Search for "cheap airline tickets from seattle to manila phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Evolution Challenged in ‘Textbook’ Case: As Goes Texas, So Goes the Nation

By Lauri Lebo

…As a result, creationist and pro-intelligent design organizations like the Seattle-based Discovery Institute are now claiming victory “for science education.” But science watchdogs say the board actually created a road map to pressure publishers into putting false arguments into their textbooks attacking the validity of evolution. In what was a confusing and convoluted flurry of back-and-forth motions—during which science experts who had testified…

The Leadership Crisis at the End of the Megachurch Era

By Benjamin Dueholm

…and authoritarian rules. Mark Driscoll, the butch young fellow who built a Seattle-area megachurch, was celebrated for his strongman style, which included using juvenile language against people whose sexual orientations and gender expressions he didn’t approve of (up to and including depictions of Jesus as “a guy I could beat up”). When he was widely and credibly accused of being a domineering egomaniac, his church swiftly fell apart. These models…

Sex and the (Hipster) Church—Just a Gimmick?

By Nicole Greenfield

…scoll has had a corner on shock-value pastoring since the emergence of his Seattle-based Mars Hill Church, and his latest book, Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together, co-authored with his wife Grace, is the most recent example of his penchant for the dramatic. The book sparked immediate outrage among Christians, who labeled it too sexy—but the heaviest criticism came from those, Christians and non-Christians alike, who…

The Curious Case of Mormons and LGBT Rights

By Alan Michael Williams

…des in Salt Lake City, Boise, and other cities for the first time in large numbers, carrying banners that read “Mormons Building Bridges” (MBB). Donning Sunday attire and holding signs with messages of love, MBB forbade signs that criticized Church teachings—namely the notion that same-sex intimacy is a sin. Erika Munson, the founder of MBB, has assured me that the marches were a grassroots affair not in any way directed by Church leaders, but giv…

Blame Muscular Christianity for Driscoll Fiasco

By Hollis Phelps

…riod of time from his pastoral role at Mars Hill Church, the megachurch in Seattle that he co-founded. Even from an outsider’s perspective, Driscoll’s gradual fall from grace has been painful to watch. Driscoll, of course, has always been controversial, which to his followers is part of his allure. But with the exception of his most stalwart defenders, recently his actions and overall persona have become almost impossible to defend. Here on RD Bec…

Dear Timothy Keller: The “Evangelical” Problem isn’t Pollsters

By Jessica Johnson

…e racism and sexism that African American voters, who turned out in record numbers during the Alabama Senate election, rebuked with their ballots. Devon Crawford, a 24 year-old divinity student at the University of Chicago, traveled home to vote against Moore because his version of Christianity “sanctifies the truth-making power of white men” and is “really just a masquerade for white supremacy.” Why should white men define the scope of what const…

Single Greatest Idea Ever: On the 150th Anniversary of Darwin’s Origin of Species

By Lauri Lebo

…ce between the Kitzmiller trial and what we’e witnessing today is that the Seattle-based Discovery Institute (intelligent design’s chief champion) at least pretended it had developed a legitimate scientific theory—even though, to this day, there remains not one peer reviewed-scientific paper on the concept and no one has produced any research into its legitimacy. Brown University cellular biologist Ken Miller writes in Only a Theory that at the he…

“Muscular Christianity” Not to Blame For Driscoll: A Response

By Jessica Johnson

When I began attending Mars Hill Church in 2006, its main facility in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood was headquarters and clubhouse—a 20,000 square foot renovated hardware warehouse seating over a thousand where young guys loitered in the parking lot and rock music from worship band practices thundered outside after gospel class. On Sundays, the sight of security guards monitoring the entryway with the impassive self-importance of club bouncers w…

Who Killed Mars Hill Church? There’s One Suspect Evangelicals Simply Aren’t Prepared to Interrogate

By Cavan Concannon

…as pastor of Mars Hill Church, a multi-campus megachurch in and around the Seattle area. Boasting membership in the thousands, Mars Hill was viewed widely among evangelicals as a promising new style of church planting. But the church was also beset by allegations, from insiders and outsiders, that Driscoll and those around him had fostered a culture of abuse. Driscoll resigned when these allegations reached a breaking point for church leaders. Sho…

How Mega-Macho-Pastor Mark Driscoll Helps Explain Trump’s Evangelical Support

By Jessica Johnson

…entant liars. Re-enter Mark Driscoll, former pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle and, according to his blog, future pastor of The Trinity Church in Phoenix. Last week, Driscoll had a civil racketeering lawsuit filed against him by four former Mars Hill members, which includes the misappropriation of church tithes to pay the book marketing firm ResultSource $210,000 to artificially elevate sales of his book Real Marriage in order to achieve bests…