Loading ...The failure of Florida officials to arrest and charge George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin reveals “profound failures of our justice system,” the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society declares.
The church’s announcement is below: Read the rest of this entry »
Mitt Romney’s campaign claims it’s within 1 point of winning the Alabama Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.
So they’re looking for volunteers with non-Bostonian accents to make phone calls this weekend.
“Folks in TN, NC, GA, and VA” — in particular — are being recruited to dial up Alabama, Politico reports.
With superior financial resources and organization, Romney is working hard to make a break-through in Dixie, USA Today reports.
“I am learning to say y’all, and I like grits and things,” he told a Mississippi audience Thursday. “Strange things are happening to me.”
By Frank Lockwood
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
March 5, 2012
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — A North Little Rock church celebrated its 100th birthday by giving away $100,000 Sunday to central Arkansas schools and charities. Then it collected $160,000 in offerings to build Assemblies of God churches across communist Vietnam.
“We chose to celebrate God’s faithfulness to us by sharing God’s love with others,” pastor Rod Loy said, explaining what motivated people at First Assembly of God North Little Rock to give away so much money.
When a church is 100 years old, Loy said, “What you expect is a church living in the past, stuck in its traditions, increasingly irrelevant. That’s what you expect. That’s not what we’re experiencing.”
Instead, the congregation is “enjoying the greatest days in our 100 year history … We’re the opposite of worn-out and tired. We have a fresh vision, we have a new energy. We have a sense that God has greater things in store.”
First Assembly was originally an independent Pentecostal church and is two years older than the Assemblies of God, which was founded in 1914, in Hot Springs.
One of the largest, fastest-growing Assemblies of God congregations in the country, with average weekly attendance of about 3,000, the North Little Rock church has given millions of dollars to world missions in recent years…
The rest of the story is available for Arkansas Democrat-Gazette subscribers at arkansasonline.com
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — In stories on the death of Whitney Houston sent Feb. 12 and 13, The Associated Press incorrectly reported the name of a song she sang in an upcoming movie. The title of the song is “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” not “Her Eyes on the Sparrow.”
“His Eye is on the Sparrow” is a familiar song for those who love the gospel music genre.
The lyrics are by Civilla Durfee Martin and the music is by Charles H. Gabriel. Growing up, my Assemblies of God hymnal featured many of Gabriel’s pieces, including “Send the Light”, “I Stand Amazed in the Presence” and “Since Jesus Came Into My Heart.”
But “His Eye is on the Sparrow” is the song that left a real imprint on history. The great Ethel Waters sang this song in her 1952 movie “The Member of the Wedding” and at Billy Graham crusades from coast to coast. She borrowed the song’s title and used it for the name of her autobiography.
Here’s a great version by Gladys Knight.
Or there’s Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount, singing it on the soundtrack to Sister Act 2.
Now, we’ll have Whitney Houston singing “His Eye is on the Sparrow” as her musical valedictory on the soundtrack to “Sparkle.” And I have no doubt that she’ll give a performance worthy of Mahalia, Ethel and Gladys.
The top-selling pop star and actress was 48 years old.
AP has more details here.
I saw Whitney Houston sing in Boston in probably September of October of 1985 at the Berklee Performing Arts Center. I was on the sixth row and it was my very first real secular concert (A weekend at Jesus Northwest doesn’t exactly qualify…)
She had such a glorious voice, and she hadn’t yet become a Superstar when I saw her. I think “You Give Good Love”, her debut single, had peaked at #3 and “Saving All My Love for You” had just been released. That song went on to hit #1, the first of something like 7 straight #1 singles.
Her debut album, “Whitney Houston” spawned 3 #1 songs in all, including “How Will I Know.”
Her sophomore effort, “Whitney”, included 4 #1 songs.
Yes, she had a glorious voice. And she was beautiful. Her biggest hit came on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack, a re-recording of a Dolly Parton song — “I Will Always Love You.” But she also hit the Top 40 simply by singing the National Anthem. She was that good.
After her marriage to Bobby Brown, her life seemingly spiraled out of control. I think she had a concert on HBO in the fall of 1997 and it was a disaster, and gospel great Shirley Caesar was there singing with her, looking chagrined and embarrassed and concerned. That’s my memory of it anyhow.
She starred in “The Bishop’s Wife” with Denzel Washington and produced a soundtrack that was half good and half great. The half-great part was the gospel part. She recorded “Joy, joy” with the Georgia Mass Choir and that’ll always be my favorite Whitney Houston gospel song. But she sounded awfully good singing Dottie Rambo’s “I Go to the Rock” and “I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry.”
I always hoped that she’d put together an album that was 100 percent gospel. I would’ve played it til the disc wore out.
Back in 2009, Houston had her first new album in ages. Her voice was no longer perfect. The years and life had taken their toll. But she had a single, “I Look to You” that was truly a gospel anthem. The song wasn’t slick and shiny. It had grit and gumption, mixed with what sounded to me like pain and unconquered faith. And it looked possible, at that moment, that her life might be headed for a happy ending.
Now, it’s hard to see any happy endings at the end of this story. Whitney Houston was just 48.
A few weeks ago, Mitt Romney said: “I’m concerned about the poor in this country.”
But that was South Carolina in January and this is February. Today, on CNN, the presidential candidate said:
Old wine? New wine? Who knows? But you could sure smell it on his breath, law enforcement officials state.
The TV preacher’s Mercedes Benz was going 93 mph when police spotted him. So who is this modern-day A.A. Allen?
Read the rest of this entry »
My guess? “Self-deportation.”
What a surreal day in the world of politics. While Rick Perry was endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, Newt’s ex-wife was spilling the beans about their nasty breakup.
Best-selling Christian author Tim LaHaye recently endorsed Gingrich, but after reading the latest allegations, it’s entirely possible that the former House Speaker will be Left Behind by South Carolina’s Christian conservative voters.
Meanwhile, certified results released today, show Rick Santorum WINNING the Iowa caucuses — though the race is so close, Republican party officials have decided to call it a draw.
Mitt Romney, speaking in South Carolina about his income, told the crowd: “I get speakers’ fees from time to time, but not very much.”
So, how much is “not very much”?
a.) $27,500 per year?
b.) $82,500 per year?
c.) $192,500 per year?
d.) $275,000 per year?
e.) “Not very much” more than $300,000 per year?
Read the rest of this entry »
This just in. Interior Secretary Salazar says a controversial paraphrase of a quote by Martin Luther King which appears on his national monument will be fixed.
Precisely how it will be fixed is unclear, the story says.
The monument quotes King as saying: “I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness.” But Arkansas native Maya Angelou says the paraphrase makes King look like “an arrogant twit.”
Having seen the wording myself, I’m convinced it won’t be too difficult to patch up the error. There’s not room for King’s entire quote, but it would be easy to change it to say either:
“He was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness” or simply “A drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”
It would probably look a lot like this…
Yes, if you click the above link, it will take you to a story from ABC’s Nightline titled “Polyamory on Rise Among Divorce Wary Young Americans.”
So what concrete, statistical evidence is there that polyamory is “on the rise among divorce-wary young Americans?” None that I could find in this story.
In fact, the printed story doesn’t feature ANY “Young Americans” who are engaging in polyamory.
The polyamorous trio in this story are ages 49, 44 and 34.
Reminds me of a story I read (I think it was in The Oregonian), about “middle-aged” people in their “50s and 60s” who were reentering the dating scene.
Which raises an interesting question — When do you go from being “young” to being “middle aged” to being “beyond middle aged?”
UPDATE: ABC News has altered the headline so that it no longer refers to the trio as “young.”
How many centuries do you have to spend in purgatory to wash this blight from your soul?
The Forward has an extraordinary story today about the death of Adolf Hitler’s favorite vocal artist. Hitler helped make him rich. He performed at a concentration camp. And – though his wife was Jewish – he maintained a cozy relationship with The Human Personification of Evil throughout World War II.
Johannes Heesters was 108 years old.
The Northwest Daily Florida News says “synthetic substances” are to blame for a local man’s Redneck Riviera religious experience:
According to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Rhett Daniel Burleson broke into his father’s home and was lying on the kitchen floor. Burlseon was “raving about Jesus, Mike Huckabee, and how people were ‘full of (expletive).’ ”
The deputy asked Burleson what was going on and he yelled that he needed to speak to Mike Huckabee and demanded that he be delivered to him…”
Instead, they delivered Burleson to a local jail cell.
When I think of extraordinary finishes, few can top Secretariat’s Triple-Crown-clinching race in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.
Secretariat and Sham are shoulder to shoulder early in the race, but then Sham fades and Secretariat begins to pull away.
He’s ahead by 5 lengths, then 10 lengths. Fifteen lengths, then 20, then 25. By the end of the race, Secretariat is so far ahead that the TV cameraman is unable to capture the winner and the also-rans in the same shot.
I thought of this race this afternoon as I digested the latest Gallup tracking poll numbers in the Republican presidential primary.
Romney was once trailing Gingrich, but passed him in December. After Iowa, Romney began to pull away and the rest of the field began to fade. The trend accelerated after the New Hampshire primaries.
Gallup’s latest polling shows Romney with 34 percent. Romney climbed three percentage points overnight, while Gingrich dropped two, to 14 percent. Tellingly, Romney is now polling more than Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry combined.
South Carolina appears to be the final firewall for Gov. Romney’s opponents. If he wins there, he could sweep the GOP primaries — something no non-incumbent has ever done.
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