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New Social Studies Curriculum Approved by Texas Ed Board
The Texas State Board of Education voted on Friday to approve new standards for social studies classes. The 11-4 vote was a preliminary approval for a curriculum that will serve as the framework in Texas classrooms for the next 10 years. Texas has the second largest school system in the nation, behind California, and is the second-largest textbook market in the country. The Lone Star state can thus have influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide. Read more »
ADF Defends Against Home Church Ban
A Christian legal group filed an appeal this week to fight a ban against a church meeting in homes. With only seven members, Oasis of Truth Church was ordered to stop holding all activities, including Bible studies, leadership meetings and fellowship activities, in Pastor Joe Sutherland’s home in Gilbert, Ariz. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys contend in the appeal that was filed Wednesday that banning religious meetings of any size or frequency in a home is unprecedented and unconstitutional. Read more »
School Censorship Case May go to Supreme Court
A legal group on Thursday filed a petition requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case of a kindergarten student’s poster that was censored by a school because it contained the image of Jesus. When Antonio was in kindergarten, he drew a poster with several religious figures with the words, “The only way to save the world” for an art project about the environment. Read more »
Pledge of Allegiance, National Motto Upheld
A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the constitutionality of references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and on national currency. The pledge does not constitute an establishment of religion, Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. “[T]he Pledge is an endorsement of our form of government, not of religion or any particular sect.” Read more »
Gallup: More Americans Believe Global Warming Claims Exaggerated
A strikingly higher percentage of Americans believe that the threat posed by global warming is exaggerated, a new Gallup survey found. Nearly half of the public (48 percent) think that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41 percent in 2009 and 31 percent in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question. Gallup noted that the percentage of Americans who believe global warming is generally overblown is the highest on its record. Read more »
Shirley Dobson Dismissed from National Prayer Lawsuit
A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed all claims against Shirley Dobson, the wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, in a lawsuit challenging the National Day of Prayer. Shirley Dobson is chair of the National Day of Prayer Task Force and was among the names listed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in a lawsuit filed in October 2008. Read more »
Pastor Denounces ‘Christians’ Who Live like Atheists
Most Americans claim belief in God but many are living as “Christian atheists,” according to some pastors. “We believe in Jesus enough to get us out of hell but not actually enough to change the way we live.” Read more »
Ministers Argue for a Vote on D.C. Counterfeit Marriage
Gay and lesbian couples will be able to apply for a marriage license in the nation’s capital beginning Wednesday. But traditional marriage supporters are making a last minute effort to stop the new law, which was passed in December, from taking effect. Read more »
Dobson Signs Off Focus on the Family for the Last Time
Dr. James Dobson is saying his final farewell to the ministry he founded 33 years ago. His last day at Focus on the Family is Friday. Read more »
Study Finds Belief in ‘Caring’ God Reduces Depression
New research shows that patients on anti-depressants are more likely to experience improvement if they believe in a “concerned God.” The study, released on Tuesday by Rush University Medical Center, found that patients with strong beliefs in a personal and concerned God were 75 percent more likely to get better with medical treatment for clinical depression that other patients. Read more »
Survey: Christian Support for Obama Dropping Further
President Obama’s support among born-again Christians has decreased after a year in office, a new survey shows. Among all born-again Christians, 35 percent are satisfied with the job the president is doing, according to a survey conducted by The Barna Group. Read more »
Florida School District Bans Prayer, Faces Lawsuit
A Christian legal group announced Saturday its intention to sue a Florida county school district in an attempt to restore the rights of faculty to pray. The decree bars school officials from “promoting, advancing, endorsing, participating in, or causing Prayers” and from “orally express[ing] personal religious beliefs to students during or in conjunction with instructional time or a School Event.” Read more »
Textbook in India Features Beer-Drinking, Smoking Jesus
An illustration of Jesus holding a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other has sparked outrage among India’s Christian community. What’s worse is that the image was published in a textbook for primary school children. Read more »
Haiti Relief Worker: I Thought We Had All the Paperwork
Jim Allen, one of the eight American volunteers freed from jail in Haiti, said he believed the team had all the paperwork necessary to take Haitian children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Read more »
Biblical Lutherans Form New Church Body
Lutherans who have left or are pondering their exit from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have put a name to the alternate church body they plan to form – North American Lutheran Church. A proposal for the new denominational body that is intended to provide a biblically faithful home for disaffected Lutherans was released Thursday, on the anniversary of the death of 16th century reformer Martin Luther. Read more »
Obama Faith-Based Office Going ‘Community Organizer’
The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships is not a dispenser of government money, said the office’s director in a speech Thursday. The current office is seeking to portray itself as a community organizer of sorts. Read more »
Christians Arrive in Miami After Release from Haiti
Eight of the ten American volunteers detained in Haiti for the past three weeks on suspicion of child abduction were finally released and arrived in Miami early Thursday morning. Read more »
Christian Apologist: Christianity Being Exchanged for Secular Humanism
America once stood on the foundation of God’s Word. But that foundation is crumbling – even in the church – and being replaced by man’s word, observed one Christian apologist. Whatever we (America) once were, we are no longer. We have changed” Read more »
British Worker Loses Religious Discrimination Case
A British Airways check-in worker who refused to hide her cross necklace at work has lost her case against the airline in London’s Court of Appeals but will likely take it up to the Supreme Court. Read more »
Obama Faith-Based Office Pushing for ‘Separation of Church, State’
President Obama’s faith advisory council recently voted to require churches that receive federal funds to establish separate non-profit corporations as a “necessary means of achieving church-state separation.” Read more »
SC School Again Allows Student Prayer
Controversy over a morning prayer meeting at a high school in Georgetown, S.C., was settled this week as district officials offered a compromise. Students at Georgetown High School will be allowed to form their own prayer club as long as it is open to any student and is sponsored by a faculty member. Read more »
