An independent panel has made ten suggestions for Bible translating ministries Wycliffe Global Alliance and SIL International, after being asked to review their practices in light of various translation controversies, including interpretation for a Muslim context.

The panel, organized by the World Evangelical Alliance, wrote in one of its suggestions that it recognized "that there is significant potential for misunderstanding of the words for 'father' and 'son' when applied to God, and that in languages shaped by Islamic cultures, the potential is especially acute and the misunderstandings likely to prove especially harmful to the reader's comprehension of the gospel."

The panel recommended that translators consider the addition of qualifying words and/or phrases (explanatory adjectives, relative clauses, prepositional phrases, or similar modifiers) to the directly-translated words for "father" and "son," in order to avoid misunderstanding. more >>

In keeping with a new sales transition announced last year, the United Methodist Publishing House has closed down the last of its Cokesbury bookstores.

Once found at several American seminaries and the occasional shopping center, the remaining six stores were shut down Saturday, three days ahead of the announced Tuesday deadline.

Amy Smith, CAO/associate to the president & publisher of UMPH, told The Christian Post that Cokesbury will continue via its website, call center, sales representatives, and increased presence at local events. more >>

Evangelist Greg Laurie, who is scheduled to lead the nation in prayer at events hosted by government officials in Washington D.C. during the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, chose not to respond to gay activists who demanded that he be disinvited because he holds a biblical view that homosexuality is a sin. Instead, Laurie asked for prayer Monday in a post to his blog.

"I would appreciate your prayers as I pray for our nation. We all need to take the very real challenges facing our nation seriously," Laurie wrote. "America need God's help. We cannot back away from what He says in Scripture. The enemy will always attack when we seek to do God's work, so let's keep praying!"

He then listed the NDOP website: http://nationaldayofprayer.org. more >>

As a Truman-style Democrat left politically homeless, I am often asked about the future of the Republican Party. Some Republicans want to push racial buttons on issues like immigration, or try to stop their political slide on gay marriage, which will steepen as younger people replace older people in the voting booth. Others think pure market-oriented principles will, somehow, win the day. Ron Paul did best among younger Republican voters in the primaries.

Yes, ideas do matter, but a simple defense of free markets is not likely to have broad-enough appeal. What Republicans need is a transformative issue that can attract a mass base – and that issue is class.

Of course, the whole idea of appealing to class may be repellant to most libertarian-conservative or country club remnants of the Republican Party. Yet, it's the issue of the day, as President Obama recognized when he went after patrician Mitt Romney. It also may be the issue Obama now most wants to avoid, which explains his current focus on secondary issues like gun control and gay marriage. more >>

The Boston Marathon Bombing, where three people were killed and 264 wounded, many with legs or feet blown off, continues to be a big media story, but we are still waiting for answers to many questions. How did our government miss so many clues that the Tsarnaev brothers were a deadly danger to Americans?

They came into the United States as visitors from Kazakhstan, where many ethnic Chechens live without persecution and then cooked up a claim to be refugees, which was a fraud. After a few years, the father returned to Dagestan, Russia, where he now lives safely.

Once admitted into the United States, the entire family cashed in on generous U.S. welfare benefits, cash and food stamps. Those receiving taxpayer handouts included the two criminal sons, both of their parents and, ultimately, Tamerlan's wife and child. more >>

A couple of months back I wrote about the issues of school-based violence and how it is killing our school system and our students. I noted that over 857 students drop out of school each hour of the school day and that some 4,500 commit suicide each year as a result of this violence.

To combat this, I proposed the use of Collaborative Justice principles that marry Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice practices so that victims are given an actual voice and that offenders atone for their offenses through the use of Reintegrative Shaming techniques among others. Finally, I suggested the use of my own Shalom-centric Holistic Intersocial Forgiveness Transformation (S.H.I.F.T.) Theory. Specifically, S.H.I.F.T. is a three-fold understanding of forgiveness based on three distinct definitions of forgiveness as it relates to the three parties to an offense: the victim, the offender and the community. In regards to S.H.I.F.T., I contended that all parties had to forgive in order for them transcend past the conflict.

Since that time, it would appear that I have struck a chord with multiple groups. Non-Christians want to ignorantly throw Deuteronomy in as an alleged "Christian" way of handling conflict and therefore claim that my position is "un-Christian" – which is both absurd and laughable. Some Christians disagree with my stance only because I suggested treating others more as Christ would rather than converting them to Christianity – a difference in theology where I contend that people must see Christ in you so that they can see a compelling justification to turn to Christ as their one and only Savior. Finally, actual professionals in the field of Peace and Forgiveness Studies took exception to by my S.H.I.F.T. Theory because they felt that the use of "must" can easily be translated to mean "forced" in regards to forgiveness – which is a valid point but any forced forgiveness is truly no forgiveness at all if it does not come from the heart. more >>