Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[AP] The price of oil recorded its biggest weekly drop ever, and a gallon of gas finally pulled back from its record high. So is it time to declare the energy bubble popped? Read about it here. [From me] Where is the biggest drop in gas prices?  When crude goes up the price at the pump goes up immediately.  Why don't thy drop the price now that they had the biggest drop ever? What do you think? Read More

[Telegraph] John Lennon famously claimed the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, even predicting that Christianity would "vanish and shrink". But 28 years after his death, in an interview being broadcast for the first time, he claims that on the contrary, he hoped to encourage people to focus on the Christian faith. Despite his familiar image as a hippy icon who invited us to imagine a world without religion, Lennon says he was "one of Christ's biggest fans" and felt emotional in church. In the interview, ... Read More

[BBC News]   A minister posed as a tramp and gatecrashed his own service to teach churchgoers about "acceptance". The Reverend Derek Rigby donned a wig and some torn clothes and surrounded himself with lager cans and syringes in the church doorway on Sunday morning. Most of the congregation at the Trinity Methodist Church in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, ignored the intruder. The vicar said most were "embarrassed" by their behaviour when he finally revealed himself during the service. The former police officer had told the congregation he would be ... Read More

[From the Honorable Sen. Chuck Grassley] GRASSLEY UPDATE ON MINISTRY RESPONSES, BACKGROUND QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS DOCUMENT       M E M O R A N D U M To: Reporters and Editors Re: Ministry responses Da: Monday, July 7, 2008 On Nov. 5, 2007, Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, wrote to six media-based ministries, seeking information about various issues related to tax-exempt policy. The Committee on Finance has exclusive Senate jurisdiction over tax policy. On March 11, Grassley and Sen. Max Baucus, committee chairman, wrote follow-up ... Read More

[Times Online] “It is not yours, it is God's, and you are not going to get it.” So saith Kenneth Copeland, the television evangelist, when asked to submit his ministry's private financial records to Washington. Mr Copeland is one of at least six American “televangelists” facing the scrutiny of a senate investigation for alleged financial wrongdoing. The Eagle Mountain International Church - otherwise known as the Kenneth Copeland Ministries - preaches a doctrine of financial prosperity, with the promise that God can make a ... Read More