President Obama told a gathering of religious news reporters today that he receives a daily devotional including a prayer from White House faith director Joshua DuBois every morning on his Blackberry.

He said that the “wonderful practice” started during his presidential campaign.

Response: This is good news and reassuring—at least the President’s spirituality is not being completely ignored. There had been a recent story that the Obama and his family had not yet chosen a regular church to attend in DC because they were sensitive to the disruption their attendance caused those that they had visited. I was concerned that the First Family was not being ‘spiritually’ fed. I have even heard some Christians complaining that Pres. Obama didn’t really seem to be the Christian that he had claimed to be during the campaign.

(Image by BL1961 via Flickr)

Iran’s Parliament has dropped the mandatory death penalty for those who leave Islam and convert to other religions. Iran has been under considerable international pressure to drop the ultimate punishment by stoning for ‘apostates’.

This comes at a time when the Iranian government has already been under international scrutiny for the recent election that ended in protests by the Iranian people and violent responses by the government.

Many Iranian Christians are still concerned that Pres. Ahmadinejad might choose to take out the recent election debacle on the minority Christian community which mostly supported his opponent.

Response: Hooray! The Iranian regime is now trying to redeem itself internationally. Hopefully Pres. Ahmadinejad will follow suit and also temper his usual opposition and persecution of minority religions, particularly Baha’is, Zoroastrians and Christians. The official elimination of the death penalty for conversion is a very good start.

(White House by Ivan Makarov via Flickr)

Obama said he hopes to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality at a recent celebration of Gay Pride Month at the White House:

"There are good and decent people in this country who don’t yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters — not yet, That’s why I’ve spoken about these issues — not just in front of you — but in front of unlikely audiences, in front of African-American church members.”

“There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones, who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes."

He also told those gathered for the occasion that in addition to trying to pass a hate crimes bill, his administration was also pushing for Congress to repeal "the so-called Defense of Marriage Act" — and to repeal the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy initiated by Pres. Clinton on homosexuals in the military.

Response: Although Pres. Obama claimed that he was for traditional marriage during his campaign, he now seems to be pushing the gay agenda, though some homosexuals have been unhappy with how slow the change is coming.

In light of his current statements, Obama’s campaign statements now seems to be rather deceptive. Is the Christian New Testament Biblical understanding of marriage merely “worn arguments and old attitudes” that need to be cast off as the President seems to imply? Hardly!

Is it necessary for LGBT lifestyle to be completely mainstreamed? Is it necessary for traditional Christian/Biblical understandings or views of homosexuality to be eradicated? I say no on both accounts.

However, as one who has some relatives and loved-ones who do participate in the LGBT lifestyle I believe that it is necessary for Christians to reach out in love to people rather than in judgment while maintaining our traditional Biblical standards.             *Top 

Is WWJD, which stands for ‘What Would Jesus Do’, really offensive? One couple thinks so and is suing! Wait tell you read why.

Mark and Sara Neill received letters in 2008 from Bullseye Collection Agency in order to recover a $88 debt. The letters included "WWJD" in the right-hand corner. The couple believes that the motto actually condemns debtors as sinners and therefore violates the federal Debt Collection Practices Act, which prohibits abusive or harassing tactics.

From their perspective—the collection was communicating a ‘shame on you debtors in the name of the Lord’—after all in the context of a debt collection WWJD implies that Jesus would pay the debt and so should you.

Interestingly, Bullseye is owned by Christians and is being represented by Liberty Counsel, a religious liberty firm.

Here’s my question—should folks use religion in this way? Is Bullseye justified in their use of the WWJD logo in their business and correspondence in trying to collect debts? What do you think?            *Top

(Shrine where the Ethiopian Ark is housed)

The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia has claimed for years that they actually have the original Ark of the Covenant spoken of in the Bible. One of the problems with the claim is that they have never allowed archeologists to inspect or test the artifact which most scholars believe is a mere copy at best.

However, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has recently announced that he will be unveiling it for all the world to see very soon. Does that mean scholars will finally have access to the ark? Probably not.

<<Read the Rest on my Apologetica page>>            *Top

The Iranian church has been in the midst of a revival in the last 5 years. However, the Ahmadinejad administration has been persecuting Christians lately and the entire community was hoping that the recent vote would bring a new President in Iran and greater freedom. Now that doesn’t seem to be the case regardless of how the vote actually turned out.

The Christians are among those in Iran who do not believe that the recent election results were fairly counted and it is said that some of the younger folk actually participated in some of the street rallies and protests.

Now the Iranian Christians may be in danger of being one of the groups that are singled out and targeted as scapegoats by Pres. Ahmadinejad. We really do need to pray for the Christians that this political upheaval will not bring even greater persecution for their community.            *Top  (Cross-Posted @ Charismatica)