Religion Today Summaries - Nov. 15, 2007

Militant Atheism Gives Rise to Christian Apologetics

The Christian Post reports that some of the most prominent evangelical leaders and Christian apologists recently addressed thousands of believers amid a trend of atheist outspokenness. "Let's face it: Atheism is in," Stan Guthrie wrote in Tuesday's column in Christianity Today magazine. But arising to disprove atheist claims are not just Christian arguments of faith or citations from Scripture, but evidence. "We have a defensible faith that stands up to scrutiny and investigation," said Lee Strobel, a former atheist and author of the bestselling book The Case for Christ. The louder voice that has emerged among atheists has not gone unchallenged. "There's a phenomenon going on right now," Strobel told The Charlotte Observer. "In response to this proliferation of attacks on Christianity that we're seeing in best-selling books and on the Internet, there's a new hunger in the church for apologetics – that is, defending the faith."

ORU Faculty Cast Vote of No Confidence

A quorum of tenured Oral Roberts University faculty voted "no confidence" in President Richard Roberts and voted in favor of "greater faculty governance and transparency of university finances" in a 3-1/2-hour meeting Monday night, according to the Tulsa World. The professors' motions let regents know the voice of the faculty. The vote of no confidence in Roberts as president and CEO of the university was made "without regard to the outcome of the current lawsuit against the university" and "is not to be construed as a judgment of guilt or innocence with regard to the present lawsuit against the president and the university," according to the list of motions and summary of the meeting faxed to media ORU's tenured professors usually only meet once at the beginning of the year. This was a special meeting.

Village Muslims in India Ostracize Christian Couple

In a rare instance of conflict between two religious communities in India, Muslims in a village in West Bengal state have ostracized a couple for converting to Christianity from Islam. Muslims in Badarpur village of Behrampur district on October 28 beat Johad Sahid and his wife Taslima. Later the local village committee ordered all the villagers, mainly Muslim, to deny the couple access to common facilities, such as water taps and toilets, a representative of the Christian Legal Association told Compass Direct News. Such incidents are uncommon, religious leaders said, as relations are generally amicable between the two minority communities, both of which are targeted by Hindu extremists. “In the post-independence India, Muslims and Christians have been in minorities and both face problems at the hands of the majority ‘communalists’ [Hindu nationalists],” said Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, a Muslim scholar from the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.

Global Summit on AIDS and the Church

Rick and Kay Warren are convinced that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the Church's greatest opportunity to serve the hurting through love, share the Good News of the Gospel, and extend a helping hand in communities all over the world, according to an A. Larry Ross Communications release. Because of this, the Warrens are hosting the third annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church, Nov. 28-30, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. This Summit will feature more than 50 global keynote speakers and informative sessions led by experts in business, government, medicine, non-profits and ministry who are working locally and globally in an attempt to end AIDS. Last year's Summit brought together two prominent Presidential candidates, and because of the important dialogue it produced, invitations have been extended to candidates of both parties again this year.