Back in May of 2006, while in the employ of Christianity Today International, I was asked to do a little something for my boss, Kevin Miller, a CTI vice president and leader of the Resources division.

Kevin's a great guy, a good friend, and an excellent manager — a true joy to work with. When his 20th anniversary at CTI came due, we wanted to do something to poke a little fun at him while still honoring him for his 20 years of service.

CTI took a huge risk asking me to put anytng together, knowing my style of humor (many waited with bated breath and crossed fingers, dreading the final result, and eagerly looking forward to the entertaining train-wreck it was sure to be). Who's great

The light of the Church on Earth is a bit dimmer today, but the chorus in Heaven is that much more joyful.

Statement by the President Regarding the Death of Ruth Bell Graham
Contact: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 202-456-2580

WASHINGTON, June 14 /Standard Newswire/ -- the following is a statement by the President regarding the death of Ruth Bell Graham:

Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Ruth Bell Graham, a remarkable woman of faith whose life was defined by her belief in a personal, loving, and gracious God. She was an encouraging friend, accomplished poet, and devoted mother of five and grandmother of 19.

Ruth's marriage to her husband Billy was a true and loving

Why so many problems begin with frustrated desire

Every day, headlines assault us with troubling news. These recent titles from a local news website are just a small sampling:

• Two Shotgunned to Death [source]
• Joyriding Gang Member Slain; Crash Injures Family [source]
• Local Soldier Dies in Afghanistan [source]
• School Gets Tough on Commencement Outbursts [source]
• Wife Gets $184 Million in Divorce Ruling [source]

From international to household warfare, roadway to classroom outrage, and mortal to financial loss, such stories reveal our fallen, human propensity to sin.

The cause of these impulsive, sinful outbursts is no secret: When we want what we cannot get, we lash out.

What causes fights and quarrels among

Greed is the surprising accompaniment to almost all our sins.

We all like lists. They help create organized presentations, and they are easy to remember. Perhaps that is why God chose a list format to present some of his most well-known laws. But what if we took that list — the Ten Commandments — and reduced it to its essence? What basic sins would we identify? One hopelessly alliterative preacher condensed the Decalogue to a clever three-point quip: man's chief temptations are "gold, girls, and glory." Gary Downing, in his article "Accountability That Makes Sense," agrees, calling them "the three issues with which we all struggle: money, sex, and power."

But perhaps we could distill even further, to a sort of grand unifying sin: greed. It is the misplaced love and desire that drives broken

While things are confusing down here, we can always trust in the hope of heaven.

About an hour northeast of Indianapolis on April 26, 2006, a tractor-trailer drifted across the Interstate 69 median. In its path: ten students and staff in a Taylor University van. The tractor ripped through one side of the van, scattering wallets, purses, and debris across the dark roadway and sending five souls into eternity.

In the accident's aftermath, one survivor was identified as Laura VanRyn, and officials contacted her family as she was airlifted from the site in a comatose state. Over the next several weeks the VanRyn family kept constant and prayerful vigil at her bedside while she struggled out of her coma.

Then came the shattering revelation: the young woman they lovingly watched over did not answer to the name Laura VanRyn. Instead, a battered and broken stranger lay in her place: fellow Taylor student and

In some cultures and eras, apostates face certain death. In America, it's the church that's dying from apostasy.

Apostate — it's not exactly a common word. But for those doomed to hear its rare pronouncement, it can mean imminent death or serious eternal consequences.

Like repentance, apostasy implies a rejection or abandonment of a practice, ideal, or belief. And one religion's penitent is another one's apostate.

This irony became apparent in the first formal court case involving charges of apostasy in Kuwait. The court found Hussein Qambar Ali guilty for converting from Islam to Christianity in December 1995. Since Shari'ah law in Kuwait (and many other Islamic societies) prescribes the death sentence for apostasy, the court called for Ali's execution, along with the termination of his marriage and the distribution of his possessions to heirs.

"Apostasy in the Islamic world is serious," said Ali. "Anyone, even an ordinary person, has the right

Last year, on October 3, I did a live interview with John Hall and Stephanie Fraschetti from Word-FM about the "Jesus Camp" documentary that was then the height of Evangelical fear-mongering (start here if you don't know what I'm talking about: "Jesus Camp: Brainwashed in the Blood — or Is it Spin?"). At least that was before the Ted Haggard fracas blew up.

Not long before this interview took place, I had also been interviewed by MSNBC for its program, "The Most." (If you're interested, see "Jesus Camp and BlogRodent on MSNBC."). It was interesting experiencing these two interview formats back-to-back. I enjoyed being on "The Most" as a floating-head talker, but I really enjoyed chatting with John

As I have mentioned in various posts throughout this weblog, I have been a proud employee of Christianity Today International for some time now. After serving as the first webmaster for the General Council of the Assemblies of God and a brief stint as a self-employed consultant, I was invited to join CTI's staff by Vice-President of R&D, John LaRue.

That was in the late-summer of 1999. I already had a relationship with CTI by then because when the A/G first decided to go online in 1995, we did it through CTI's America Online content-provider area, "Christianity Today Online." In order for the A/G to provide content on AOL via CTI, I was sent to the CT offices in Carol Stream to learn how to use the AOL "Rainmaker" system for content-management. (What a headache that system was!) As it turned out, only a few of us outside content providers ever took advantage of the training CTI provided after returning home, and that apparently made me noteworthy in CTI's eyes. So, when Judy Gill, office manager for the content production team at that time, found out that I was no longer working for HQ, she prevailed upon John LaRue to find a way for me to come work on staff in an official capacity.

At 2:40 PM (CST) on Tuesday, September 26, I "appeared" on MSNBC's 'Net review: The Most, with Alison Stewart. Alison's producer spoke with Mark Moring, editor for the Christianity Today Movies channel, wondering if he'd be willing to answer a few questions about Jesus Camp on-air.

Since I'd seen the documentary and recently written an article for CT Movies, he deferred to me. I nervously accepted the opportunity.

I appeared not as a representative of Christianity Today (my employer), but as "a Pentecostal blogger" writing for Christianity Today Movies.

For three minutes, I fielded three questions:

• "What did you walk away from this documentary thinking about Evangelical camps for kids?"
• "Becky Fischer ...

Jesus Camp, what an experience. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's investigation into the hidden world of one Pentecostal kids' camp simultaneously delighted me, fascinated me, and embarrassed me. I love this film. I hate this film.

It angers me.

For those who haven't seen the trailer, by now, the premise is simple: follow three pre-teens from Missouri heading to a summer camp owned by the Assemblies of God in Devils Lake, North Dakota (Lakewood Park Bible Camp). Document their experiences there, and follow up on the aftermath. Simple enough.

But the devil, as they say, is in the details. Or, in this case, the future Evangelical Army of God is in the details. As Ewing and Grady have noted, their initial raw footage had no real drama: "There was absolutely no conflict. … it wasn't dynamic enough." So, toss in a conflicted profile of the "Kids on Fire" camp director, Becky Fischer; include a few oddball characters for color and commentary; stir up dissent using Air America radio host Mike Papantonio and his uninformed Greek chorus of callers. Then get a major Charismatic Evangelical to appear in the documentary to give your subtext some heft and legitimacy and tie it all together with a neat little bow called George Bush and the Supreme Court.

This is a repost of a recent article for CTLibrary.com. Enjoy, and please post your reactions. (For a related post, see, "Violence and Entertainment.")

Is mounting teen violence evidence of the effects of violent video games?
CHRISTIANITY TODAY LIBRARY | RICHARD TATUM | JULY 31, 2006

On Tuesday, March 24, 1998, two cousins, aged 13 and 11, soldiered up. Donning camouflage and armed with handguns and rifles, they hid in the trees near Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, while an accomplice set off the school's fire alarm. The ambush came off with military perfection: firing only 27 shots, the juvenile commandos killed 4 middle-school girls, 1 teacher, and wounded 11 others fleeing the building.

While most planned acts of violence in school are probably foiled, many attempts have been successful in recent years, including several well-publicized events. Beyond the immediate tragedy and bloody aftermath, one troubling aspect of these events is the lack of a profile for children prone to violence. Apparently, children "snap" into violence, and there's simply no predicting the fracture.

But something is clearly causing a "tipping point," driving children to violence in increasing numbers. The catalyst, many say, is violent media — specifically, gory video games that desensitize players to violence, train them in deadly shooting skills, and reward killing without consequences.

I haven’t been blogging much of late because nearly every waking hour for the past three weeks has been focused on the imminent launch of the latest online training course I’ve been tinkering with (no—more like beating myself senseless against) at work.

I’m responsible for selecting and preparing content for one of ChristianityToday.com’s websites: CTCourses.com (short for ChristianityTodayCourses.com, natch). So far, since our launch in early January, 2006, we’ve managed to push two courses out the door, one on how to host small groups, featuring Brett Eastman, and another free course on managing email overload, featuring Kevin Miller (my supervisor at CT, freshly ordained Anglican priest, and also author of a book on managing information overload).

Tomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll be launching the third course, and we

Christianity Today just released an article by Sarah Sumner that so nicely exegetes Ephesians 5 that I am compelled to share it with you here. Not only that, I want to be sure to remember this, so it’s going into my blog as part of my online brain.

Article Summary
Sarah comes right out of the gates with the observation that we have read into Scripture what was probably never intended: that the metaphor describing the union between man and wife (we become one flesh, one body) and the imagery of that metaphor (that the man is the head, the wife is the body, as Christ is the head of the Church and we are his body) has been taken too far.

Ephesians 5 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up

Okay, after laboriously setting up a feed reader for myself so I can finally stay on top of all the feeds referenced in my PneumaBlogs and CTI-Blogs pages, I was also able to set up a couple pages here on BlogRodent to help you (and me) easily see what the latest posts are from these little slices of the blogosphere.

So, for your delectation, enjoyment, and frivolous wasting of time, I present to you:

PneumaBlogs Headlines (and excerpts)

CTI-Blogs Headlines (and excerpts)

Enjoy! Come back to see me some time.

(Note, if you’re a PneumaBlogger or a CTI-Blogger and your posts are not showing up on this page, it’s probably because your feed is broken, or it was impossible to find it. Contact me if you want to get added.)

[tags]BlogRodent, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical, Christian, religion, feeds, Christianity-Today, headlines, rss, OPML, PneumaBlogs, CTI-Blogs, latest-news[/tags]

Christianity Today just published an interview with Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. It’s a concise and interesting interview, well worth the read. It comes on the heels of his latest book: The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism. According to editor Mark Galli, in this book, Witherington “makes a positive argument for how biblical interpretation should be done in an increasingly postmodern setting.”

Here’s the link to the article:

The Problem with Evangelical Theologies
Ben Witherington III thinks there is something fundamentally weak about each branch of the movement.
Interview by Mark Galli | posted 11/09/2005 09:00 a.m.

Here’s an excerpt that is clearly relevant for Pentecostals:

So, what is the problem

For years I've bemoaned the lack of serious, thoughtful, theologically rich lyrics in the praise songs and worship choruses I'm subjected to at church. Some of the recent praise and worship music remedies that, but I'm still occasionally struck silent by vacuous, empty lyrics using clichés to resonate with worshipers and the time-tested trick of singing a single chorus line over and over until we all fall into a trance-like worship state.

:: sigh ::

I miss scripture in my worship. I miss theology in my worship. I miss the hymns.

But what I don’t necessarily miss are the hymn’s melodies and forms. As my wife and I have discussed this, I’ve often wondered aloud why church worship directors don’t apply their musical talents to translate older hymns into contemporary sounds. Okay, maybe most church worship and music directors really aren’t that good at creating

Christianity Today finally got around to covering a story that caught my attention back in August (I wrote, “Separation of God and science?”). If you’re interested, read it here: “Admissions: Rejected: Christian school sues University of California over requirements.”

Here's an excerpt:

"The question the university must confront in reviewing these texts is not whether they have religious content," the university said, "but whether they provide a comprehensive view of the relevant subject matter, reflecting knowledge generally accepted in the scientific and educational communities and with which a student at the university level should be conversant."

For example, the university said it rejected the literature course for using an anthology as the only required text.

"It's not that we're not allowing a particular viewpoint," UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina said. "We're saying that we require certain disciplines that in these cases are not there."

Doesn’t seem

Earlier this week (November 1), Tim Morgan at Christianity Today posted a story about the South to South Encounter of top Anglican delegates in Egypt. Morgan’s story is an excellent overview of the current issues threatening to tear apart the Anglican world. It’s worth the read:

Anglicans ‘Severely Wounded’
At a top summit in Egypt, conservatives call for a Scripture-affirming covenant.
by Timothy C. Morgan in Ain Sukhna, Suez, Egypt

Following are some key quotes from the story:

Gay ordinations, same-sex unions, and acceptance of the homosexual bishop, V. Gene Robinson, have sharply increased tensions among Anglicans worldwide. Talk of schism is no longer speculation.

From an eight-page statement released after the meeting:

“We [in the Global South] reject the expectation that our lives in Christ should conform to the misguided theological, cultural, and sociological norms associated with sections of the West.”

Regarding the growth

In the spirit of my PneumaBlogs page, I’ve added another compilation of blog links to official Christianity Today blogs, links to unofficial personal CTI blogs, and links to ex-employees and affiliated CTI blogs. I hope you enjoy it. This is not an official list, it is not approved my employer, nor are all the links on this page representative of CTI opinion.

Christianity Today Blogs and Bloggers

[tags]BlogRodent, Christianity-Today, christianitytoday, CTI, Christianity-Today-International, blogs, bloggers, godblogs, writers, Christianity, Evangelical[/tags]