The Faith and Freedom Coalition has announced they will go all-in for the President, according to The Hill. They claim they will register a million conservative Christian voters and mobilize an army 30 million people nationwide.

"Trump's support among Christian voters is at an absolute fever pitch right now," Lance Lemmonds, the group's communications director said. The group is led by anti-abortion extremist Ralph Reed, who has turned his gaze on LGBTQ rights as a more lucrative cash cow. Read more

A "Winning Souls to Jesus" programme run by the New Methodist Christian Fellowship requested a licence to occupy Northcroft Domain for five months. Continue reading

"Here's the interesting thing," writes Narelle Henson, "a group called simply "Protestants" by Statistics New Zealand grew by 26.4 percent from the previous census in 2006."

A group called "Evangelical, Born Again and Fundamental" grew by 11.2 percent.

In a recent interview on RNZ, Graeme Morris from Victoria University said he was fascinated by the fact that the Catholic Church's size as a percentage of the population has remained consistent from the late nineteenth century through to the present day.

Morris suggested three reasons for this phenomenon:

• The inter-linking between the Catholic religion and Irish culture
• The effectiveness of the Catholic education system
• The arrival of immigrants from countries where the Catholic Church is very strong.

He went on to say it is not all good news for the Catholic religion because, in terms of percentages, it is "treading water". It's not growing in terms of the size of the percentage of our population.

On the other hand, as Henson points out in her opinion piece, the evangelical religions are growing.

This growth was the topic for another recently published article, Am I at a rock concert or religious gathering?

The trend has caught the eye of experts around the world because it bucks the secularisation theory made popular in the 1950s which predicted that, in modern, educated societies, devout belief would not survive.

Henson says that the same trend appears to be happening in America.

According to the Pew Research Centre, traditional religion is in sharp decline.

But Chosen Religion (based on conversion) seems to be growing, in countries both modern and modernising.

And secularism's growth is flattening out.

Source

• Waikato Times
• RNZ
• Image: New Zealand Geographic

He was speaking after some parents had expressed concern that an American Christian preacher Reggie Dabbs gave a motivational speech at Kapiti College.

Kane said the speech was motivational, and he was given "absolute restrictions" not to preach.

Dabbs spoke to about 280 year 9 and 10 pupils on Thursday as part of a New Zealand tour.

He also spoke at Wellington College and Rongotai College.

At the end of his speech, flyers advertising Arise Church's Impact convention at Wellington's Opera House on Friday night were made available.

Kane said he was "not uncomfortable" with the flyers.

"I understand that people could see it as stealth evangelism, and I think if the words Arise Church were not on the flyer, that would be completely fair comment."

Lisa Rodgers, Ministry of Education head of early learning and student achievement, said Kane had done the right thing putting restrictions on Dabbs.

"It's unfortunate if the speaker took advantage of the situation by distributing flyers for his Church," she said.

Teaching in state schools was required to be secular but Boards of Trustees can close a class or the school for up to 20 hours a year to offer religious instruction for students to participate in on a voluntary basis.

In May, Dabbs was criticised for delivering motivational speeches at Victorian state schools, incensing parents who said his presentation was deceptive and went against the ideals of a secular education.

Image:

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: Twitter

Nedward "Ned" Flanders, is a character in the long running TV series The Simpsons.

He is the Simpson family's extremely religious next "diddly-door" neighbour.

He thoroughly worships God and strictly follows the Bible as literally as possible and is easily shocked when challenged on any point of dogma.

Using experiments involving fictitious online dating profiles, the researchers found that the more religious someone seemed the more likely a non-believer would be to assume they are not "open" to new ideas and the less attractive they found them.

"The stereotype may be false but does exist … and it is having a real impact on society," said Dr Jonathan Jong, of Oxford's Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology.

"An assumption disseminated in popular culture—if not necessarily borne out by empirical research—is that religious individuals are typically closed-minded," he says.

"From Footloose's parochial Rev Shaw Moore, who despairs at the ‘‘proliferation ... of obscene rock and roll music with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality'' to The Simpsons's overly friendly but entirely dogmatic Ned Flanders, the pious are often portrayed as rigid, conventional, and intolerant."

Source

• Telegraph.co.uk
• Telegraph.co.uk
• Image: 40.media.tumblr.com

Not because we care about celebrity status or bad-boy behavior, but because we are deeply concerned about souls and spheres of influence.

You might roll your eyes at this topic choice, dismissing Bieber altogether.

Or you might be questioning Bieber's faithful sincerity because of his horrifying decision making that includes prostitutes, DUIs, drag-racing, and racial slurs. Despite all his past blunders, don't react to Bieber's church-going too harshly.

For if Evangelicals disregard Bieber wholly, then we miss an incredible opportunity for youth ministry.

Writing of his recent visit to Pope Francis with other leaders, World Evangelical Alliance global ambassador Brian Stiller said he asked the Pontiff what he felt about evangelism.

Stiller said the Pope's comment was: "I'm not interested in converting Evangelicals to Catholicism. I want people to find Jesus in their own community."

"There are so many doctrines we will never agree on. Let's be about showing the love of Jesus," the Pope reportedly told him.

Stiller referenced the Swiss Protestant theologian Oscar Cullman to Pope Francis: "We reflected how ‘reconciled diversity' allows us to stand within our own understandings of how Christ effects salvation."

"And then we press on to deal with global issues like religious freedom and justice and other matters, which affect our wellbeing," Stiller said.

The probability that Rome is losing spiritual influence worldwide worries the Protestant leader.

"Given that 50 percent of those who call themselves Christian affiliate with Rome, when its spiritual and ethical authority is diminished it affects the entire world," he said.

He praised Pope Francis for his "prophetic vision", which is "cutting open hypocrisy of religious self-interest".

The Pope also met Texas televangelists Kenneth Copeland and James Robison, just weeks after he met with another televangelist Joel Osteen.

Pope Francis reportedly gave Copeland a "high five".

Copeland and Osteen have been criticised for preaching the "health and wealth" prosperity gospel, the belief that faith can increase one's wealth.

"The prosperity gospel seems to be fundamentally opposed to the message that Francis has been spreading. But he has shown that he's willing to meet with just about anyone," said Michael Peppard, a professor of theology at Fordham University.

Ecumenical commentator Rev Wesley Granberg-Michaelson said Pentecostalism is growing in the global south at three times the rate of Catholicism, especially among the poor.

"My guess is that Francis knows this community can't be ignored," he said.

Sources

• Brian Stiller blog
• Catholic World News
• Religion News Service
• Image: Kenneth Copeland ministries