Accounting For Faith

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) dropped a bomb on a small segment of the church world in the United States on Nov. 6. But it has the potential of creating shock waves that may have long-term effects for many congregations in church-state relations, financial accountability and understanding of clergy income and taxes.

The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley requested the records of six megachurch ministries that happen to be television-based and generally identified with the "word of faith" prosperity gospel movement. The six pastors and their respective ministries and some spouses were requested to provide a variety of documents to the committee by Dec. 6. The ministers are Paula and Randy White, Creflo and Taffi Dollar, Joyce and David Meyer, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Benedictus (Benny) Hinn and Bishop Eddie Long. Since two of these ministries are located in Atlanta, the media of this city have been saturated with both reports and commentary on the issues involved.

As of the date of his deadline for response, each of the ministries has replied in some form with Creflo Dollar and Bishop Eddie Long announcing they will not comply unless subpoenas are issued. {continue...}

[via Ethics Daily.com, HT: For God's Sake, Shut Up!]

Need to keep track? Check out Televangelist Scorecard via The Wittenburg Door

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Redemption Draweth Nigh

Blessed are the empty wombs

[via Randall Friesen]

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Right Here- Right Now

If God was focused on the afterlife/eternity/heaven as his main focus, don't you think there could have been a better way to motivate humanity than by identifying with us. He could select several humans in each generation to visit heaven and then make a documentary for the rest of us. He could give us samples of heaven – little bits of blinding lights and golden bling. He could make so that one of the confirmations of our assurance of heaven after this life was to get some sort of documentation of the fact.

and

Incarnation forces us to deal with this life as if it is important all on its own without the threat of some super existence we could escape to someday.

[via d'caffeinated pickle]

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Woman Delivered From Christmas Spirit

[via The Wittenburg Door]

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Abraham Lincoln's Own Religion Litmus Test

[via The Abraham Lincoln Blog]

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Bringing The Basics To Neighbours

This is a question I’m going to be asking myself too: what are you doing this advent/Christmas season to help bring about these basic human rights to your neighbors?

[via ThinkChristian.NET]

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Not Kosher During Hannukah?

In the wake of the British teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing a teddy bear to be named "Muhammad," an American evangelist, Bill Keller, has launched a deliberately offensive attack on Islam. He filmed a video where he named a toy pig after the Muslim leader. In his very low-tech video, he provided the voice for the pig and explained why the toy pig converted from Islam to Christianity. Although I am a fan of parodies, I am afraid that this piece is problematic for a couple of reasons...{continue...}

[via For God's Sake, Shut Up!]

More of Ridicule Than Indignation

Christians and The Golden Compass

[via Faith and Theology, HT: Ponderings on a Faith Journey]

The Advent of Openness

Advent Conspiracy

[from this post via ThinkChristian.NET]

Jumping With Joi

It's the end of NaNoWriMo. Joi has made it.

Check out her novel, A Million Sunsets.

Her novel last year: Sanctus.