OUR COLUMNISTS Is Your Jesus Homogenous? Commentary by Matt Friedeman If the West, especially America, wants to play a major role in the massive expansion of the gospel across the globe in the decades to come, we will need to shuck the homogeneity that bedevils our conception of Christ and begin to grow in our thinking. NARAL: The Finer Points of Vulgarity Commentary by Jane Jimenez What better way to let the public know what NARAL stands for than to throw a party and invite everyone you know to "Screw Abstinence." Live Stronger Commentary by Brad Locke Lance Armstrong's ex-wife once told him that his recovery from cancer was a work of God's grace, but Armstrong scoffed at that. I suppose he thought men alone -- himself and the doctors -- were responsible for his regained health. Amnesia Commentary by David Sisler What would it be like to wake up and not remember the evil that you had done, the people you had hurt, the sins you had committed? What would you pay for a little selective amnesia? Preaching a 'Celebrity Gospel' Commentary by Mark Creech A "celebrity gospel" is when a preacher compromises the gospel of Christ in order to achieve or sustain a celebrity status. Columnist Mark Creech offers two examples of preachers he says are proclaiming a celebrity gospel of late.

...Evangelical Christian leaders have been meeting in Washington to plot strategy on issues, including winning confirmation of John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rev. Rod Parsley of the Center for Moral Clarity says evangelical leaders also discussed their desire for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Parsley says that issue, and a belief that homosexual "marriage" is being imposed by courts on an unwilling electorate, has awakened many Christians from their slumber. In his words, "We didn't pick this fight, but we'll sure show up when it ends on our doorstep." Canada this week became the fourth nation to legalize same-sex marriage. [AP]

...The Vatican newspaper is denouncing Canada's legalization of homosexual marriage. Canada became the fourth nation to grant marital rights to same-sex couples when the Supreme Court's chief justice signed the legislation Wednesday. The Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, says making homosexual unions "equal to marriage," is a "distortion of God's plan for the family." The Roman Catholic Church in Canada, in line with the Vatican's worldwide policy, vigorously opposed the legislation. The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain also allow homosexual marriage nationwide. [AP]

...A pastor in Wisconsin is celebrating a major court victory this week in a case involving his right to speak out against homosexuality. It all started back in 2003, when Pastor Ralph Ovadal and his supporters held over a busy highway a banner that read, "Homosexuality is sin" and "Christ can set you free." Next, Ovadal says, "The police came and threw us off and said that this wouldn't be allowed on that overpass or any overpass in the city of Madison. We felt it was based on the reaction of the people reading the message. So, of course, we went to court on that issue." In court, the Wisconsin minister's legal representation argued that the actions of the police infringed on his free speech rights. At first, a federal judge ruled in favor of the police; however, a three-judge panel has now overturned that ruling. "We'll be back up on the overpass," Ovadal says. "This is, of course, a contentious issue and there are two sides to every issue. And we're presenting our side, which we believe is the biblical side." Although his message angers some motorists, Ovadal maintains that it is biblical and greatly needed. [Fred Jackson]

...Brian Larsen of PreachingToday.com says the Internet is turning some preachers into thieves. He is calling attention to the extraordinary phenomenon of sermon plagiarism, a trend he says is on the rise among preachers. Larsen believes this kind of intellectual property theft creates some heavy ethical problems. "People assume when they hear someone preach that the general outline is their own and the specific words are their own," he says. But when the words and presentation structure are taken from someone else without crediting the source, he contends preachers are being dishonest with their listeners. Also, the PreachingToday.com spokesman asserts, preachers who use material generated by others are representing themselves as having gifts, abilities, and insights they do not actually have. Larsen says the same rules against plagiarism should apply to preachers just as they do to others in society. [Bill Fancher]

...A conservative group is speaking out against a leading retailer of music -- including Christian music -- because it also sells Playboy magazine. The Florida Family Association has been asking Sam Goody stores to stop their sale of Playboy because other large retailers of Christian music -- like Wal-Mart and Best Buy and Target -- do not sell the pornographic magazine. Association director David Caton tells Family News In Focus the Sam Goody chain has ignored the request. "We thought it was important for the Christians to know that if they're going to buy Christian music, they should be patronizing stores that are not stewarding this kind of material -- this kind of darkness -- back into our culture," Caton says. Sam Goody operates 525 stores across the United States. [FNIF]

...An immigration reform organization says as long as the U.S. government fails to deal with out-of-control immigration, governors like Florida's Jeb Bush will be compelled to speak in foreign languages. In a news conference dealing with hurricane preparations, Governor Bush followed his remarks in English by addressing his state's huge Hispanic population in Spanish. According to an Associated Press report, some 2.4 million Hispanics currently live in Florida, as compared with 1.5 million a decade ago; and "Gobernador Jeb" enjoys a high level of popularity among this otherwise largely Democratic bloc. But Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies believes the fact that the governor needs to make bilingual announcements may point to a growing problem. "In modern American politics," he says, "given the way it works, if you have mass immigration, your governors are going to increasingly speak in foreign languages. That's the way the ideology we've developed in the United States works. If you want to avoid that, you have to cut the [immigration] numbers -- legal and illegal. Otherwise, in Florida and elsewhere, you're going to get governors speaking in foreign languages, and 90 percent of the people in the state won't be able to understand them." Camarota says cutting immigration would facilitate assimilation and remove the need for state leaders and others to address different segments of the population in a foreign language. [Chad Groening]

...The author of a new book on Hillary Clinton says the New York senator, should she decide to run for U.S. president in 2008, will be a tough contender. Edward Klein's book is called The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President. The New York Times listed best-selling author says the former First Lady already has several things working in her favor. "She's going to be a formidable candidate," he notes. "She and her husband already have a massive fundraising team, a massive infrastructure of party loyalists, and party activists who are going to go out and work hard on her behalf." But Klein says the GOP must be prepared to meet Hillary Clinton head-to-head. He warns, "If the Republicans fail to put up a strong, vigorous candidate who will not be afraid of taking her on directly -- which the Republicans up to now seem to have been afraid of -- I'd say that she has a chance of becoming president." Klein says even though Mrs. Clinton is "very unpopular in large swaths of the country," she only needs to win a couple of states that John Kerry failed to win in 2004, such as Florida and Ohio, and she could easily put together an electoral victory in 2008. [Chad Groening]

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