hose

Here's an interesting way to baptize large crowds?

Accompanied by brass bands and thundering preachers, several hundred people squeezed onto a narrow street in the District's Shaw neighborhood yesterday to be baptized in the drenching shower of a fire hose.

Weeping and singing, they raised their hands as the water shot up and then poured down on them in a glistening cascade. Ministers from the United House of Prayer for All People, which held the service, exhorted them to repent their sins and embrace the Holy Spirit.

[...]

The tradition of the baptism by fire hose started in the late 1920s, said Apostle H. Whitner, pastor of God's White House. "We used to use the Potomac River," he said, but the church's founder, Charles "Sweet Daddy" Grace, decided to use a fire hose instead, "because a baptism involves sprinkling," Whitner noted.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a mass conversion:

Although many Christian denominations view baptism as a one-time ritual for entry into the faith, the House of Prayer permits multiple baptisms as a way for members to periodically wash away their sins and heal physical ailments. For many in the church, yesterday's baptism is an annual practice.

"If you have sinned since last year, you need to get into the water and be baptized," boomed Apostle H. Thompson, next to Madison. "If you have a sickness and need to be healed, you need to get into the water and be baptized."

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Ted Haggard soliciting funds

Would it be too harsh to say that it's time he started cleaning up his own messes and not expect others to support him? Shouldn't he learn to support his family without looking for handouts? (I'm thinking of 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15.)

Disgraced minister Ted Haggard is asking that donations to support him and his family be sent to a Monument group run by a twice-convicted sex offender.

Haggard, who has moved with his family to Phoenix, could not be reached for comment Monday.

[...]

Haggard's new troubles surfaced after he e-mailed KRDO- TV in Colorado Springs last week seeking support while he and his family live in the Phoenix Dream Center, a halfway house for the homeless, recovering addicts, prostitutes, ex-cons and other "broken people."Haggard told KRDO "we are looking for people who will help us monthly for two years" while he and his wife seek counseling degrees at the University of Phoenix.

Haggard wrote that supporters could mail checks to him in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"If any supporters need a tax deduction for their gift, they can mail it to Families With a Mission at P.O. Box 63125, Colorado Springs, CO 80962," Haggard added.

Haggard didn't note in the solicitation that he was paid one year's salary of $138,000 in a severance package by New Life's board and still owns a Colorado Springs home valued at $715,000, according to the El Paso County assessor's office.

Haggard's 2006 salary was reported as $115,000 plus an $85,000 bonus. He also collects royalties on his book titles, although it was unknown how much he receives from that. His books have been pulled from the New Life Church's bookstore.

(via)

Was the church partially responsible for Rwanda?

The church may have played a part in the Rwanda massacre by remaining silent.

Prior to 1994, Rwanda was described as the most Christianized country in Africa. Ninety percent of its citizens professed to be Christians. But that didn't stop tribal violence from breaking out that resulted in the wanton murder of 800,000 people in 100 days.

[...]

"The Rwandan genocide took place in a hidden way, without any eyewitnesses from the international community," Rusesabagina said. "When it comes to churches, all the churches kept quiet."

"Silence, as we all know, is complicity," he said.

Dwight Jackson, a former Southern Baptist missionary to Burundi before the same strife between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups that plagued neighboring Rwanda forced him to leave in the mid-1980s, said all missionaries knew of individuals who were put out of the country for writing less-than-complimentary items on ethnic or political issues.

Priests, nuns and pastors stood by as the Hutu and Tutsi slaughtered each other and a Baptist pastor may have lead the massacre of nearly 5,000:

Instead of opposing the violence, Rusesabagina said, churches were often complicit. People fled to churches for sanctuary, as they had in earlier conflicts. This time those same churches turned into death traps, as ministers either stood by or assisted in ethnic cleansing.

A Belgian court convicted two Benedictine nuns in 2001 of participating in the massacre of more than 7,600 people at the Sovu convent in Butare.

An Anglican bishop was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for the crime of genocide, specifically "for killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the Tutsi population with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a racial or ethnic group."

Accusations were also documented against clergy of the Free Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and Seventh-Day Adventist churches.

Finnish police recently took into protective custody Francois Bazaramba, a Baptist pastor suspected of having led the massacre of nearly 5,000 Tutsis. The head of a Baptist youth training camp in Nyakizu, Butare, Bazaramba is accused of helping to organize one genocide and participating in a large massacre. He has lived in Finland since 2003.

Did no one do a sermon on this passage:

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave [1] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Or this one:

1 John 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot [1] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The Democrats can be so helpful

Isn't it nice of the Democrats to inform the Protestants that Jindal, who is running for Governor of Louisiana wrote nasty things about them before he entered politics?

A political ad from the Louisiana governor's race is drawing a storm of criticism for accusing Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal of calling Protestants "scandalous, depraved, selfish and heretical."

Democrats say the state party's 30-second TV spot - running in heavily Protestant central and north Louisiana - simply explains Jindal's beliefs with his own words, using portions of the Catholic congressman's religious writings through the 1990s, before he was an elected official.

[...]

A spokeswoman for the Democratic Party said the ad is slated to run for about a week. It features an actress saying Jindal doesn't respect other people's religions and directs viewers to a Web site with links to several articles Jindal wrote on Catholicism.

"He wrote articles that insulted thousands of Louisiana Protestants," the narrator says.

A review of Jindal's writings on Catholicism, however, show his positions on faith to be more nuanced than the ad suggests.

In a 1996 article for New Oxford Review, a Roman Catholic magazine, Jindal talks of the Catholic religion as the true Christian faith and refers to a "scandalous series of divisions and new denominations" of religions since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century.

But he also wrote of the binding ties of Christianity and says the Catholic Church must incorporate the "spirit-led movements" of other Christian faiths.

A Catholic saying that the Catholic religion is the true Christian faith? Shocking! I think that the Protestants may be able to handle the shock since we believe something similar about Protestantism and kind of knew that Roman Catholics felt that way about Catholicism :-)

Juanita Bynum was attacked by her husband

I guess this will impact the sale of their book on marriage:

Police said Juanita Bynum, a televangelist who has won a national following with sermons about women's empowerment, was assaulted by her preacher husband in the parking lot of an Atlanta hotel early Wednesday.

Bynum and her estranged husband, Thomas W. Weeks III, the founder of Global Destiny churches, met at Renaissance Concourse Hotel near Atlanta's airport to try to reconcile, police said.

About 4 a.m., they fought in the parking lot until a hotel bellman pulled Weeks off, Officer Ronald Campbell said.

"She was bruised up and battered," Campbell said. "She had purple bruising around her neck and upper torso."

No charges had been filed by Wednesday night against Weeks, who left the scene accordign to police.

It doesn't seem like he followed his own advice:

This may be the end of their marriage conferences as well.

Did you know that you will need documentation for charitable contributions under $250?

I didn't. Some churches are getting around the problem by allowing their members to charge their contribution (some will only take debit cards fearing that their members may go into debt, giving money they can't afford to give) or have installed an ATM machine:

Automatic checking account withdrawals are used by some churches, and more recently, ATM-like kiosks are now available in many church corridors and lobbies, where parishioners can swipe a card and receive a printed receipt, which they can either save for the IRS or plunk into the collection basket with a flourish, so pew mates will know they're not spiritual freeloaders.

The card-swipe kiosks were a brainchild of Dr. Marty Baker, pastor of Stevens Creek Community Church in Augusta, Georgia. They were so successful in his own church that he now markets the devices privately and has placed them in 35 congregations across the U.S. "People don't carry cash," he says, noting that total income from contributions has increased 18% since the first kiosk was installed in 2005. Coins and paper money now account for less than 5% of that total.

(via)

My pastor will not allow us to automate the process of giving to the church. He believes that we should give consciously, not automatically. But our giving would be more consistent if he allowed it. Sometimes we forget to contribute when we return from vacation.

Church gives away a free iPhone to new visitors

Somehow I just can't see the apostles doing something like this:

A Baptist church in Florida is using iStore gift cards and the chance of winning an iPhone to lure newcomers to its pews.

[...]

Hughes said he planned a series of sermons titled “i: Successful Living in a Self-absorbed World.”

Hughes has increased church membership from 500 to 2,500 during his eight years as pastor. Previous tactics to draw the curious included a January billboard with the headline: “The Bare Naked Truth on Sex.”

(via)

I think a better sermon series would have been, "The Eternal or the Temporal? Where is Your Focus?" or "Can Gadgets Bring Everlasting Joy?"

Um, I think that we've lost the whole purpose of the church and our focus has shifted from the message (the good news of eternal life in Jesus our Lord) to filling the pews. This pastor has 2,500 members, he should be focused on training them so that they'll go out and bring in visitors. If he did that, he wouldn't need gadgets to bring in the lost.

As our regular readers know I have nothing against iPhones, I just don't see why the church needs a gimmick to bring in the lost. The message is the draw, not freebies. It cheapens what the church has to offer: freedom in Christ.

Update: Dr. Jim West is a bit more blunt than I was.

Giving Jesus dolls away to churches to create a buzz

Want to sell something to Christians? Give it away in the church. (Wasn't there something about sellers being driven from the temple in the Bible?)

For a religious toy maker, getting onto the shelves of the world's biggest retailer must be like dying and going to heaven. So last week, when One2Believe, the Valencia, Calif., company that makes such scripture-quoting dolls as Jesus, Esther, Moses and Noah, was welcomed by Wal-Mart into 425 of its 3,376 U.S. stores, its 37-year-old chief executive David Socha was understandably chuffed. "We have been really blessed," says the self-described evangelical Catholic, who can't help mixing in a little pride with his humility. "The faith aspect is our No. 1 driver. It's all about Jesus," he says, adding in the same breath that his 35 different Bible dolls have no competition in America's faith community, which spent about US$5 billion for religious products last year.

Well, God helps those who help themselves. To drum up interest, Socha (who also distributes product tie-ins for the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants and Something About Mary under another company name, Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Co.) says he did "a lot of church seeding," meaning he visited as many as 7,000 churches and gave away his dolls.

"God helps those who help themselves." He does? I wonder where you find that in the Bible. Oh yeah, you find it here.

I'm really getting tired of people using my faith to sell me something whether it's a political candidate, a Jesus doll, a "Christian" movie, whatever. I'm not interested in my faith being used for political or financial gain.

Oh, and BTW, you can also create a buzz by giving away your product to the Marines' Toys for Tots program, especially if it's rejected.

Related Posts:
Walmart to sell Jesus action figure

Tags: Jesus dolls

The South Korean MSM sounds as clueless about Christianity as American MSM

Read this report and you will see what I'm talking about.

(via)

Tags: South Korea