Minnesota

Correction appended

The National Organization for Marriage has generated some controversy with a video ad featuring the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’ s likeness as a backdrop for its message advocating a referendum on gay marriage legislation.

NOM President Brian Brown praised the ad, launched last week on YouTube and radio, as an effective effort to educate Minnesota voters about where gubernatorial candidates stand on same-sex marriage, and to remind them of their rights. more >>

A former Muslim who is now a pastor is telling Christians to stop fearing Muslims and to discern what they really should be fighting against.

Thabiti Anyabwile, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman on the Cayman Islands, says Christians need to think first rather than let their emotions dictate how they react to Muslims and Islam.

“We live in a world where failing to understand real and significant differences that matter to people not like us can result in things like hijacking, bombings, and bullets flying,” said Anyabwile during the recent “Think: The Life of the Mind & the Love of God” conference organized by Desiring God ministry. more >>

Rick Warren will speak at the Desiring God national conference – connected to Pastor John Piper – Friday amid some criticism of his theology.

Some supporters of the Desiring God ministry had complained that Warren relies more on pragmatism than biblical doctrine – in other words, that he relies more on methods than on God to achieve results.

But Piper defended his decision to invite Warren to the annual conference. In a video, Piper listed Warren’s shared beliefs, including that the Bible is totally inerrant, God is sovereign over everything and that people who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their savior will go to hell. more >>

Three lesbian ministers were received Saturday on to the official clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Anita Hill, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart, who were ordained at least a decade earlier, beamed wide smiles after the "rite of reception" was complete.

The three are not newcomers to the church, noted the Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the St. Paul synod. They are long-distance runners who have been part of the ministry for years. Only now, the ELCA is opening the door more widely and "drawing the circles of welcome more broadly," he said before hundreds of people at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in St. Paul, Minn. more >>

After being "outed" by a GLBT magazine and being placed on leave, the Rev. Tom Brock returned to Hope Lutheran Church on Sunday.

He didn't preach to the Minneapolis congregation of some 450 people. But he admitted to his flock for the first time that he struggles with same-sex attraction.

It's a struggle he's had since college but the Lutheran pastor has never given in to the temptation. He has been attending a Catholic accountability group called Courage and has always believed and continues to believe that homosexual behavior is a sin. more >>

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved a significantly modified version of a Middle East report on Friday that, for the most part, placated both Jews and Palestinians.

Avoiding what could have been devastating to Presbyterian-Jewish relations, the church’s General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a report by its Middle East study committee that removed more objectionable language.

Gone was the recommendation to divest from the Caterpillar company, whose bulldozers are used by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes. Instead, the church “strongly” denounced the Caterpillar company for allowing its products to be used in non-peaceful ways by Israel. more >>