Scrolling around...October 3, 2012

Baby Bust Continues: US Births Down For 4th Year
U.S. births fell for the fourth year in a row, the government reported Wednesday, with experts calling it more proof that the weak economy has continued to dampen enthusiasm for having children...

Christians in Europe face ‘persecution’
The seminar on Tuesday heard that Europe's Christian community was also being "marginalised" and "sidelined" on account of their views on issues such as same-sex marriage and homosexuality.

Several speakers, including MEPs, said Christians in countries like the UK faced "increasing levels of intolerance" because they had "dared" to be critical of Islam and homosexuality...

Bible Publisher Sues Challenging Contraception Coverage Mandate
A lawsuit filed yesterday by the Bible publishing company Tyndale House joins the long line of lawsuits challenging the Obama administration's contraceptive coverage mandate under the Affordable Care Act...

Gov. Jerry Brown OKs training in LGBT issues for foster parents
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill requiring foster parents and other care givers to undergo training in "cultural competency and sensitivity" regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth...

Syracuse: 'World's largest' ropes challenge course to soar above Destiny USA Mall's Canyon floor
Daredevils willing to walk the walk will be able to strut out 70-feet over the Canyon area of Destiny USA, as the upside-down WonderWorks entertainment attraction adds what is being called “the world’s largest ropes challenge course” to its list of wonders.

The Canyon Climb Adventure attraction will be suspended from the ceiling of the expansion of Destiny, where the science-oriented interactive amusement facility WonderWorks is being built on the third level.

Participants will walk, precariously, 70 feet off the Canyon floor, harnessed to the steel beams. Eighty-five people at a time can climb the various levels of the ropes course...

Nigeria: Boko Haram Islamists Murder Dozens of Students in Their Dorm Rooms
It was a black Independence Day celebration for the inhabitants of Mubi town, Adamawa State, as unknown gunmen, suspected to be members of Boko Haram, massacred at least 46 persons, mostly students of three tertiary institutions in the town. (All Africa)
Terrorists broke into a dormitory in northeastern Nigeria and shot several students dead. The Boko Haram members suspected in the attack killed from 26 to 46 people in the attack.

Hollywood Gets Religion, Again
The Wall Street Journal reports that the cinematic return of the biblical epic is at hand. Russell Crowe will star in Noah, with a 148-foot ark, copious animals, and a $125 million budget. Steven Spielberg is in talks to direct Gods and Kings about Moses, Warner Bros. secured a script about Pontius Pilate, and 20th Century Fox is having Ridley Scott direct Exodus. Sony is developing The Redemption of Cain, while Lionsgate will distribute Mary, Mother of Christ, promoted as a prequel to the highly-successful The Passion of the Christ. Why?...

Obama campaign: ‘Vote like your lady parts depend on it’

The Obama campaign has hastily yanked an e-card that appeared on its official Tumblr site today, urging viewers to “Vote like your lady parts depend on it.”

Beneath the image, a caption added, “Because they kind of do.”...

Hospitality and the Great Commission
...“You know what the key to evangelism in the 21st-century will be, don’t you?”

He wasn’t talking Global South, but the Western hemisphere — and America in particular.

I’m sure he could see on our faces how eager we were for his answer. Wow, the key, we were thinking. This is huge.

He paused and smiled that memorable Steve Childers world-evangelism grin. He waited. Still waiting. Still paused. Still nothing. Hold it . . . hold it. I was almost ready to burst with, “Just c’mon already!”

Finally he lifted the curtain.

“Hospitality.”

Then another long pause to let it sink it...

Marriage: An Astounding Letter from the Catholic Archbishop of Newark
 When Two Become One: A Pastoral Teaching on the Definition, Purpose and Sanctity of Marriage [Excellent!]

NY: Sunset Park clinic will no longer offer abortions, instead only outpatient surgical care
A Sunset Park abortion clinic has shut down after Catholic protesters drove away doctors and patients, according to the owner of the clinic.

The Ambulatory Specialty Surgery Center of Brooklyn on 43rd St., closed earlier this month and will reopen in October as a new medical center providing outpatient surgeries, but not abortion.

Catholic leaders claimed the clinic’s closure after 22 years as a victory for their anti-abortion effort. Abortion advocates said they had never heard of a clinic in the city closing under pressure from protesters...

Dangerous Late-Term Abortion Business Shut Down in Maryland
A Florida-based abortion practitioner was caught, earlier this year, running an illegal late-term abortion business in Maryland. Now, state officials have shut it down...

School polygamy poster causes controversy in Canada
...The poster declares: “Love has no gender” and shows a variety of relationships including an image of one man and two women, and two men and one woman.
Toronto District School Board has tried to defend the poster, but has come under fire for being “blind” to its effect...The “Love has no gender” poster is one of five different designs, including one that bears the words: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re in your school”...

One in five ‘brain dead’ patients still alive, claims lawsuit
At least one in five patients declared “brain dead” and approved as “organ donors” by one organ donation organisation, are in fact still alive and are being killed by the removal of vital organs, a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan alleges. The suit outlines the ghoulish worst-case scenario, one that was widely dismissed as scaremongering in the early days of the development of organ transplant technology, but which is getting a second hearing amidst growing concerns that coercion and abuse are becoming increasingly common in the highly lucrative transplant business...

Planned Parenthood Has 80-Year-Old Woman Arrested for Praying
The Planned Parenthood abortion business in Missouri got local police there to arrest an 80-year-old woman for praying outside its facility during the 40 Days for Life event.

Rita Sparrow was part of the 40 Days for Life campaign in St. Louis but the 80-year-old woman was arrested today after sitting in a chair outside of the local Planned Parenthood abortion facility. [accused of littering!] Comments at MCJ