Oklahoma

The words "high-tech" and "ancient artifacts" don't usually go together but at the new "Passages" Bible exhibit, which debuts Monday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, high-tech robots are combined with ancient Bible manuscripts to help bring the story of translation and preservation of the Bible to life.

One room features first edition-works of 16th century Protestant reformer William Tyndale, best known for translating large parts of the Bible into English. An animatronic likeness of Tyndale, who was sentenced to death for heresy, delivers his final words as he is being choked to death.

St. Jerome also resurrects from the grave as an animatron in a cave setting, where he is transcribing the pages of the Bible into Latin by candlelight. more >>

A police captain filed a lawsuit Wednesday against his employers, alleging that he was wrongly disciplined for refusing to order subordinates to attend an upcoming event at an Islamic center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Capt. Paul Fields, a 16-year police veteran, is suing the Tulsa Police Department (TPD) for allegedly infringing on his rights.

"We want to make it very clear; it's not related just because it's a mosque. [That] hasn't anything to do with his ultimate decision," said Field’s attorney, Scott Wood, in an interview with NewsOn6.com. more >>

Pastor Craig Groeschel still considers LifeChurch a "start-up" church despite the fact that his message reaches well over 26,000 worshippers every week.

The current scale of the Edmond, Oklahoma-based church is a far cry from what it looked like 15 years ago.

Groeschel, now 43, preached from a two-car garage during the church's humble beginnings. He said it was so cold during the first meeting that the small group that gathered had to wear hats and gloves to keep warm throughout the service. more >>

Just a month after reaching the milestone of 10 million downloads, the YouVersion Bible app has set another record – 1 million installs within a mere 11 days.

From Dec. 18 to 28, the Bible app topped the reference category in the iTunes store, beating out the likes of Google Mobile, Dictionary and Wikipedia. The number of downloads for the period is remarkable given that the app had not even been able to reach the million-installs-a-month milestone previously.

“We’ve been growing each month so that we had just under one million new people installing it on a monthly basis for the last few months,” said Bobby Gruenewald, innovation leader at LifeChurch.tv, to The Christian Post on Thursday. “This month we not only passed one million for the month but one million in 11 days.” more >>

Nontheist and Freedom From Religious Foundation co-president Annie Gaylor joined atheists in Oklahoma to decry city council prayers.

Gaylor gathered with the Humanist Association of Tulsa, the Atheist Community of Tulsa and the local FFRF chapter this past Saturday. A topic of discussion was the regular prayer that is held before the Tulsa City Council meetings.

According to transcripts of the council’s meeting, chaplains from the Tulsa Police Department Chaplaincy Corps regularly pray before the start of proceedings. When they pray, they address the “Most holy father” and conclude prayer in “Jesus’ name.” more >>

Federal Reserve officials reversed on Friday a ban on religious symbols, allowing a bank in Perkins, Okla., to restore Christian displays.

That means, the Payne County Bank will once again be able to display crosses and have a Bible "verse of the day" on its website, and employees will be able to wear buttons that say "Merry Christmas, God With Us."

"We appreciate the generous outpouring of support and prayers of Americans all over the country," the small-town bank said on its website Friday. more >>