Want your own cable TV special? Well, you’ll need to have a scandalous fall from grace involving a male prostitute and crystal meth. At least that’s what got Ted Haggard his special. Ted Haggard: Scandalous, which airs on TLC on January 16.
The King James Bible turns 400 this year.
Egyptian Muslims stood with their Coptic neighbors as a “human shield” against Islamist attacks.
A “community healing” mass was held at St. Odiilia Church in Tucson, Arizona. It was the church where the 9-year-old shooting victim, Christina Green, had her first communion. A group of Trappist monks from Iowa built, engraved, and blessed a handmade casket for Green. The monks specialize in hand-crafting caskets “with reverence for nature.”
Not to be outdone by compassionate monks, the hateful folks at Westboro Baptist Church announced they would protest outside Green’s funeral. The Arizona legislature responded by passing a bill blocking protestors within 300 feet of funerals and local “angels” planned to use 8 by 10-foot angel wings to shield mourners from the protest. Even the right-wing “pray for President Obama’s death” Pastor Wiley Drake got so offended by the folks of Westboro Baptist that he called for Christians around the country to pray for the death of WBC leader Fred Phelps. In the end, the WBC agreed not to protest in exchange for air time on various radio programs. So much for refusing to negotiate with terrorists.
Doritos yanked an ad entered in its online Super Bowl commercial contest because it substituted Pepsi and Doritos for bread and wine in the Eucharist.
Evangelical leader Frank DeMoss has decided to shut down his Civility Project—which sought to keep political discourse, well, civil. Despite asking every member of Congress and every state governor to take his civility pledge, DeMoss could only convince three politicians to pledge to keep things civil.
Last week I mentioned an Entertainment Weekly report announcing the debut of Exorcism Files on the Discovery Channel. Turns out that the Vatican has no idea what the Discovery Channel is talking about. Senator Chuck Grassley wrapped up his investigation into six Christian televangelists. The senator found nothing that breaks tax laws, though he still seems a bit suspicious of these prosperity-gospelers.
Liberty University, founded by the late Jerry Falwell, has the most popular training program for Air Force chaplains.
