[Telegraph]

More than half of Britons think Christianity is likely to have disappeared from the country within a century, according to a survey. Research by the Orthodox Jewish organisation Aish found that just over a third of people thought religions like Christianity and Judaism would still be practiced in Britain in 100 years’ time.

Although four in 10 people said they would choose to be a member of the Christian religion, almost the same number said they would rather practice no religion at all.

Buddhism however, proved more attractive than both Islam and Judaism, and was chosen by nine per cent of those questioned. Aish UK’s executive director Rabbi Naftali Schiff said the results of the YouGov poll of 2,000 people were alarming.

“It clearly demonstrates that religion, including Judaism, is becoming unattractive to the British public.

Research published earlier this year suggested that church attendance is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation.

Read about it here.

[From the Bible]

Judges 2:10

After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.

[From me]

This is why I’m so passionate about seeing our next generation coming to faith in Christ.  If we don’t find ways to reach people in our nation to Christ this could be what happens to us.  We can say we’ve always done it this way or that way.  We can say the church is for believers.  But what about the millions of people who are dying and going to hell unless we find ways to connect them?  I for one would rather go after the one who is lost than the 99 who have Christ.

What do you think?

Yesterday I asked the question are Mormons Christians?  It seems that the Mormon sect desperately wants everyone to believe they are Christians.  The fact is that most Mormons are good, fine, upstanding, moral people.  In fact they often act like Christians.  Even worse, they act more like Christians than some Christians.

I’m an observer of culture.  It appears to me that many Christians want so desperately to be accepted by the world that they don’t even act like Christians.  What makes us different than the world?  Now there are some who go to far extremes and have their own little sub culture.  They will never change the culture because they avoid it.  But there are others that want to be hip and cool so they live like everyone else around them.

The divorce rate in the church is as high as those who aren’t beleivers.  Christians are involved in extra-marital affairs just like other people.  Christians lie, steal and cheat.  Famous Christian leaders are engaging in high profile sins.  Christians subsribe to HBO, Showtime, etc.. and go to sex filled, and profanity ladened movies.  Pornography is a dirty little secret that the church ignores.  Christians don’t act that much different than the rest of the world.  I believe some are stealing what it means to be a Christian.  Jesus didn’t die for our sins to give us a license to sin.

When it comes to faith, I’ve heard people say they believe in the 3 “F’s” (Faith, facts and figures).  That’s funny because Jesus didn’t live that way. Tell that to Peter who walked on water. The facts sure didn’t point to that happenng.  Tell that to Lazarus who was raised from being dead for over 3 days.  Who in their right mind thought that he would rise from the dead.  I don’t see much faith anymore.  Usually what I hear is remember when God did___________(fill in the blank)?  It usually something He did 10 years before.  I fell into that trap last fall and Craig Groeschel rocked my world by preaching a message called “Practical Atheisim” at Catalyst. His family was actually praying that all of us in that conference would be disturbed.  I couldn’t sleep for 3 days.  I realized that I was living by what I could do and not trusting God to move in only a way that He could.  I wanted my children to see God do something in our family while they were at home. I don’t want to tell stories about God moving–I want them to see God at work!

When is the last time you saw God move?  When is the last time you saw God do something in your life that only He could do?  Are you really living like a Christian?  I ask this question to myself as I write this.  I’m at a crisis of belief point in my life.  I’m having to truly rely on God to move.  The facts and figures don’t make sense, but Jesus wants me to follow Him not the facts and figures.

So are Christians really Christians?

What do you think?

[Cleveland Leader]

Peekaboo Pole Dancing, the company behind Carmen Electra’s pole dancing kit, announced a few weeks ago that they were seeking a partner to license a pole dancing game for the Nintendo Wii. Since then people around the world have been asking the same question: “Why?”

MTV caught up with the Peekaboo people, and spoke with a company rep who said:

“Peekaboo will be all about fun and fitness for a new generation. Peekaboo wants to make the fitness benefits of aerobic pole dancing accessible to millions of Wii users. The goal is to encourage men and women of all shapes and sizes to improve their pole dancing skills while having fun, toning up and burning calories. Ultimately Peekaboo and AT New Media want to do for pole dancing what ‘Guitar Hero‘ did for rock n roll!”

As for the pole peripheral development, the game’s ESRB rating and how the game would actually work (we imagine you’d need hands on the pole as well as on controllers), he declined to disclose those details. Kay did claim that the company is already in talks with developers and publishers for the Wii title, though they “will still entertain other third parties.”

Peekaboo also said that they were looking for a mobile phone partner to bring a similar game to mobile devices.

Source here.

[From me]

What’s next?  How about just Wii for prostitution?  Why not a game to teach the art of strip tease?  Why not just virtual sex?  Even unbelievers should see the dangers of something this stupid.  But I doubt it.

What do you think?

[AP]

Televangelist Juanita Bynum says in a two-part episode of “Divorce Court” that she’s through with her marriage to minister Thomas W. Weeks III, who is on probation for assaulting her.

In episodes scheduled to air Thursday and Friday, Bynum also says she had thoughts of suicide and weighs in on a case involving domestic violence. When asked what advice she had for women in situations similar to hers, she said, “I have to make a decision … to take the love that I had for him with me.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

Divorce Court?  That is a great way to keep your personal life out of the headlines.  From what I’ve read she needed to distance herself but dragging her marriage through the mud on DC?  O well.

What do you think?

[Christian Post]

After months of revived debate over divorce and its increasing acceptance among Americans, a new study affirmed born again Christians are just as likely as the average American couple to divorce.

The Barna Group found in its latest study that born again Christians who are not evangelical were indistinguishable from the national average on the matter of divorce with 33 percent having married and divorced at least once. Among all born again Christians, which includes evangelicals, the divorce figure is 32 percent, which is statistically identical to the 33 percent figure among non-born again adults, the research group noted.

“There no longer seems to be much of a stigma attached to divorce; it is now seen as an unavoidable rite of passage,” George Barna, who directed the study, stated in the study, which was released Monday.

Read about it here. 

[From me]

What can you say?  Sad.  You would think that people would take their marriages more seriously because of their faith.  Love isn’t a feeling–it is an action.

What do you think?