McChurch - Haggard Seeks Funds to Back New Start

Hot Document readers will remember the public apology rendered by the Rev. Ted Haggard, founder and pastor of Colorado Springs' New Life Church, after a sex scandal forced him to resign from the church and as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. (Haggard got caught having a sexual relationship with, and buying methamphetamines from, a male prostitute.) Later, after secular counseling, Pastor Ted wrote some of his former parishioners a "personal and private e-mail" (promptly leaked to KRDO, an ABC affiliate in Colorado Springs) to explain that he was no longer gay and that he planned to become a psychologist. Now Haggard's rehabilitation is raising some new, very bizarre questions.

Four months ago the Haggard family moved to Arizona, and last week, Haggard informed KRDO of his newest life decision: to minister to "the homeless, those coming out of prison, recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, and other broken people" at the Phoenix Dream Center halfway house, where the Haggard family will also live. Haggard and his wife, Gayle, now members of Phoenix First Assembly (the "church with a heart"), are also enrolled as full-time students at the University of Phoenix. Minus his $138,000 salary, and with the depressed real estate market preventing the sale of his $700,000 house, Haggard will have trouble making ends meet. So, Haggard asked KRDO reporter Tak Landrock (see below) to help him line up "people who can give a one-time gift or make a commitment to help support us monthly for two years."

Here comes the weird part.

Haggard wrote Landrock that supporters can mail checks directly to the Haggard family at their Scottsdale, Ariz., address, but that if contributors wish to make their donations tax deductible, as they very likely will, they can make out their checks to something called Families With a Mission and write on the check that it is designated for the Haggard family. Ninety percent of these funds will then be forwarded to Haggard, while the remaining 10 percent will cover Family With a Mission's "administrative costs."

McChurch - "From the Pits of Hell!"

TV station pulls plug on Keller

The televangelist says complaints from local Muslims are to blame.

By SHERRI DAY, Times Staff Writer
Published August 24, 2007

---

ST. PETERSBURG - For the first time in nearly five years, controversial Christian televangelist Bill Keller is going off the air.

Keller - known for his vitriolic criticism of religious, political and pop culture figures - said Thursday his program was yanked in response to pressure from local Muslims.

Earlier this month, officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote to executives at CBS asking them to investigate Live Prayer with Bill Keller, an hourlong nightly program.

In a May 2 broadcast, the televangelist said Islam was a "1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell" and called the Prophet Mohammed a "murdering pedophile." He also called the Koran a "book of fables and a book of lies."

CAIR officials asked for equal air time for Florida Muslims to counter Keller's assertions. The show, which aired nightly from 1to 2 a.m., is broadcast on WTOG-TV CH. 44, a CBS-owned station that airs the CW network locally.

"I'm saying nothing now that I haven't been saying for five years," said Keller, who plans to hold his last broadcast on Aug. 31. "Ultimately, it was pressure by CAIR that intimidated these people into taking me off the air. It was not mutually agreeable. They told me they were taking me off the air, period."

But WTOG station manager Laura Caruso said the decision to end Keller's contract was a programming one, made by station executives and the televangelist.

"It really doesn't have anything to do with any special interest groups or anybody in the community," Caruso said. "I think he has a good program, and I wish him all the success in the world."

CAIR claims credit

After speaking with CBS executives, CAIR claims credit for Keller's demise on WTOG. His contract, set to end in December, will terminate on Sept. 11.

"They really based their decision upon our letter," said Ramzy Kilic, CAIR's civil rights coordinator. "They really did not know that Bill Keller was involved with this kind of anti-Muslim rhetoric."

Acting on complaints from bay area Muslims, CAIR officials began monitoring Keller's programs in May.

History of controversy

This is not the first time Keller, 49, has upset religious groups. Since he began his Live Prayer Internet ministry in 1999, he has skewered Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists, calling them false religions and cults. He also speaks against abortion, calls Oprah a "new age witch" for embracing diverse religions and says megachurch pastor Joel Osteen is a "gutless wonder."

In May, Keller raised the ire of Americans United for Separation of Church and State when he wrote devotionals on Liveprayer.com saying that a vote for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney equals a vote for Satan. The group asked the IRS to investigate Keller for a possible violation of tax laws, which prohibit tax-exempt nonprofit groups from engaging in partisan politics. Keller, took the debate to a national audience on The O'Reilly Factor, where he sparred with host Bill O'Reilly, who called Keller's words "irresponsible, un-Christian, uncharitable and flat-out wrong."

In his nearly eight years with the Live Prayer ministry, Keller estimates he and his volunteer staff have answered more than 60-million e-mail prayer requests and helped introduce 190,000 people to Christ. Last year, he took the show to a national audience by buying a late-night time slot on the i Network. His national platform lasted only a few months because of lack of financing.

New program in works

Keller remains undaunted. He is a regular guest on the Howard Stern Show and also plans to start a new morning program, Live Prayer AM on WTTA-Ch. 38 in the bay area. Keller says the one-hour live program will feature his trademark sermonettes but also will include lifestyle issues and local secular guests. It is scheduled to air at 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 3.

"I'm going to keep doing what I do," Keller said. "I'm going to bring a biblical message. It is what it is."

Sherri Day can be reached at (813) 226-3405 or sday@sptimes.com

© 2007 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

McChurch - The Messiah Has No Clothes

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/329034_faith25.html

Articles Of Faith: Media's portrayal of religion skews to the right

Last updated August 24, 2007 9:22 p.m. PT

By ANTHONY B. ROBINSON
GUEST COLUMNIST

DOING THIS "Articles of Faith" column the last eight months, I've discovered there are a whole lot of people out there with very negative feelings about religion, Christianity and churches. For some readers, a minister writing a column like this is a bit like waving a red flag in front of a bull. For others, their antipathy toward religion is more measured but still strong.

For a person like me, and many friends, such sentiments are not wholly surprising, but still sad and bewildering. In my life, the church, while imperfect, has been a place of humanity and understanding. It was the church that got me involved in the civil rights movement and other efforts of social change. Religious leaders have encouraged me to think deeply and honestly. The church put me in touch with amazing people in this country and other parts of the world. It taught me stories of hope and songs of faith, as well as ways of prayer and worship that have been both healing and life- changing.

Why all the hostility toward religion?

Some of it, I suspect, is that these are anxious times, and one way to deal with anxiety is to have something or someone to blame. Lord knows, religion offers plenty of candidates!

Another inducement for anti-religious feelings is probably the identification of the failed Bush administration with evangelical Christianity. Some of it, too, may be recoil at radical Islam, a sentiment many Muslims share.

Of course, some hostility toward religion is simply deserved. Religion is powerful. Anything as powerful as religion will be abused by some. But abuse does not nullify proper use.

Another possible explanation for the disdain toward religion and Christianity may be found in a recent study conducted by the Washington-based watchdog group Media Matters. Its study, "Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in the Major News Media," came out earlier this summer.

Conducted between the 2004 elections and the end of 2006, it showed that conservative or right-wing religious leaders were quoted, interviewed or mentioned nearly three times more often in U.S. media than moderate or liberal religion leaders. On television that disparity jumped to four times more appearances by conservatives than by religious moderates or progressives.

An earlier study by the same group showed that while prominent leaders of the religious right such as James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson had been on Sunday morning news shows 40 times in a particular stretch, there had not been even one appearance by a leader of a mainline church or denomination.

"Despite the fact that most religious Americans are moderate or progressive, in the news media it is overwhelmingly conservative leaders who are presented as the voice of religion," write the report's authors. "This represents a particularly meaningful distortion, since progressive religious leaders tend to focus on different issues and offer an entirely different perspective than their conservative counterparts."

What this means is that a person who relies on television and the news media may simply equate Christianity and the religious right. Moreover, unless you are involved in a moderate or progressive religious congregation, you may not know they exist. Another recent study, funded by the Lilly Endowment, concluded that though there are plenty of vital and thriving mainline and progressive congregations, they operate under the radar of both the media and scholarly study.

But why are the media so skewed in their presentation of religion, and in particular Christianity? I've wondered that for a long time. Over the last three decades, nearly all media in America have been handmaids in a culturewide dumbing-down process. Extremists of all strips fit the format of the sensationalized nightly news, daily paper or online site. Extremists say outlandish things, speak in sound bites and reduce complex issues to simple slogans. And much of the media go for it.

My other hunch is that by and large people in the media tilt toward the skeptical when it comes to religion. Showcasing the yo-yos who brag of praying away hurricanes or who blame 9/11 on gay rights confirms the prejudice.

To be sure, religion is a mixed bag and has plenty to answer for. But that's not the whole story. For millions of Americans faith and religion are powerful sources of decency and courage, justice and generosity in their lives and in our society. Yet this rich American tradition is being put at risk by stereotyping and broad-brush hostility.

---

Anthony Robinson's column appears Saturdays. He is a speaker, consultant and writer. His recent books include "Common Grace: How to be a Person and Other Spiritual Matters," and "Leadership for Vital Congregations." Want to suggest ideas for future columns? He can be reached at anthonybrobinson@comcast.net.

© 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

McChurch - Even the Pews are Saved

McChurch – “Left Behind” at the Resurrection?

I am having far too much fun at the expense of the Billy-Bob church in Texas that cancelled the funeral of a gay veteran because of the potential that it would “send the wrong message that we endorse the lifestyle,” or some such rationale.

The pastor of that church, you may recall, is the brother-in-law of Joel “My-lips-never-leave-my-mouth” Osteen, a living legend to what we can do for God if we simply think positively enough and take lessons in mime. God, that Great Gargoyle in the Sky, apparently has tired of small accomplishments building toward big things (the weak confounding the strong) and has surrendered the ground of marketing to American genius.

McChurch is a phenomenon known for its collective righteousness. Noted for hundreds (preferably thousands) of active members and white male pastors with capped teeth, it stands as a reminder that there is safety in numbers. God could not possibly reject so many adherents metaphorically joined at the heart and hip.

“You ought to try our church,” we are told. “The music is out of this world!” Indeed, that is as it should be. For McChurch is a “Christian” church, anxiously waiting the Resurrection.” By its profound coarsening of both theology and politics, it may already have departed, leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces.

We have morphed from “Christian Church” (as opposed to smaller, less successful churches) to “Christian Nation,” “Christian Company” and “Christian Party” (namely Republican sans Rudy). We even have “Christian Lobbyists,” reminding us that in such a world as we now live, God may well need lobbyists. Now we discover to our astonishment, “Christian Graveyards.”

Christianity being an Abrahamic faith rising out of the person and work of Jesus Christ, I have taken to wondering of late whether Jesus died for countries, companies and graveyards. If so, what kind of a mess will take place at the Resurrection? Taking into consideration that most of us, with the notable exception of the faceless faithful of McChurch, have fallen short of the glory of God, there may be more property rising into the air than there are believers.

After all, if the property is left behind, so also will be some of the keepers of the property. That cannot be permitted to happen in a system of collective righteousness.

Will the corporate records of Christian companies rise with the saints on that Great Day? Will there be any Democrats or Greens; will Dunkin Donuts rise again for the comfort of Republican saints? How about all those gravestones in the “Christian” cemeteries?

I understand that Service Master is a Christian company. Will they be selling franchises in Jerusalem after all the non-believing Jews are slaughtered at Armageddon and where there is neither adequate sanitation nor housing for McChurch?

Did you know that there is “Christian” music and “Christian” books? What a mess that will make at the Resurrection! All those paperbacks and CD’s!

These are questions that demand thoughtful answers – perhaps a Council or two. Maybe there is a way to leave behind the trappings of Christianity in preference to the heart of Christianity – humble, repentant sinners. The problem is, of course, that the heart has been buried under layers of entertainment.

As for me, “My hope is built on nothing less than Scofield’s notes and Scripture
Press!”

McChurch - "He who is Without Sin Cancel the First Funeral!"

Church Cancels Memorial for Gay Vet

By ANGELA K. BROWN,

AP

Posted: 2007-08-11 18:24:38

Filed Under: Nation News

ARLINGTON, Texas (Aug. 10) - A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.

Tony Gutierrez, AP

"It's a slap in the face," Kathleen Wright said after a church in Texas canceled her brother's memorial service because he was gay. "It's like, 'Oh, we're sorry he died, but he's gay so we can't help you."

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.

"It's a slap in the face. It's like, 'Oh, we're sorry he died, but he's gay so we can't help you,"' she said Friday.

Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.

The church's pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men "engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing."

Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.

"We did decline to host the service - not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle," Simons told The Associated Press. "Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it - yes, we would have declined then. It's not that we didn't love the family."

Simons said the decision had nothing to do with the obituary. He said the church offered to pay for another site for the service, made the video and provided food for more than 100 relatives and friends.

"Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness," Simons said.

Wright called the church's claim about the pictures "a bold-faced lie." She said she provided numerous family pictures of Sinclair, including some with his partner, but said none showed men kissing or hugging.

The 5,000-member High Point Church was founded in 2000 by Simons and his wife, April, whose brother is Joel Osteen, well-known pastor of the 38,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston. Now High Point meets in a 432,000-square-foot facility in Arlington, near Dallas.

Wright said relatives declined the church's offer to hold the service at a community center because they felt it was an inappropriate venue. It ultimately was held at a funeral home, but the cancellation still lingered in some minds, she said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2007-08-11 11:00:43