Texas

Texas began enforcing a new law mandating abortion providers show or verbally detail to women seeking the procedure an ultrasound image of the unborn baby.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks allowed the law to be enacted after failing to block parts of the statue. He was forced to follow the federal appellate court's ruling in January that overturned his decision.

Many pro-life organizations, including Texas Alliance for Life, have supported the ruling. more >>

After winning the GOP primary in three different states and rejuvenating his campaign, presidential candidate Rick Santorum confessed at a prayer meeting with 175 pastors at a Texas church Wednesday that the institution of marriage turned his whole life around. 

Despite his notable victories in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado the night before, the former Pennsylvania senator did not focus very much on his presidential campaign during the meeting at Bella Donna Chapel in McKinney, Texas. Instead, Santorum talked about what he credits as one of the main reasons behind his success – his faith, which he admitted had not always been very strong, The New York Times reported.

"Your prayers are the reason I am here and I encourage you and your congregations to continue to pray," Santorum revealed to the pastors, before admitting that religion was not always the most important thing in his life. more >>

A number of religious figures have stepped up criticizing the 14-minute long YouTube clip of Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church being proclaimed a "king" by a Messianic rabbi.

Rabbi Ralph Messer, during a Jan. 29 service at the Baptist church in Lithonia, Ga., directed assistants to wrap Long in a purportedly 312-year-old priceless Hebrew scroll from World War II, and proclaimed that Long was now "hidden in the word of God." After inviting Long to sit down on a chair and handing him the Torah scroll, four helpers lifted the chair on which Long was sitting and paraded the minister across the podium, while Messer proclaimed him a "king."

SEE VIDEO OF EDDIE LONG BEING CROWNED KING HERE more >>

Voddie Baucham, Pastor of Preaching at Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, has released a blog post in which he explains why he turned down an invitation to participate in the second round of The Elephant Room, held Jan. 25, and left another conference hosted by James MacDonald without fulfilling his speaking duties.

The Elephant Room, a theological roundtable featuring blunt conversations among seven influential pastors, generated a noted level of controversy due to the invitation of Bishop T.D. Jakes, founder and senior pastor of The Potter's House in Dallas, to participate in the discussions. Jakes has been accused of heresy by some in the Christian community for his affiliation with modalism, which explains the Godhead in non-Trinitarian terms.

Modalism, a 3rd-century teaching accredited to theologian Sabellius, purports that the members of the Trinity are not three distinct, eternally co-existing persons, but that instead God, a singular spirit, manifests Himself at different times in three modes – a doctrine espoused by Oneness Apostolic Pentecostal and United Pentecostal Church International denominations. more >>

The Anabaptist Conference will feature Rick Warren and Paige Patterson, just two of the religious figures scheduled to speak at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, Jan. 30-31.

Speakers at the conference, focused on "Anabaptism and Contemporary Baptists," will draw connections between the 16th century Anabaptist movement and 21st century Baptist life and theology, thus asserting the spiritual kinship of the two movements.

During the Anabaptism Movement of the 16th Century, Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation rejected infant baptism and only baptized believers – advocating social and economic reforms. more >>

Determined to articulate God’s plan for sex within the context of marriage, Pastor Ed Young and his wife, Lisa, were nearly halfway through their 24-hour "bed-in" on their church’s rooftop Friday, when they realized their message was going to be harder to deliver than first thought.

Fully clothed and using a king-sized bed as a prop, the Youngs’ discussion on marriage, date nights, and without any graphic details, the importance of married couples having a good sexual relationship, was streamed live over the Web from Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. The bed-in began at 6 a.m. and ended the same time on Saturday.

The method was used to also help promote their book Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse. Released on Tuesday, the book is aimed at serving as a catalyst for people to dialogue about sex and to challenge couples to make sex a priority in the marriage bed so they will remain united beyond the bed. more >>