November 2008 Archives

The day after Barack Obama was elected president, Larry Younginer knelt in front of the congregants at his suburban Atlanta church and offered a prayer of thanks. "Lord, we have again come to you in prayer, and you have heard our cries from heaven, and you have sent us again from the state called Illinois, a man called Barack to heal our land," said Younginer, a 62-year-old retired information systems worker at Coca Cola in Atlanta. 

The only terrorist captured alive after the Mumbai massacre has given police the first full account of the extraordinary events that led to it - revealing he was ordered to 'kill until the last breath'. Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were meticulously planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people.

Mickey Sheridan is in denial. In the weeks since the election of Barack Obama, the 58-year-old self-professed "holy roller" refuses to acknowledge the Illinois senator will soon be inaugurated as America's 44th president.

President-elect Barack Obama planned to nominate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state on Monday, transforming a once-bitter political rivalry into a high-level strategic and diplomatic partnership.

Before the election I wrote a piece for NEWSWEEK.com about white evangelicals and abortion. In that piece, I predicted that conservative Christians would not move in large numbers away from the Republican Party because of their fundamental theological and cultural objections to abortion. 

The Rev. George M. Docherty, credited with helping to push Congress to insert the phrase "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, has died at 97.

Super Bowl star Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the right thigh and spent Friday night in a hospital, another dramatic turn in a tumultuous season in which the New York Giants receiver has been fined and suspended.

Jdimytai Damour was a big man -- 270 pounds, by one account -- but he was a gentle giant to his friends, who said he loved to chat about movies, Japanese anime and politics. 

Grammy-nominated gospel singer David "Pop" Winans, patriarch of the iconic first family of contemporary gospel music, is making what doctors consider a miraculous recovery from two strokes, seizures and a heart attack, said his son, the Rev. Marvin Winans, on Wednesday in an exclusive interview with The Detroit News.

The second Detroit mayor in a row is facing questions about possible perjury. An attorney for Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. acknowledged Monday that his client met last week with state attorneys to discuss a document stating he didn't owe campaign fines in two previous city elections.

A California man accused of driving to New Jersey and fatally shooting his estranged wife and another man inside a church on Sunday has been captured in Georgia. Joseph M. Pallipurath was captured around midnight in Monroe, east of Atlanta, said New Jersey district U.S. Marshal James Plousis.

With the economy in crisis, President-elect Barack Obama pledged Monday to honor the commitments the outgoing Bush administration has made to rescue financial markets and urged the new, incoming Congress to pass a major stimulus package "right away" to restore growth and create jobs.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says Russian warships soon will reach his country's waters for joint naval exercises in the Caribbean.

Earlier this month, a guest took the pulpit at Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, Ill., a 350-member church surrounded by cornfields. The speaker was an insurance salesman from Colorado named Ted Haggard.

President-elect Barack Obama has yet to attend church services since winning the White House earlier this month, a departure from the example of his two immediate predecessors.

TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey wants a court to dismiss or order arbitration in a defamation lawsuit filed by the ex-headmistress of her girls school in South Africa. Nomvuyo Mzamane sued over remarks the media mogul made following sex-abuse complaints at the US$40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, near Johannesburg.

President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say.

The nearest Wal-Mart is two hours away, and only foul weather, a deer in the road or a Washakie County sheriff's deputy would slow down anyone with a mind to drive there faster.

President-elect Barack Obama made a personal appeal Friday to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to his home city of Chicago. Obama appeared in a 90-second taped video message played by Chicago bid leaders to the general assembly of European Olympic Committees, the largest regional group in the Olympic movement.

Southern Baptist churches are being recruited to join a massive 12-year long, grassroots evangelism plan to share the Gospel with every person in North America by 2020. 

Donovan McNabb will start when the Philadelphia Eagles host the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night. The five-time Pro Bowl quarterback was benched for the first time in his career at halftime of Philadelphia's 36-7 loss at Baltimore on Sunday. 

President George W. Bush has granted pardons to 14 individuals and commuted the prison sentences of two others convicted of misdeeds including drug offenses, tax evasion, wildlife violations and bank embezzlement.

Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman arrived in Iran for a first official visit on Monday. He was greeted by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at Tehran's airport, Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

"Have you ever faced the possibility that your country could cease to exist? Nations richer and more stronger in their day than we are in this have been sabotaged, defeated and enslaved.

"Babylon was the largest and richest nation of its time, but its lust for luxury made it an easy mark for the Medes and the Persians who overran it and divided its land and enslaved its people between them.

"Rome was a great military power; but when free bread and circuses became more important to the people than hard work and patriotism, Rome was invaded and looted by the tougher vandals.

"The Incas were the most civilized, richest people in the Americas; but ruthless, better-armed invaders destroyed them as a nation and looted everything they owned and had spent generations in creating.

"In every case it was the self-indulgent weakness of the victim which made the victory of the invader easy.

"How wise is a nation which gives away so much of its substance abroad and at home that it can no longer afford to keep its own strength and protection?

"How intelligent is a nation more careful to protect the criminal that his victim?

"How weak is a nation which allows bureaucracy and a socialist philosophy to run riot and squander billions?

"Undoubtedly there were Babylonians, Romans, Incas who warned against over-indulgence and weakness, who warned that each citizen is responsible for his nation, and that his responsibility cannot be shrugged off onto officials. But to those who warned of impending trouble, there was then as now the smug sneer, 'It can't happen here!' But it did!"

For nearly a decade, born-again Christian Neil Clark Warren has been working to pair up men and women to help create lasting marriages. 

A gunman drove across the country to confront his estranged wife, then killed her in a church vestibule as Sunday services let out, authorities said. Two other people were injured in the attack, which sent churchgoers scrambling for safety.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

The State of the Black World Conference will bring a who's who of African-American scholars, orators, church leaders and organizers to New Orleans for the five-day event at the Astor Crowne Plaza and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. 

Earlier this month, a guest took the pulpit at Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, Ill., a 350-member church surrounded by cornfields. The speaker was an insurance salesman from Colorado named Ted Haggard.

Eager to calm economic anxieties, President-elect Barack Obama is rolling out an economic vision that will require congressional cooperation even before he settles into his new desk in the White House's Oval Office.

It started as a radio program discussion about a taboo subject: child molestation among members of the insular world of Orthodox Jews. Since he broached the subject on his radio show this summer, says a state assemblyman, dozens of people have come forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community, which strictly follows Jewish law.

A security guard shot and killed a man wielding a sword Sunday on the grounds of a Scientology building in Hollywood, police said. The unidentified man approached the guard around noon in the parking lot of the Scientology Celebrity Centre, said Officer April Harding, a police spokeswoman.

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be commerce secretary, adding a prominent Hispanic and one-time Democratic rival to his expanding Cabinet.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush are wrapping up three years of close cooperation with hopes of leaving a Mideast peace legacy to their successors.

With e-book sales exploding in an otherwise sleepy market, Random House Inc. announced Monday that it was making thousands of additional books available in digital form, including novels by John Updike and Harlan Coben, as well as several volumes of the "Magic Treehouse" children's series.

There have been letters, discreet inquiries and bold appeals. Some are using their connections; others are just seeking a foot in the door.

While some Christian congregations have built multi-million-dollar "mega-churches" in recent years, others have opted for a different route.

The father of a college student whose suicide was broadcast live over a webcam said Saturday he was appalled by the virtual audience that egged on his son and called for tougher regulation of Internet sites.

An Iranian militia held civil defense drills on Sunday to prepare for any air strikes and the military said it could close a waterway crucial for world oil supplies if Iran was attacked.

Bob Jones University is apologizing for racist policies that included a one-time ban on interracial dating and its unwillingness to admit black students until 1971.

On Sunday, a Texas preacher sat on a bed near his pulpit and offered an unusual challenge to the married couples in his congregation: Have sex every day for a week. "Sadly, the church has been silent over a topic that God is not silent about," said the Rev. Ed Young, founder of the nondenominational Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas.

Saying that moving quickly is imperative, President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday offered an outline of his economic recovery plan to create 2.5 million jobs by 2011, saying American workers will rebuild the nation's roads and bridges, modernize its schools and create more sources of alternative energy.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to tap New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary on Monday, sources say.

A 62-year-old man was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison Friday for embezzling about $1.1 million from the church organization where he once worked.

For many Americans, all they've heard is that Christians are "anti-gay." The recent passage of amendments in California, Florida and Arizona defining marriage between a man and a woman and the large support those measures drew from churches haven't changed that perception, and perhaps made it worse.

Rep. Barbara Lee was named chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday, giving the Oakland Democrat a high-profile platform to push her priorities, from increasing funding for HIV/AIDS to pushing for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Continuing a tradition among Washington's power elite, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have decided to send their kids to Sidwell Friends School. Michelle Obama confirmed yesterday that Malia and Sasha, the incoming first daughters, will enroll at the pricey private school when the family moves into the White House in January.

A top Republican said on Friday that Democratic U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is "off to a good start" and indicated he was pleased to see President George W. Bush get ready to leave.

Spiritual leaders of New York's African-American Muslim communities lashed out Friday at a purported al Qaeda message attacking President-elect Barack Obama and, using racist language, comparing him unfavorably to the late Malcolm X.

Intelligence sources have told the London-based The Times newspaper that the prospect of Israel taking preemptive military action to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities appears to have become significantly more likely in recent weeks.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.

A South Florida college student killed himself by overdosing on drugs in front of a live online audience as some computer users egged him on, some debated his method, and others tried to talk him out of it.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, unexpectedly announced Friday that its chief executive will retire in February and be replaced by the head of its international division.

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey left George Washington Hospital early this afternoon, apparently headed for his office, after collapsing while giving an speech at a Washington hotel Thursday night.

As Election Night made way for a new day, a pastor named Bryant Robinson Jr. clicked off his television to accept a sleep of sweet promise. His mostly black congregation now had two blessings awaiting it in 2009: the inauguration of the first African-American president and the finished construction of a new church.

The "Is Obama a Christian?" discussion is starting up again, this time not by people who suspect he's a Muslim but those who think he's a phony follower of Jesus Christ. The occasion for this is the posting on Beliefnet of an interview he gave to the Chicago Sun Times in 2004, while he was still an Illinois state senator. 

President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for the former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who fought hard for the presidency.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey was conscious and alert early Friday -- and took a get-well call from President Bush -- just hours after he collapsed during a speech to a black-tie dinner.

Nothing was supposed to represent evangelicals' recent shift away from hot-button political issues more than megachurch pastor Rick Warren's summit with Barack Obama and John McCain in August. 

Star R. Scott isn't the only minister who uses the Bible to accumulate wealth and power, but he's one of the more brazen I've heard about in many years. "Church isn't for everyone who wants to just show up," Scott told Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein, who details the pastor's spiritual and financial authority over 400-member Calvary Temple in her Nov. 16 story.

The nation's Catholic bishops Tuesday approved a statement declaring that if the Democratic-controlled Congress and the incoming Obama administration enact proposed abortion rights legislation, they would see it as an attack on the church.

In a showdown with the Internal Revenue Service, a controversial Brooklyn Park megachurch appears to have won the most recent round with the federal government.

Last winter, Mary Evans was drowning in debt and despair. The 27-year-old Palatine native was emerging from a divorce. The mother of a 2-year-old child, Evans was $80,000 in student loan and credit card debt.

Before his appointment as chaplain of the House of Representatives, Rev. Daniel Coughlin pushed for the early release from prison of a priest convicted of sexually abusing two teenage boys.

North Korean officials are infuriated by leaflets that have been floated over the communist nation's secured borders and dropped from plastic bags attached to gas-filled balloons, and one organization behind the effort says there's good reason the atheists in power are upset - the pamphlets are carrying a Gospel message directly to the people.

The popular two-term governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Her responsibilities would include such high-profile and hot-topic issues as immigration enforcement, federal disaster response, and airport security. 

Washington National Cathedral plans to slash its budget dramatically and lay off 30 percent of its staff to close a widening budget gap, leaders said yesterday.

For 118 days, D'Zhana Simmons, 14, had no heart beating in her chest as she waited in hospital to have a heart transplant. Doctors believe it is the first time someone so young has been kept alive for this length of time without a heart.

Here in Nigeria, the unreflective rejection of all possible alternative ideas on how society could be organized, in total preference to the capitalist mode, has given rise to a variety of ways in which people in their survival bid engage the contradictions of capitalism.

Many of the devout in Metro Detroit know the Bible says Jesus Christ both condemned and forgave thieves. But some of those who attend churches targeted by burglars recently say they are busier with the condemnation part.

Today, I have to admit that I am ashamed of myself. I actually think that most of my peers should also feel ashamed and embarrassed as well. See, as a professional basketball player, you'd think that we would be the best at what we do. So when we see a YouTube clip of a CEO beating MJ at a one on one game, we flip out.

Coming soon to EHarmony -- Adam and Steve. The Pasadena-based dating website, heavily promoted by Christian evangelical leaders when it was founded, has agreed in a civil rights settlement to give up its heterosexuals-only policy and offer same-sex matches.