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Tebow Cancels Church Appearance After Media Firestorm

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Photo Credit: Jeffrey BeallTim Tebow announced on Twitter that he will no longer appear at First Baptist Church of Dallas after it caused a national uproar among journalists and gay marriage supporters. The announcement blindsided church officials and led some Christian leaders to wonder if Tebow was appeasing those who don’t support the biblical definition of marriage.

“While I was looking forward to sharing a message of hope and Christ’s unconditional love with the faithful members of the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas in April, due to new information that has been brought to my attention, I have decided to cancel my upcoming appearance,” Tebow wrote in a series of tweets Thursday morning. “I will continue to use the platform God has blessed me with to bring Faith, Hope and love to all those needing a brighter day. Thank you for all of your love and support. God Bless!”

Tebow did not elaborate on what that “new information” might have been. But sources close to First Baptist Church tell Fox News the NFL quarterback cancelled his appearance in part over the uproar surrounding the church’s position on traditional marriage.

Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church, has been an outspoken leader in the nation’s culture wars – affirming from the pulpit traditional marriage and salvation through Jesus Christ.

The national media labeled Jeffress as anti-gay and anti-Semitic – charges that were vehemently denied by the pastor, the church and many national religious leaders. Tebow’s decision has been met with praise among the nation’s gay and lesbian community.

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Study: Red States give far more to charity than Blue States

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Am I my brother’s keeper? Conservatives and churchgoers are far more likely to say “yes,” research shows. A major survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy confirms that residents of states that lean Republican and are most religious donate more of their money to charity, while more secular regions — and areas that tend to vote Democrat — give less.

But researchers caution that churchgoers are no more generous than secular Americans when donations to religious groups are excluded.

The study, which examined Internal Revenue Service information from 2008, the most recent year for which statistics were available, ranked Utahans as the most charitable people in the U.S. Residents of the heavily Mormon state gave 10.6 percent of their discretionary income to philanthropic causes in 2008. Mississippi ranked second, with 7.2 percent going to charity. Three other states in the Bible Belt — Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina — round out the top five.

Each of the top nine states in the Chronicle report voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. The seven least-generous states went for Barack Obama.

New Hampshire residents gave the least, with 2.5 percent of discretionary income going to charity. It was followed by Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, whose residents donated 2.8 percent. Residents of Rhode Island, the fifth most frugal state, gave 3.1 percent, according to the study.

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Water park ends church discounts after secular group complains

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A water park in the heart of the Bible Belt is ending the $5-per-person discount it had been offering on its entrance fee to church groups after the head of a secular charity that caters to inner-city youths requested the same deal for its kids.

The park, which hosts Bible camps throughout the summer and has long catered to church groups, charges $15 for adults, $10 for children under 15 years of age, and $9-a-head for groups over 15 people. The park knocks $6 off admission for firefighters, law enforcement and members of the military.

Undeterred, Jeff Poleet, a second ROCAN administrator, phoned David Ratliff, Willow Spring Water Park’s owner, to complain about what he felt was a discriminatory practice.

As a result, Ratliff decided to cancel the church-group discounts, rather than give ROCAN the same rebate on the park entrance fee.

Everbody, in effect, was going to have to pay the regular $10 cost for children attending the water park – and no one was going to get the old deal.

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US Church Remains in ‘Coma’ Despite Cataclysmic Events in Middle East

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The church in America is no longer simply in a slumber when it comes to its lack of awareness about the persecuted church in the Middle East; it is in a “diabetic coma,” says the leader of a persecution watchdog group in the U.S.

“For years we’ve said wake up and strengthen what remains,” Open Doors USA President and CEO Dr. Carl Moeller told The Christian Post in an exclusive interview. “We would think of the American church as a napping church and that we would elbow it and it would wake up and rouse itself and do something.

“In my mind today, the picture I have is a church in a diabetic coma that has gorged itself on the sweets of affluence, materialism, and the idolatry of worshipping the materialistic world. That diabetic coma is now life threatening. We as a church are at the point of death – not the church in the Middle East. We are the ones who can no longer rouse ourselves to even pray for an hour on behalf of things that God would have us pray for.”

Moeller said he has been working with Open Doors for almost 10 years to bring an awareness of “the suffering church to the American church conscience.”

“Revelation 3:4 says, ‘Wake up, and strengthen what remains about to die.’ For 50-plus years Open Doors has taken that verse as a motive to wake the church in the West up and to motivate them to go and strengthen what remains in the Body of Christ that is about to die in those places where the church is suffering,” he explained. “It’s always been a case where we talked about waking the church up in the West, but also serving the church that is in utter persecution.”

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Egyptian Christians Refuse Meeting with US Delegation

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Representatives of Egypt’s Orthodox and Evangelical churches on Sunday morning declined invitations to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to protest perceived US interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.

Bishop Marcus of the Coptic Orthodox Church told Ahram Online that the clergymen’s refusal to attend the meeting with Clinton was intended to voice “our rejection of US intervention in Egypt’s domestic affairs and the Americans’ strategy of favouring certain Egyptian political currents over others.”

Safwat El-Beyadi, head of Egypt’s Evangelical Church, likewise refused to meet with Clinton, as did the leaders of other churches.

A number of Christian politicians – including rights activist Michael Mounir, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party’s Emad Gad, former MP Georgette Qeleini and business tycoon Naguib Sawiris – also refused to meet with the US state secretary during her brief visit to Egypt.

In a joint statement on Sunday, they expressed their displeasure over Clinton’s decision to meet with members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community following earlier meetings with Muslim Brotherhood members and Salafists. They asserted that Clinton’s move served to “promote sectarian divisions.”

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Photo credit: ctsnow