Former Mars Hill Bible Church pastor Rob Bell has released a trailer and tour dates for his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, in which the Christian author and minister does for God "what he did for heaven and hell in Love Wins," according to the publisher.

"I think there are a lot of people in our culture who can't do the God sort of belief system or the idea. So there's this very, very popular movement that essentially says 'this is all there is,'" Bell says in the trailer shared online Tuesday. "The problem is, for lots and lots of people that doesn't work. Because your kid is born, or you hear that piece of music or you find yourself in the middle of some natural wonder and you're like 'I find it hard to believe this is all there is, there's nothing else.'"

According to HarperOne, Bell explains in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love why "both culture and the church resist talking about God, and shows how we can reconnect with the God who is pulling us forward into a better future." more >>

A California pastor has taken his congregation to the Bible in an effort to dispel the fear and anxiety he believes has gripped many people amid the national debate on gun control, while also taking some Christians to task for "worshipping" their weapons.

Shane Idleman, who is pro-gun ownership and pastor of Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, Calif., told worshippers this past weekend that he feels people on both sides of the highly-charged gun control debate have mischaracterized the issue, and that some Christians are twisting Scripture and using troublesome language to support their arguments.

"This issue is, it's becoming pretty big in our culture today," said Idelman, while also sharing that what he's seen on the Internet and blogs is "alarming" and "ridiculous." more >>

Archbishop Jose Gomez of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles said in a letter that he is stripping his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of his archdiocese duties, claiming that he did not do enough to address abuse by priests during his time in charge.

"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," Gomez said in the letter, referring to more than 12,000 pages of files the church posted on Thursday detailing child sexual abuse crimes its priests have been accused of. "The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children."

The files apparently showed that Mahony worked with other top officials to protect the church body from many of the accusations filed against it, and shielded pedophile priests in fears that the church would be engulfed in a bigger scandal. more >>

Pastor Greg Laurie, perhaps best known for his large-scale evangelistic events called "Harvest Crusades" that originated in Southern California, recently announced that his Riverside-based church's second main campus in the Orange County city of Irvine will need to move to a new location because more space is needed.

Harvest Orange County, which started out as a weekly Bible study that moved to several locations within the county over the years before becoming a church plant in Irvine almost three years ago, now has a congregation of more than 2,000 people. Laurie regularly preaches Sunday services first at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside for the early morning services, and then commutes for a 30-minute or more drive to the Irvine location to then deliver his sermon for the 11:30 a.m. service.

Below is an interview with Laurie conducted by email with The Christian Post in which he discusses the Harvest Orange County church and a search for a new building. more >>

A large new atheist billboard has been unveiled along a San Diego freeway, the result of co-operative work of over 18 atheist and secular groups, which reads "Atheism: A Personal Relationship with Reality."

"We want to express how using intelligence to free oneself of the god idea can open the curtain to a inspiring new outlook," said Debbie Allen, coordinator for the San Diego Coalition of Reason, in a statement. "Atheism is positive and offers grounding in the real world."

Eighteen or so atheist groups besides the Coalition of Reason helped American Atheists, the largest atheist organization in America, keep the $4,000 billboard up for the next four weeks. The billboard features a curtain with a painting of a sky exposing a stack of books, and was designed by graphic artist Bruce Harris for the San Diego Coalition of Reason. more >>

Over 50,000 people gathered for the annual Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco, Calif., days after the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, prompting Pope Benedict XVI to applaud the event as an "outstanding public witness to the fundamental human right to life."

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the pope's representative to the United States, addressed the tens of thousands gathered in front of San Francisco's City Hall on Saturday, delivering a message from the pontiff, according to the organizers.

The pope, the archbishop read, "is grateful to all those who take part in this outstanding public witness to the fundamental human right to life and the moral imperative of upholding the inviolable dignity of each member of our human family, especially the smallest and most defenseless of our brothers and sisters." more >>