Evangelicals

WASHINGTON – New York Times bestselling author and humor writer Eric Metaxas may fool you at first with his non-stop wisecracks (including how he wished the head table at the National Prayer Breakfast was filled with celebrities rather than politicians), but once he gets talking about his Christian faith, he gets pretty serious, pretty fast.

Metaxas, author of books such as Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, was the keynote speaker at the 60th National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. After an entertaining introduction – where everything from the Occupy movement to the hefty prayer breakfast fee ended up as materials for jokes – the born-again Christian author got down to business and focused on contrasting phony religiosity and real faith.

"The lives of both of these men (Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer) illustrate between phony religiosity and really believing in God in a way that it changes your life – it must change your life and the lives of others," said Metaxas. more >>

Newt Gingrich has what is known in business circles as an "angel" investor to his presidential campaign. In other circles it is referred to as a "sugar daddy." Regardless of what you call it, this billionaire casino owner and his family have kept Gingrich afloat due to their massive contributions to Gingrich's Super Pac. The question is, how much influence does this casino magnate have on the American political system?

Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino owner, is listed as the eight-richest American with a net worth of over $20 billion. He met Gingrich when he served as speaker of the House in the mid to late 1990s and the two bonded over their support for Israel, making he and Gingrich ideological soul mates of sort. Adelson also refers to himself as the "richest Jew in the world."

The son of a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania and once a cab driver from Boston, Adelson rose to prominence by founding the popular Comdex computer trade show in Las Vegas. While he doesn't use a personal computer himself, the event was a must-attend for computer techies for years and Adelson sold the business for about $860 million in 1995. more >>

A missionary couple who founded a church in Monterrey, Mexico have been found slain in their home and were buried on Thursday as dozens of gatherers paid their respects.

John and Wanda Casias, originally from Texas, were found by their son, Shawn Casias, on Tuesday, who discovered that someone had broken into their home, ransacked their possessions, and left the missionaries strangled. His mother had a gash from a blunt object on her head and an electrical cord around her neck, while his father, discovered a few hours later in a small storage room, had also been strangled with an electrical cord, the Associated Press reported.

Apparently, a number of valuables had also been taken from the home, including a couple of computers, a plasma television, a safe that had been chiseled out of the wall and their Chevrolet Suburban car. more >>

Denver Broncos star quarterback Tim Tebow has cancelled plans to speak at the three-day revival event organized by Ohio televangelist Rod Parsley, a Tebow spokesperson said Wednesday.

The event, set to be held in Columbus, Ohio, from March 16-18, is called "Contending for the Faith" weekend. Fellow pastors Kenneth Copeland, Isaac Pitre, and Clint Brown will join Parsley in speaking to massive audiences on how they can strengthen their Christian faith.

The event, scheduled to take place at Parsley's Valor Christian College, promises attendees that they will "grow in faith, experience the power of the Holy Spirit, and learn how the anointing of God...can resonate" in their lives. The event website also promises "a very special 'Partners ONLY' anointing service." more >>

WASHINGTON – President Obama took a markedly more political tone in his address at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning than he did at the same event last year.

The president talked about his public policy stances, including barring health insurance companies from rejecting people with pre-existing conditions and reducing tax breaks for the wealthy, hand-in-hand with his faith, often citing snippets of popular Bible verses.

"[S]o when I talk about our financial institutions playing by the same rules as folks on Main Street…or making sure that unscrupulous lenders aren't taking advantage of the most vulnerable among us, I do so because I genuinely believe it will make the economy strong for everybody," Obama said. more >>

Conservative and liberal Christians say their own views on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage would differ greatly from Jesus if he were walking among them today, according to a recent survey. In addition, respondents believe that Jesus would be more compassionate than they are toward undocumented immigrants and the poor. 

In a survey published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 787 respondents who identify as Christian were asked to use a 100-point scale ranging from liberal to conservative and to identify where on the scale they believe "a contemporary Jesus" would fall on certain issues. 

The study, authored by Lee D. Ross, a professor of psychology at Stanford University for more than 30 years, apparently shows how people's political views are often separated from the teachings of their faith.  more >>