The Christian response to immigrant communities in the United States cannot be “You kids get off of my lawn” in Spanish. While evangelicals, like other Americans, might disagree on the political specifics of achieving a just and compassionate immigration policy, our rhetoric must be informed by more than politics, but instead by gospel and mission.

I’m amazed when I hear evangelical Christians speak of undocumented immigrants in this country with disdain as “those people” who are “draining our health care and welfare resources.” It’s horrifying to hear those identified with the gospel speak, whatever their position on the issues, with mean-spirited disdain for the immigrants themselves.

This is a gospel issue. First of all, our Lord Jesus himself was a so-called “illegal immigrant.” Fleeing, like many of those in our country right now, a brutal political situation, our Lord’s parents sojourned with him in Egypt (Matt. 2:113-23). Jesus, who lived out his life for us, spent his childhood years in a foreign land away from his relatives among people speaking a different language with strange customs. more >>

With New York moving closer to becoming the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage, Christians and other religious groups are making one thing clear – they’re not giving up without a fight.

Evangelicals, Jews and Catholics in the state are urgently mobilizing their communities to bring a stop to the legalization of gay marriage. Senators’ offices are being inundated with calls with the Senate expected to vote on the Marriage Equality Act Friday.

“There is a reason marriage is between a man and a woman. Mothers and fathers both contribute something unique to the rearing of children,” said the Rev. Jason McGuire, a Baptist minister and executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom. more >>

In the same room he began his political career 20 years ago, Rep. Anthony Weiner tendered his resignation from Congress after an intensive three-week period that began when he sent an inappropriate picture via Twitter to a 21 year-old college student in Washington State.

Standing by himself, Weiner apologized to his constituents, his colleagues and to his wife, Huma Abedin, as he acknowledged the distraction he created.

“Today I am announcing my resignation from Congress, so my colleagues can get back to work, my neighbors can choose a new representatives and most importantly that my wife and I can continue to deal with the damage I have caused,” a seemingly contrite Weiner said. more >>

Rep. Anthony Weiner, the embattled New York congressman who has been embroiled in controversy for sending inappropriate images and text messages to women, is expected to resign this afternoon, say sources close to Weiner.

Weiner has scheduled a 2 p.m. ET press conference in New York. It is reported that the Queen’s congressman has spoken to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and fellow New York Congressman and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel and informed both of his decision.

The story first broke three weeks ago when Weiner reported someone had hacked into this Twitter account and sent inappropriate images of him to a female college student. After holding a press conference last week, he admitted to sending images and text messages to at least six women on Facebook and Twitter over a three-year period. more >>

Mainstream Christian end times theology, subscribed to by many respected evangelical leaders, is wrong, said the president of the group behind the National Prophecy Conference.

At the opening session of the prophecy conference, held in Ridgecrest, N.C. earlier this month, Gary DeMar of American Vision laid out point after point why the popular dispensational premillennialism view is not supported by the Bible. He even called out by name several prominent evangelical leaders, who adhere to this school of thought, that have made wrong predictions.

“When I point this out to people, some people are irate,” said DeMar. “‘I can’t believe that you are critiquing these men of God.’” more >>

For over 50 years, Harold Camping has used the Family Radio pulpit to teach what he believed to be God’s word in the Bible.

In his trademark gravelly voice, Camping could be heard over radio airwaves and in small classes speaking about the Bible passage by passage. But as years passed, those teachings began morphing into predictions, as Camping claimed he had unlocked the dates of Judgment Day and the rapture by using numerology found in the Bible and a calculated formula.

Camping’s latest prediction was that the rapture and Judgment would take place May 21, the date that would signal the beginning of the End of the World. To this day, it is not certain how many people sold their homes, quit their jobs or gave away their life savings in anticipation of his doomsday prophecy. But from the few that did share their stories publicly, one thing was for certain – they believed his predictions were the real deal. more >>