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"National Autism Awareness Month" is in April and Lakewood Church, led by Pastor Joel Osteen, plans to cut the ribbon for its newest special needs facility next month in Miami, Fla., one of several U.S. and global locations that will see the expansion of the ministry's Champions Clubs, a special needs program for children and teens.

The megachurch, which draws 40,000 weekly worshippers to its Houston, Texas arena, developed a ministry in 2008 for families with special needs children who find it challenging to attend church on a regular basis. The Houston location, which consists of an educational room, a physical therapy room and a sensory room, serves more than 300 special needs families every week. more >>

St. Patrick's Day is a celebration of the life and work of the escaped-slave-turned-missionary who brought Christianity to Ireland. However, as Thanksgiving has gone the way of Black Friday and Advent has gone the way of Frosty the Snowman, so St. Patrick's Day-originally a Catholic feast day-has gone the way of pub crawls and the National Shamrock Fest.

This is not to say that Americans (or people of any nationality) drink or abuse substances today more than in the past. After all, "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" are just descendants of "wine, women, and song." But a recently released survey on alcohol consumption shows, as Reuters reports that some Americans imbibe a little too much. The national survey "Alcoholic Beverage Consumption by Adults Compared to Dietary Guidelines" found that eight percent of American men and three percent of American women are heavy drinkers – that is, they drank (respectively) at least five or four drinks on the day prior to the study. This corresponds to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's definition of binge drinking, which, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, is "a pattern of alcohol consumption that brings the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level to 0.08 percent or more. This …usually corresponds to 5 or more drinks on a single occasion for men or 4 or more drinks on a single occasion for women, generally within about 2 hours."

These men and women were merely the heaviest drinkers studied. The CDC defines heavy drinking as an average of over two drinks per day for men and more than one per day for women. Nine percent of the men and 8 percent of the women studied said they had exceeded this recommended limit on the previous day by consuming (respectively) three to four or two to three drinks. more >>

Chicago Bulls superstar Derrick Rose has offered to pay for the funeral of a 6-month-old baby girl who was shot five times as her father changed her diaper in the front seat of a parked van on Chicago's South Side on Monday.

Despite desperate attempts by doctors at Comer Children's Hospital to save little Jonylah Watkins, who was ravaged in the still unexplained attack, she succumbed to her wounds on Tuesday morning while her father, Jonathan, was reportedly in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

"This sweet baby had almost every organ system touched. Her lung was touched. Her liver was touched. Her diaphragm was destroyed," Dr. Rachel Wolfson of Comer Children's Hospital, said of the extent of the baby's injuries in an ABC News report. more >>

A Mennonite pastor from Virginia who helped a woman flee the United States with her daughter to prevent the woman's former lesbian partner from getting custody of the child, was sentenced to 21 to 27 months in prison by a federal judge in Vermont last Monday.

But according to a News Channel 5 report, the judge, William Sessions, also decided to release the pastor, Kenneth Miller, pending an appeal of the sentence, which could take several years.

In the News Channel 5 report, Miller's supporters sang hymns and spiritual songs of praise in celebration outside the federal courthouse as it snowed lightly around them. Miller had been in custody for about a month before the sentencing for refusing to testify in the case of another man that allegedly helped Lisa Miller and her daughter escape. Miller told the court that his faith prevented him from testifying. more >>

If President Obama wants to be a hero in the African-American community, he should do something to alleviate the "abominable" black unemployment rate in America, says renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson.

The head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., who was the first surgeon to separate conjoined twins, told The Christian Post on Thursday that the economic policies being pursued by the Obama administration has resulted in an "abominable" unemployment rate in the African-American community.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment stood at 13.8 percent in January, more than double the unemployment rate of whites, which was measured at 6.6 percent for the same period. A year ago the black unemployment rate was 14.2 percent, less than half a percent point higher. White unemployment, however, fell more than one percent in the last year from a high of eight percent. more >>

Pornography is an unspoken word in most congregations, but this powerful addiction is permeating Christian households, and is destroying marriages and parent-child relationships.

To combat the addiction to pornography, Pastor Jay Dennis of First Baptist Church at the Mall in Lakeland, Fla., created his own program, "One Million Men Porn Free," because he wasn't able to find resource materials that he could use to defeat the devastating effects the lure of pornography had on members of his church.

"I led our church initially through this program in March and April of 2010," said Dennis, who leads a congregation of 9,000 members. "I met with our men for six Wednesday evening sessions, with the last session being the commitment rally. I also met with our women for one session and our parents for one session. The women's session was called 'What Men Wish Their Wives Knew About Pornography.' The parents' session was titled 'Protecting Your Child From Sexual Brokenness.'" more >>