Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Christian Post]Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy.Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, confronted speculations that he had been a closeted Christian during an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.

“Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies – I can’t use any other word – about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit to the Sacro Convento friary, where the remains of St. Francis of Assisi lie,” Gorbachev said, according to an Interfax article posted Friday.

“To sum up and avoid any misunderstandings, let me say that I have been and remain an atheist,” he stated. 

Media agencies had jumped to conclusions when Gorbachev visited St. Francis’ tomb last Wednesday and was seen kneeling for half an hour in silence at the tomb.

Read about it here. 

[From me] 

Maybe the media needs to take some crash courses on journalism.  Call the man himself and ask him–don’t jump to conclusions.  I’ve been to some of the USSR monuments when I went on a mission trip a few years back but that doesn’t make me a communist.  All this does is make me pray for Mr. Gorbachev.

What do you think? 

[Christian Post]

Actress Kate Walsh, who plays a doctor on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” television series, is receiving criticism from pro-life advocates for faulting abstinence education for the rising pregnancy and STD rates among teen girls.

Walsh, a member of the board of advisors of Planned Parenthood, attended a congressional briefing on sex education on Capitol Hill on Thursday, during which she advocated cutting out all government funding for abstinence education, according to the D.C.-based Family Research Council.

Walsh also took her sex education campaign to airwaves on Friday’s CBS The Early Show, where she told co-anchor Julie Chen, “Abstinence-only is not working. It’s a $1.5 billion program over the last ten years that has, quite frankly, failed.  She attempted to link abstinence-only education to the rising STD rates among teens by citing the recent Center for Disease Control statistics which showed that at least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease.

The actress called for more government spending on sex-ed, noting that private foundations and parents should not be trusted sources.

Walsh, whose “Grey’s Anatomy” character engages in activity like sexual romps in the hospital closet on the show, also revealed her take on abstinence, saying that to expect

“everybody to remain abstinent is just – it’s like asking them not to grow.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

Kate, you play a doctor on TV but you have no idea what you are talking about.  There is only one way to prevent STD’s!  Abstinence for singles and monogamy for married couples.  There is no other full proof way!  People like her just want to justify their behavior by making God’s plan to sound old fashion or outdated.

What do you think?

[Yahoo]

The three siblings of a girl who died of diabetes that went untreated as her parents prayed instead of taking her to a doctor have been removed from the home during an investigation, police said Friday. The parents and social services experts agreed the move would be best for everyone, Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said. The children are staying with other relatives, though they were not in danger, he said.

“There is no physical evidence of abuse or neglect,” he said.

Madeline Neumann, 11, died Sunday the Weston home of an undiagnosed but treatable form of diabetes as her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, prayed for her to get better. Her mother said she never expected her daughter, whom she called Kara, to die.

The family believes in the Bible, which says healing comes from God, Leilani Neumann said.

The children removed from the home range in age from 13 to 16 and are expected to return to their parents once an investigation of the girl’s death wraps up, Vergin said.

There is no intent. They didn’t want their child to die. They thought what they were doing was the right thing,” he said. “They believed up to the time she stopped breathing she was going to get better. They just thought it was a spiritual attack. They believed if they prayed enough she would get through it.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

When I first heard this story last week I was angered.  I thought what parent would not take their child to the emergency room or doctor.  But I don’t know what these parents were thinking.  They were not trying to harm their child.  They wanted God to heal them.  So is this child abuse?

What do you think?

[Free Republic]

One Toronto church decided that they had enough of divisiveness this Lenten season, and decided to take a stand. No more would incendiary rhetoric be used to inflame the passions of the congregation. No more would the United Church endorse an outdated theology, at least not the West Hill Protestant United Christian Church. Their pastor struck these dreaded words from their Easter hymnal …. Jesus Christ?

That triumphal barnburner of an Easter hymn, Jesus Christ Has Risen Today – Hallelujah, this morning will rock the walls of Toronto’s West Hill United Church as it will in most Christian churches across the country.

But at West Hill on the faith’s holiest day, it will be done with a huge difference. The words “Jesus Christ” will be excised from what the congregation sings and replaced with “Glorious hope.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

How can you be a “Christian” church without Jesus?  Why not just be a club?  Why not sing Louie, Louie or Shout instead?  Why not just have the Easter Bunny deliver the message?  The church didn’t want to be divisive?  Unbelievable!

What do you think?