Religion Today Summaries - September 29, 2005

Compiled & Edited by Crosswalk News Staff | Published: Sep 29, 2005

Religion Today Summaries - September 29, 2005

Daily briefs of the top news stories impacting Christians around the world. In today's edition:

  • Christian Radio Host Urges California Pastors to Break Silence on Pro-Family Issues 

  • Help Hurricane Victims By Getting The WOW Hits 2006 CD

  • Creation Museums Join Evolution Battle

  • Largest Medical Missions Conference in World Celebrates 10th Anniversary Nov. 11-12

Christian Radio Host Urges California Pastors to Break Silence on Pro-Family Issues
Mary Rettig, AgapePress

A Christian radio talk-show host in California says God and history will judge the pastors in his state for failing to stand up for marriage and family. Paul McGuire, whose show is broadcast throughout the state and in other parts of the U.S., has recently been asking California mega-church pastors why they have remained silent on the issue of homosexual marriage while a bill allowing it has made its way through the state legislature. There are some 25 mega-churches across the state, McGuire points out, and so far he says he has heard almost no outcry from the pastors of these largest congregations over the passage of a homosexual marriage bill in the state legislature. The Christian community leaders' failure to dissent has led him to a disturbing conclusion. McGuire says he frequently gets e-mail messages and phone calls from the
members of large California churches, and many of these express frustration and anger at many church leaders' apparent unwillingness to speak out on pro-family issues. When California's mega-church pastors say nothing, particularly after all the media attention that has been focused on homosexual marriage and other key pro-family concerns, McGuire feels these church leaders are conspicuous by their absence.

Help Hurricane Victims By Getting The WOW Hits 2006 CD
World Vision

First Katrina. Then Rita added to the suffering. Deadly hurricanes have shattered the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Innocent children and families are devastated by their personal loses, and now face the painful process of starting over. World Vision, the Christian relief and development organization, has partnered with EMI Christian Music Group to offer the WOW Hits 2006 Double CD Set at no additional cost to anyone who gives a gift of $20 or more. You can help rush emergency supplies to new evacuation sites and churches. CD supplies are limited, so respond now! World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. Motivated by our faith in Jesus, we serve the poor — regardless of a person's religion, race, ethnicity, or gender — as a demonstration of God's unconditional love for all people. (www.worldvision.org)

Creation Museums Join Evolution Battle
Baptist Press

Debate over the origin of living things on the planet has heated up again in recent months, and museums that tout the creationist view are gaining in popularity nationwide. In fact, a new one with a $25 million price tag is being built just outside Cincinnati, Ohio, promising to be the nation's largest museum devoted to creation science. The half-finished 50,000-square-foot museum will feature animatronic dinosaurs, state-of-the-art models and graphics and six staff scientists, according to a report by The Washington Post Sept. 25. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to enter the doors once it officially opens in early 2007. "Evolutionary Darwinists need to understand we are taking the dinosaurs back," Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, the group building the museum, told The Post. "This is a battle cry to recognize the science in the revealed truth of God." Dinosaurs are a key element in the debate over whether the earth is millions of years old or just 6,000 years old, as the creation account in the Book of Genesis and other evidence leads some to believe. The Post cited polls taken last year that show 45 percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago or less and that man shares no common ancestor with the ape. Just 26 percent believe that all life descended from a single ancestor, the poll said.

Largest Medical Missions Conference in World Celebrates 10th Anniversary Nov. 11-12
Religion News Service

For the first time the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization will host the North American Consultation on the Role of the Church in the HIV/AIDS Pandemic, Nov. 10. The committee hopes to draw prominent North American church pastors and Christian leaders to speak out on the AIDS Pandemic and to urge the churches in the U.S. and Canada to get involved. As the AIDS crisis is increasingly seen as the greatest humanitarian emergency in the history of the world, leaders are looking not only for medical answers but for a way to reach those affected with the ultimate life-saving help of the gospel of Christ. The Consultation has already caught the attention of USAID. Edward C. Green will address the consultation as the senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health. Green joins Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, and Ben Homan, president and CEO of Food for the Hungry, who will both speak on the role of the Church in the HIV/AIDS crisis. Geoff Tunnicliffe, interim secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance, will speak on the power of partnership in responding to the pandemic.The GMHC draws hundreds of health professionals, students, aid agency administrators, church leaders, and missions groups each year. For information or registration for the consultation or GMHC, click www.medicalmissions.com


 

Religion Today Summaries - September 29, 2005