A Baptist pastor in Belton was charged Monday with setting fire to his own church Sunday morning, according to a warrant and a fire official. The State Law Enforcement Division charged Christopher P. Daniels, 40, of 1337 Blue Ridge Ave., Belton, with second-degree arson in the fire at Blue Ridge Baptist Church, 1340 Blue Ridge Ave., a warrant said. Anderson County Fire Chief Billy Gibson said Daniels was the church's pastor. He wouldn't say what made authorities suspicious of Daniels. "Early on in the fire (investigation) we found evidence that this fire was set, and just working some leads and some facts that we had, we arrived at that conclusion," Gibson said. He said they have "no idea" what the motive could have been. Daniels reported the fire at 9:20 a.m., before anyone else had arrived at the church, Gibson said. The church had been painted with gang-like graffiti a few months ago, and about half of the congregation -- 25 or so people, mostly elderl...

Don't blame secularism for driving up the percentage of Americans who say they have no religion, says Barry Kosmin, co-researcher for the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) . "These people aren't secularized. They're not thinking about religion and rejecting it; they're not thinking about it at all," Kosmin says. A closer look at the "Nones" — people who said None" when asked their religious identity — shows that this group (now 15% of Americans, up from 8% in 1990) opts out of traditional religious rites of passage ... When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers. The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist . The Rust Belt is less Catholic . And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely...

Inside the Potter's House , via Flickr Jermaine Jakes, arrested after approaching male officers in park, lists T.D. Jakes Ministries as his place of employment The son of T.D. Jakes — the Dallas megachurch pastor who’s called homosexuality a “brokenness” and declared that he would never hire a sexually active gay person — was arrested in a gay sex sting in Kiest Park in January, according to Dallas police reports. Jermaine Donnell Jakes, 29, faces a charge of indecent exposure after allegedly exposing himself in front of two undercover vice detectives shortly after 10 p.m. on Jan. 3. Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther, a DPD spokeswoman, confirmed Thursday, Feb. 12 that the detectives were both male. According to an arrest affidavit, the detectives were conducting an investigation into citizen complaints of sexual activity when they observed Jakes and several other unknown males park their vehicles in the lot east of the park at 2106 W. Kiest Blvd. The detectives followed Jakes into a...

A pastor found guilty of violating a city law created to provide an 8-foot buffer between anti-abortion protesters and women entering clinics was sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to stay 100 yards away from the clinic at which he was arrested for the next three years. The Rev. Walter Hoye, the first person charged and found guilty of the city's two-year-old law must also pay $1,130 in fines and remain on probation for three years after either serving his 30 days in county jail or entering an alternative program run by the sheriff's department. The ruling, which was made by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing, came amid a charged atmosphere in the courtroom packed with both abortion-rights and anti-abortion advocates. Supporters of both groups crammed the hallways of the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse before the hearing and at times shouted at each other as they jockeyed for a spot in the 63-seat courtroom. The tensions continued after the hearing as one anti-...

Fred Phelps has been banned from entering the UK along with his daughter From BBC News : A father and daughter from a US church which preaches hatred of homosexuals have been banned from entering the UK by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from the Westboro Baptist Church had urged protests against a play being put on in Hampshire. Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke is staging The Laramie Project , a play about a man killed for being gay. The UK Border Agency said it opposed "extremism in all its forms". A spokesman added: "Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behaviour by inciting hatred against a number of communities. 'Punished by God' "The government has made it clear it opposes extremism in all its forms. "We will continue to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country....

Rick Warren of Saddleback Church seeks to motivate Christians toward deeper devotion and Christian activism through the "radical" examples of Adolph Hitler , Mao Zedung , Vladimir Lenin and their fanatical devotees. Partial transcript of a Rick Warren speech: [ ~minute 33:00 ] "God is going to use you to change the world. "We have a kingdom that nothing can destroy... it's indestructible, it's unshakable, going to last forever, it's going to cover the planet. So the kingdom is multinational, it's powerful, it's eternal and, number four (this is the best news), it's inevitable because God is in control of history. History is his story. And the Bible says this in Matthew 24 : 'The Good news about God's kingdom will be preached into all the world, in every nation, and then the end's going to come. ' And you can go argue about prophecy all you want but Jesus Christ is not going to conclude history until everybody he's wante...

The Fountain of Eternal Life in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, via Wikipedia By CHARLES M. BLOW In June, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a controversial survey in which 70 percent of Americans said that they believed religions other than theirs could lead to eternal life. This threw evangelicals into a tizzy. After all, the Bible makes it clear that heaven is a velvet-roped V.I.P. area reserved for Christians. Jesus said so: “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” But the survey suggested that Americans just weren’t buying that. The evangelicals complained that people must not have understood the question. The respondents couldn’t actually believe what they were saying, could they? So in August, Pew asked the question again. (They released the results last week.) Sixty-five percent of respondents said — again — that other religions could lead to eternal life. But this time, to clear up any confusion, Pew asked them to specify wh...

The Freedom From Religion Foundation plans to replace a sign that disappeared from the Illinois Capitol and will add a biblical warning this time: "Thou Shall Not Steal." Annie Laurie Gaylor heads the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. She says the sign protesting the display of religious symbols will be replaced. The apparent theft from the Capitol's rotunda overnight Monday was reported to police. The sign referred to religion as "myth and superstition" and stood near a Nativity scene sponsored by a Springfield group. An identical atheist sign in Washington state was stolen and recovered, and one in Wisconsin was vandalized. The replacement Illinois sign and the Nativity scene soon will be joined by a Hanukkah menorah to mark the Jewish holiday. STORY LINK Here's some commentary from December 18, 2008 on FOX & Friends : In other news: The Freedom From Religion Foundation last week placed a sign protesting the display of religio...

Human Embryonic Stem Cells Image by anwer2007 via Flickr Sent in by Sean The Vatican issued its most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in more than 20 years on Friday, taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization, human cloning, genetic testing on embryos before implantation and embryonic stem cell research . The Vatican says these techniques violate the principles that every human life — even an embryo — is sacred, and that babies should be conceived only through intercourse by a married couple. The 32-page instruction, titled “ Dignitas Personae ,” or “ The Dignity of the Person ,” was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , the Vatican’s doctrinal office, and carries the approval and the authority of Pope Benedict XVI . Under discussion for six years, it is a moral response to bioethical questions raised in the 21 years since the congregation last issu...

Countdown 's Keith Obermann makes his case that Bill O'Reilly is really fomenting intolerance and radicalism by his War on Christmas . Related articles by Zemanta Bill O'Reilly's War on Christmas and Keith Olbermann's Rebuttal Olbermann: Bill O'Reilly 'disagrees with Bill O'Reilly' about 'mistreatment' at Guantanamo Bay. Atheists sign near nativity scene disappears Missing atheist sign found in Washington state Reason's Greetings How Can Atheists Win the War on Christmas?