How the Faithful Voted: 2014 Preliminary Analysis
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Nearly six-in-ten voters who say they attend services weekly voted Republican (58%). Pew Research
"Among Americans, 77 percent say they are Christian."
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“In broad strokes, we see this sort of affirmation of Christianity, but in the particulars, well, that’s another story”
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Houston Mayor Drops Pastor Subpoenas
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“It was never our intention to interfere with clergy and their congregants,” Parker said. “I don’t want to have a national debate on freedom of religion when my purpose is to defend … a city ordinance.” CT
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Church marriage statements
Does your church have a statement on marriage? If so, is it in the constitution/bylaws? How was it approved (church vote, etc.)? How is it publicized, if at all (web site, handout to members, etc.)?
The elders of our church (we are an elder-led church) drafted the following statement on marriage. It is based primarily on the suggested language of the Alliance Defending Freedom, with some of our own wording added to stress the “grace” side of things. We have not yet made it public in our church as we are working on the best time and place to do that.
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Marriage: what should be the relation of church and state?
A hot topic today is whether the church should get out of the marriage business, whether the government should do civil unions, and terminology.
For example, should we keep the state terminology the same “marriage” and come up with a new term for a religiously endorsed heterosexual marriage, like Eden Marriage (or some other term). This would be the term for church/synagogue/mosque endorsed heterosexual marriages as well. I couldn’t fit all that in the first choice below, so please understand “church” in this way below. This would be the easiest and quickest to implement.
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"Most Americans believe in heaven, hell and a few old-fashioned heresies."
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“Two thirds (67 percent) of Americans believe heaven is a real place, according to the survey….Just under half of Americans (45 percent) say there are many ways to heaven… Catholics (67 percent) and Mainline Protestants (55 percent) are most likely to say heaven’s gates are wide open, with many ways in. Evangelicals (19 percent) and Black Protestants (33 percent) are more skeptical.” Survey: heaven, hell & a bit of heresy
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A new alliance for personhood
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“Groups from 15 states have formally launched the new Personhood Alliance … a Christ-centered grassroots organization whose focus is life from beginning to end … the goal is to educate on and promote legal protection for all innocent human life.”
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