Search for "cheap airline tickets from oklahoma city phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Data-Mining The Denominations: The Southern Baptists in Four Charts

By Daniel Schultz

…se members. In 2013, the SBC claimed 15,735,640 members, and in 2014, that number fell by 236,467 to 15,499,173—that’s a 1.5 percent decline. However, on this stat alone, the claim could be made that churches are simply clearing out the cobwebs and tidying up their membership rolls so their numbers more accurately reflect their active members. The problem is, membership isn’t alone in its decline—it’s joined by baptisms and weekly worship attendan…

How an 1843 Revelation on Polygamy Poses a Serious Challenge to Modern Mormonism

By Benjamin E. Park

…s Smith’s belief in the importance of the doctrine, as well as the growing number of people initiated into the order. And though the prophet tried to stop the rumors from spreading, an increasing number of prominent figures outraged by the alleged practice were dedicated to root out the truth. Among those trying to expose the practice and its participants were Joseph’s brother, Hyrum, as well as his wife, Emma. Then, in May of 1843, in a radical r…

Distant Churches and the Isolated Poor: Lessons from Katrina, Ten Years Later

By R. Drew Smith

…at the Superdome and at the airport. He also draws attention to the large number of congregations from New Orleans and elsewhere that rushed in to the city after the storm (ahead of and in spite of opposition from governmental agencies) “to serve as first responders . . . as relief centers and islands of stability and reconstruction for neighborhoods in crisis.” Ten years after Katrina, the poor continue to struggle in New Orleans, and in urban c…

Elaine Howard Ecklund Wants to Dispel Myths Surrounding Religious Resistance to Science

By Sammy Feldblum

…an awesome study. My sense is that after big storm events, each time a big city gets hit, that city becomes more attuned to climate change. That certainly seemed to be the case in New York, with Sandy. I think of that as being the case in New Orleans as well. Well, we have noticed the city looking to Rice University for expert help: on how should we do our levee system, structural help, what’s happening to our water quality, how can we build diffe…

Polygamy Bus Tour, ‘Spiritual’ Healthcare for Christian Scientists, Baptizing an Alien…

By Michael J. Altman

…queue and instead take the “Polygamy Experience” bus tour through Colorado City, Arizona. Not only is President Obama a Christian, but, according to his wife, he always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet. Elsewhere in Washington, the National Cathedral is getting a new cathedral cat. Catherine of Tarragon will spend her retirement in North Carolina and Carmina will take up residence at the church. Christian Surfers, USA uni…

How to Meet Muslims: A (Cinematic) Primer

By Haroon Moghul

…done to the region and its peoples, regardless of their religion and ethnicity, you would certainly be shocked to watch Paradise Now. Many may be deeply upset by this film, and for good reason. It is at times hard to watch, but harder to look away from. It is the best of what a movie can present: an image that continues long after the screen has gone dark. And it has an ending that you and your friends will be talking about for hours more. The Bu…

Global LGBT Recap: Nigeria Jails Gays, Russian Orthodox Spox Calls for Criminalization Referendum

By Peter Montgomery

…sion talking about the LGBT people being less than human. For example, the number two person in the state broadcasting company – actually now he’s the number one person – hosted a show devoted to the question of whether it was enough to protect our children to ban homosexual propaganda or whether more needed to be done. He argued that more needed to be done. He said and we need to outlaw blood and sperm donations by them. And if they die in car ac…

US Names Int’l Envoy for LGBT Rights; Marriage revolution spreads in Mexico; Scott Lively Warns World of Anti-Christ; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e, in 2012, we won the first judgment in Oaxaca,” Méndez marveled during a phone interview last week. “In the two years [since], we have succeeded in covering almost the entire country. Even some LGBT rights supporters are a little mystified that marriage equality rulings haven’t sparked a national backlash. The fight over Mexico City’s 2009 marriage equality law brought strong opposition from the country’s Catholic hierarchy. Yet while some state…

Discovering “Little Syria”—New York’s Long-Lost Arab Neighborhood

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…ing vertically next to the elevated train tracks, in time-honored New York City tenement tradition. Only, in contrast to Chinatown or the Lower East Side, there is nearly nothing left of Little Syria. I walked what remains of Little Syria with Joseph Svehlak, a longtime tour guide and founder of Friends of the Lower West Side, whose mother, of Czech heritage, grew up in the neighborhood. He hadn’t realized its significance to the Arab American com…

United Methodists Elect 1st Gay Bishop; Canadian Anglicans OK Same-Sex Marriage

By Peter Montgomery

…va turned what was to have been their first Pride parade into a protest at City Hall after police, citing “religious sensitivities” and potential violence, broke a promise to allow the parade to go down Rager Boulevard, the city’s main street. The Israeli National LGBT Taskforce (known as Aguda) had appealed to the High Court of Justice, but the court declined to overturn local official’s decision to require the parade to go down side streets. Jam…