One of the world’s most famous motivational speakers has died. Zig Ziglar was 86 years old. Ziglar’s Facebook page describes him as “The Undisputed King of Motivation, Inspiration and Education.”

The author of “See You At the Top”, Ziglar was a Southerner and a Southern Baptist. He even served one term as 1st Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Ziglar, a longtime member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, died in Dallas.

The Dallas Morning News has more details .

Ziglar’s web site is here.

Saddleback Church Kicks Off Effort to Eradicate Orphans in Rwanda on World AIDS Day 2012 (more…)

Mitt Romney on the have-nots:

“There are 47 percent who are with [President Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it…My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Ronald Reagan on the have-nots (and the rest of us):

“I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.”

Republican big wigs and their staffers went on an all-expenses-paid junket to Israel and stood near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

But this wasn’t a prayer meeting and they didn’t treat the place like Holy Ground. Instead, they burst out the bubbly. Drunkenness followed. And at least one Republican congressman got naked and jumped into the sea where Jesus once walked on water.

The FBI got involved. The scandal was hushed up — for a year. But they couldn’t hide their misconduct forever. And now Politico has the details.

Question of the day: Does the typical U.S. politician in 2012 behave more like Solomon or Belshazzar?

Do we as Americans run the risk that one day, in the midst of our eating and drinking and self-congratulations, a hand will appear on the wall and write:

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

My friend Ted Olsen from Christianity Today has co-written (along with blogger Ken Smith) a fascinating story about ties between a former Unification Church official named David Jang and key Southern Baptist leaders. The controversial South Korean preacher has been hailed as the “Second Coming Christ” by some of his followers — a label Jang currently rejects.

But for some Christians, the adulation heaped on Jang by his followers sounds disturbingly familiar to the worship heaped on “True Parent” Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church.

Jang has a college in California and his followers have set up the Christian Post, a highly-read evangelical news web site.

Jang’s ventures include some of this nation’s best-known evangelicals. And Southern Baptists are considering turning over their massive New Mexico retreat center — virtually free of charge — to Jang’s school.

Since the story is appearing in Christianity Today, it has the backing of the nation’s most influential evangelical publication. And because it has Ted Olsen’s byline on it, it has additional credibility.

The 1980s had the Moral Majority.
The 1990s featured the rise of the Christian Coalition.
These days, the leading Christian Right lobby in Washington, D.C. may be the Family Research Council.

The group has close ties to the Republican Party. It’s a major voice for traditional marriage and repeal of Roe v. Wade.

It’s also been branded a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has expanded its portfolio (originally focused on fighting racism) to targeting groups that take conservative stances on homosexuality and immigration.

Today, a gunman opened fire at the Family Research Council’s Washington offices.

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON— A law enforcement official says a suspected gunman made a negative reference about the work of a conservative Christian lobbying group before shooting a security guard.
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Paul Ryan, an Ayn Rand acolyte, may have some explaining to do about the inconsistencies between Christianity and AynRandianity.

At a time when the Soviet Union was promoting Godless Communism, Ayn Rand was a standard bearer for a new brand of Godless Capitalism — a code of morality that rejected charity as weak and Christianity as evil.

She hated God and promoted a “Greed is Good” gospel.

Paul Ryan was a big Ayn Rand fan, even throwing an Aynd Rand birthday party in 2005 to mark the Centennial of Ayn Rand’s birth. He says Rand is required reading for his staff and has indicated that the morality behind his philosophy of government comes from Rand, not Rome.

Ryan is apparently backtracking from Rand now that he’s wooing the Christian Right. But look for this issue to pop up some more between now and November.

Indeed there’s already a devastating ad, created by the American Values Network (a group of Democratic insiders).

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Roe v. Wade on Jan. 23, 1973.

By a 7-2 vote (with Justices Potter and White dissenting), the nation’s high court tossed out the abortion laws of all 50 states.

The decision didn’t ruffle many evangelical feathers — not at first. Roman Catholics almost single-handedly led the fight to repeal the court edict.

No one worked harder than Nellie Gray, who died Monday.

Gray organized the first March for Life in 1974 and led the annual event for nearly three decades.

Gray, a Texan born in 1924, was a convert to Catholicism and an attorney.

Beliefnet is releasing a list of the 100 Most Inspiring Songs of All Time.

Oddly enough, the all-time most-inspiring song of all time — according to Beliefnet — is “Over the Rainbow.”

The first ten songs, picked by Beliefnet “based on data gathered by its writers and editors” are:

“Somewhere over the Rainbow” by Judy Garland
“What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong
“Lean on Me” by Bill Withers
“Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler
“Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson
“We Are the Champions” by Queen
“Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston
‘Imagine” by John Lennon
“You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban
“One” by U2

Since the elevation of Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, a number of theologically conservative bishops have resigned or been forced out of the House of Bishops.

Now, 9 conservative bishops who filed friend of the court briefs challenging the legal doctrines espoused by Jefferts Schori and her lawyers are facing possible disciplinary action.

An Arkansas Tea Party official is apologizing for a racially offensive joke that was told at a recent Tea Party rally, branding the insensitive comment “retarded.”

More details here.

Bishop Larry Benfield, head of the Episcopal Church in Arkansas, said he supports President Barack Obama’s decision to back same-sex marriage — and said gay marriage should be legal in Arkansas, too.

“Contrary to the North Carolina decision, civil marriage of same-gender couples will one day be seen as good for society. I look forward to the day when such marriages occur in this state so that we can live with one another in a spirit of equality and justice,” he wrote in a statement/

The rest of Bishop Benfield’s comments are available below:
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The head of the Assemblies of God, the nation’s largest Pentecostal body,accused President Barack Obama of “twisting Scripture” to defend gay marriage and said the “pro-homosexual, pro-abortion president” is advocating conduct that is “immoral” and “under the judgment of God.”

The church’s statement is reprinted, in its entirety, below: (more…)

Painter of Light Thomas Kinkade died on Good Friday at age 54.

The artist was kind enough to give me an interview in late 2008, and we spoke about religious art, Christianity and the role of faith in his paintings and in his life:

“I always say I’m a man of deep faith, but I’m also a bit of a universalist. I want to live life in a nonjudgmental way. I try to speak in a very inclusive way about faith issues. I try to embrace people of all different faiths. You know, God will sort out at the end of the day what’s the prerequisites and the requirements for His elect group. But I think what matters in the human condition is that we exude the kind of unconditional love that Christ exuded.”

Thomas Kinkade
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
December 13, 2008

Complete interview below…
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By a 4-3 vote, the Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday ruled that high school teachers have a constitutional right to have sex with their students as long as the students are 18 and give their consent.

“The fundamental right to privacy implicit in our law protects all private, consensual, noncommercial acts of sexual intimacy between adults,” the court said, quoting from an earlier Arkansas case.

Preventing a teacher from having sex with a willing 18 year old student “infringes on [the teacher's] fundamental right to privacy,” the court ruled.

The opinion is posted on the Supreme Court’s website.

(Once you’re there, click on Paschal v. State).

This decision was written by Chief Justice Jim Hannah. Justices Paul E. Danielson, Donald L. Corbin and Courtney Hudson Goodson also voted to throw out Arkansas’ ban on high school teacher-student sex.

Upholding the statute were Justices Robert L. Brown, Jim Gunter and Karen Baker.

In his dissent, Brown described the majority’s analysis as “wrong…preposterous…”

The idea that high school teachers have a “constitutionally protected fundamental privacy right to have sexual contact with an 18-year-old student at the school where he teaches is absurd,” Justice Baker wrote.