Was Noah's flood a sign of climate change devastation to come?
in the London Times Online

Noah’s flood may have been responsible for the birth of modern civilisation across Western Europe, according to research. More...

Tony Jones Interviews Brian McLaren About His New Book
in the Emergent Village

Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, interviews Brian about the book Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope and some of the blog reviews (positive and negative) he's received. Listen to the podcast here...

Interfaith dialogue ponders conversion issues

In August, the World Evangelical Alliance joined the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Pontifical Council in a dialogue at Toulouse, France, aimed at creating a code of conduct targeting "undue pressure" on people to change religions. More...

Mitt Romney Speech on Religion

With 39% of evangelical voters not comfortable with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith, he made a case in a televised December 6 speech that concerns about his religion are out of bounds. Romney: "Let me assure you that no authorities of my church will ever exert influence on presidential decisions." Pundits are comparing the speech to the one John F. Kennedy gave about his "religious issue" on September 12, 1960. Watch the video.

'Compass' an attack on Christianity

Many Christians are writing off the "The Golden Compass" movie as a direct attack by a gifted atheist writer against Christianity. God's Politics, a blog by Rev. Jim Wallis and friends, has a review on the flick. While the writer doesn't think it promotes atheism he does call it "boring." More...

This cinematic watered down version of Phillip Pullman's children's novel hardly accomplishes what the book set out to do. Hollywood to the rescue? Read "How Hollywood Saved God."

Officers injured, Oakwood students arrested after melee. Not all students agree on police conduct

Huntsville Police are still investigating a fight that broke out December 12 on Oakwood College's campus. Two officers were injured, some 16 students were arrested. The story has already made national news. According to several reports, as police arrested one of the females involved in the fight, hundreds of angry students gathered around the cruiser, shaking and rocking it, trying to get the female out. Officers used pepper spray and force for crowd control. "Of the 16 arrests, four individuals have been charged with felony assault for attacking police officers," says HPD Spokesperson Wendell Johnson. He classified the fight as a riot, and said all three precincts responded. Find reports here and here . Reactions from student eyewitnesses did not match the stories being published. Freshman Shola Martey is outraged. She was one of the many girls arrested and claims while trying to leave the fight she was thrown on the ground by a police officer. In the Chronicle of Higher Education news blog, several Oakwood College students wrote in and confirmed that the police overreacted. Read comments here. A press conference on Tuesday included a statement by Oakwood College President Dr. Delbert Baker. WAFF 48 News in Huntsville was there and captured this video report - view it here. On Wednesday, Oakwood College officials announced that they are conducting their own investigation. Read it here.

Slain Football Star Had Adventist Ties

By now the whole world knows about Sean Taylor - the professional football player and pro bowl safety for the Washington Redskins, who was shot by intruders in his home while protecting his 18-month-old daughter and young wife. What most people don't know is that Taylor was attending the Perrine Seventh-day Adventist Church in Miami. Taylor's pastor, David Peay Sr. talked about God fielding a football team in heaven. "I think he's set at the position of safety for eternity." Peay adds, "He gave his life with right decisions. He laid down his life for his family. Sean was doing what he was supposed to. He wasn't in the street. He was home." More in the Adventist Review.

Fossil hunter digs up climate clues
in the Denver Post

Kirk Johnson, 47, is a top suit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and grew up an observant Seventh Day Adventist believing in the 6,000 year Earth theories taught by the church.

One day, around age 17, he stood in a fossil lake bed in British Columbia and calculated about 30,000 layers. If each layer took even just a year to form, it would make the lake bed 30,000 years old. That day, he says, he realized that his religion's fixation upon a 6,800-year-old world conflicted with what he now believed. Read the article.

Young Adult Pastor Given Prestigious Sheaf Award

The Sheaf Award for Excellence in Personal and Public Evangelism from the Pacific Union Conference was given to pastor Danny Chan of the Eagle Rock SDA Church in Los Angeles for his work on the innovative Renovatus podcast and his involvement with Peacefeed.com. His podcast is the first enhanced Adventist podcast for young adults which contains images and web links along with the audio message. Peacefeed.com features several Adventist podcasts for young adults, including the Renovatus podcast, and is being promoted nationwide. Read Danny's interview with Adventist Today.

Carter Baptizes Muslims
from the Carter Report

Retired Australian pastor John Carter says that his latest evangelistic campaign in Russia is the most significant he has ever run. More than half of those baptised were Muslims. Carter states in his report: " We saw Moslems [sic] baptized in front of their fabulous mosque. I don't think such a spectacle has ever before been witnessed in the history of the world. We are not talking about something done in secret - we're describing an event that happened publicly one Sabbath morning in broad daylight with a multitude watching. Militia with sub machine guns at the ready stood among the crowd, just in case we were attacked by terrorists." More...

AZERBAIJAN: "If you meet again you'll be imprisoned," Adventists told
in the Forum 18 website

Police who raided a worship service of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the capital Baku on Saturday, December 8 told the congregation's leaders that they will be imprisoned if they meet again. Pastor Rasim Bakhshiyev stated "They insulted us, asking why we had no books about [the Muslim prophet] Muhammad and why we preach Jesus without informing them. I calmly told them that we preach Jesus Christ and that our faith commands us to be peaceable in our preaching. They said we shouldn't preach Jesus Christ." More...

in the Parsons Sun

The declining membership in the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the United States in the last couple of decades has taken its toll on many smaller, rural churches, leaving some with no option but to close their doors. More...

Dallas settles suit with Seventh-day Adventist
in The Dallas Morning News

The city of Dallas will have to pay $55,000 to a Seventh-day Adventist code inspector, who sued the city in federal court for making her work on her Sabbath. More...

TV News Report: Groundbreaking At Southern Adventist University

To help tackle the nation's nursing shortage, the School of Nursing at SAU broke ground recently for construction of the Center for Nursing Education. Watch the news report.

The latest coming out of the Adventist blogosphere.

Asphalt Adventist: From the What-Were-You-Thinking-Dept., an objectionable letter written by an anonymous SDA fundamentalist was published in the Dec. newsletter (page 23) of the Zola Levitt Ministries - put out by Jewish-Christians. The SDA in question states that Jews are rejected by God and that "Adventists are now God's chosen people." Blogger Jarrod J. Williamson, Ph.D., reports on the story and even called and e-mailed the writer, a Jewish scholar, to apologize on behalf of SDA's. Click on the blog link for Williamson's report/apology. Click here for the newsletter.

Bere Adventist Hospital: Dr. James Appel, an Adventist missionary practicing medicine in a remote area of Tchad, blogs about his experiences treating AIDS and malaria in the most harsh and adverse conditions. This month he brings his usual, captivating wit to describe what happens when patients ignore a hernia their entire lives. Fair warning: it's graphic, but brutally honest and entertaining.

Reaching Alaska for Jesus: Not to be cut-off from the rest of the world, Warren and Verity Downs report on lay-pastoring a small church in the native Inpiaq Eskimo village of Selawik, Alaska.

Christian Adventist's: Prophecy aficionado Eric. W. King defends "God's true church" against those pesky offshooters from Creation Seventh Day Adventists, who recently called the Adventist church "babylon."

Right End of the Telescope: Making the blogosphere roundup twice in a row, Ken McFarland gives a great report on the movie "Golden Compass" and Philip Pullman's anti-God volumes entitled His Dark Materials.

Eat This: The "International Chef of Mystery" continues to find and publish the finest in recipes for your culinary adventures. Tuna Quiche anyone?

Jeff's Justice Journal: Multi-blogger Jeff Boyd (also a contributor to Adventist Environmental Advocacy) attempts to answer the questions, "What does justice look like in our postmodern, pluralistic world created by God?" and "What does the Bible teach about justice?" You'll also find an impressive link roll of peace and social justice causes.

Zambian Adventists: From June '07. Chikonga Gwaba of Zambia must've just received the memo about contemporary worship music. He takes offense at seeker-sensitive services in U.S. churches: "It has become apparent to me that the Seventh Day Adventist Church in North America has lost its Identity and is now wondering after the ways of the world and those of the Evangelical Charismatic movement. The music in our churches today would probably give God's Messenger sister White a heart attack!" Welcome to 1987, Chikonga.