Religion Today Summaries - Apr. 30, 2007

United Methodist Church Criticized for Pro-Abortion Alliance

The United Methodist Church is being criticized for its alliance with a pro-abortion coalition, OneNewsNow.com reports. The pro-abortion group The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which is supported by the UMC among other mainline denominations, spoke out against the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban on partial-birth abortion. Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) says "the officers and the bureaucrats and the theologians of many of these mainline denominations heed the demands of feminist theology and the very aura of the sexual revolution."

Students Share Faith in Hard Times at VT

According to Baptist Press, one of the ways students from the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Virginia Tech have shared their faith since the shootings is by wearing Detroit Tigers baseball hats to represent the favorite team of Brian Bluhm, one of their own who was killed in a classroom. It's just one of many examples of how students are bonding and coping. "It's our faith in God that's getting us through things right now," BCM director Darrell Cook said. Students have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement from churches across the nation. "So many offers to help and so many people praying for us have definitely strengthened us through some of the worst days that a lot of our students have ever had to walk through," Cook said. "They are finding ways to share their faith in the midst of some really dark times." More than 60 BCM students loaded up in church vans and traveled to Winchester, Va., where a funeral for Bluhm was held Tuesday night, April 24, at Fellowship Baptist Church.

Hundreds Demonstrate Outside Vietnamese Embassy Demanding Freedom

According to ASSIST News Service, on Friday the 20th of April 2007 hundreds of Degar Montagnards, Cambodians and Hmong peoples gathered outside the US Capital in Washington DC before eventually descending on the Vietnamese Embassy. Degar Montagnards in loin clothes beat ancient tribal gongs while Cambodian monks in Orange Robes and Hmong in tribal dress issued statements calling for freedom in Vietnam. It was a demonstration aimed directly against the Vietnamese communist government and yet it was also a plea for the United States to use its diplomatic leverage to help its former allies - the oppressed peoples of South East Asia. The participants include the Montagnard Foundation representing the Degar Montagnards of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, the ethnic Cambodian’s of the Mekong Delta region represented by the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation and the Hmong peoples represented by the World Hmong People’s Congress.

Evel Overcome With Good: Former Daredevil's Testimony Triggers Mass Baptisms

According to a story on Christianity Today.com, on Palm Sunday, hundreds responded to former daredevil Robert "Evel" Knievel's testimony by asking to be baptized on the spot at Crystal Cathedral. Speaking alongside the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, Knievel told the congregation in Orange County, California, how he had refused for 68 years to accept Jesus Christ as Lord because he didn't want to surrender his lifestyle. "I don't know why I fought it so hard," he said. "I just did." During Daytona Bike Week this March. "I don't know what in the world happened. I don't know if it was the power of the prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just—the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me. … All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him! … I rose up in bed and, I was by myself, and I said, 'Devil, Devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life.' … I just got on my knees and prayed that God would put his arms around me and never, ever, ever let me go."