Friday, July 30, 2010

Anne Rice Issues Mixed Signals About Leaving Christianity

Famous author Anne Rice has announced that she’s quitting Christianity.

The “Interview with a Vampire” author, who wrote a book about her spirituality titled "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession" in 2008, said Wednesday that she refuses to be “anti-gay,” “anti-feminist," “anti-science” and “anti-Democrat.”

Rice wrote on Facebook,
“For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian ... It's simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Rice then added a somewhat contradictory post explaining her decision on Thursday:
“My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me," Rice wrote. "But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Dove Awards Move to Atlanta

The Gospel Music Association (GMA) recently announced the renewal of its partnership with GMC to broadcast the Dove Awards.

With the 2010 Dove Awards this past April delivering more than 300K viewers and outperforming the 2009 premiere HH rating by +54%, the GMA is also taking a bold step and hosting the 42nd Annual Dove Awards in Atlanta, GA., the first time the show has taken place outside of Nashville.

GMA's Chairman of the Board Ed Leonard comments, "the experience of attending the Dove Awards in person, with our artists and fans gathered together in the Atlanta community to celebrate the Gospel, is incredible. We want to share that excitement with the people of Atlanta in 2011."

The 2011 Dove Awards will be held in Atlanta's historic Fox Theatre on April 20, 2011, GMA is working in conjunction with the city of Atlanta to host the broadcast, where its television partner, GMC is also headquartered. Atlanta is the home of many of the industry's biggest names including Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin and Third Day.

"GMC is thrilled to present the Dove Awards for another year to Gospel and Christian music fans," said Charley Humbard, President and CEO of GMC. He added, "As the leading television provider of Gospel music, we are dedicated to making GMC the television home of Gospel and Christian music's biggest events."

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Brandon Heath Performs At Carrie Underwood’s Wedding

Brandon Heath recently performed his “Love Never Fails” at country music superstar Carrie Underwood’s wedding to Canadian hockey player Mike Fisher. Noted as the couple’s song, Brandon performed “Love Never Fails” which also served as the couple’s first dance, and was a surprise from Carrie to her new husband Mike. Brandon had this to say about being a part of their special day…
I was blessed to be part of Carrie and Mike’s big day. Being among their family and friends, I was honored to have been a witness to something so sacred and special. Performing at weddings can be nerve racking, but I felt right at home. And it was especially cool to be in on Carrie’s surprise for her groom and their first dance.

After their lavish wedding at the Ritz Carlton Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Georgia they honeymooned in Tahiti.

Read more

Friday, July 23, 2010

Newsboys Born Again at #4

Newsboys notches its best showing ever on the Billboard 200 as its "Born Again" album bows at No. 4 with 45,000 -- the act's highest sales week since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991. The set is the first from the quartet to feature dc Talk's Michael Tait as its lead vocalist, who steps in for Peter Furler. Newsboys have been charting on the Billboard 200 since 1996, when "Take Me to Your Leader" debuted and peaked at No. 35, but, the act has never risen higher than No. 28 with "In the Hands of Good" in 2009. The new "Born Again" album also naturally debuts at No. 1 on Top Christian Albums -- the act's fourth No. 1 there.

The title had decent competition, charting above new releases from such artists as Sting and M.I.A. The excitement of a new lead singer as well as outlets such as FOX News, Rhapsody, Billboard, gmclife.com, CCM, Charisma, TitleTrakk.com, CBN, and more have promoted Born Again helping it launch well.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Candace Cameron Bure Loves Bob Saget, Not His Comedy

Candace Cameron Bure has a new ABC Family hit show on her hands and a Christian spiritual outlook since her 'Full House' days (her site is titled "Growing in God with Candace").

So there is not a lot of room for 'Full House' co-star's Bob Saget's comedy these days in Bure's life. And Saget understands.

"When there is a [comedy] show he tells me, 'I love you, you're invited, but don't come,'" Bure tells PopEater. "He says, 'You're not going to laugh and you're not going to think it's funny.'"

"[It's a no go] for me and my husband," she adds, talking about her hubby, former NHL star Valeri Bure. "Bob says he doesn't want to offend me or Val."

The actress is busy filming 'Make It Or Break It,' the hit show about gymnastics, which is heading into its second season, and raising three children with Val (proudly without a nanny). So it's not like she has much time to head to comedy clubs.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Glenn Beck Wades into Jim Wallis Controversy

Glenn Beck brought a lot of attention to a Christian music festival, Lifest, when he brought it up on his talk show in relation to Jim Wallis, founder and editor of the liberal Sojourners magazine.

Q90 FM pulled its sponsorship of the Lifest Christian music festival over the fact that Jim Wallis is on the speakers' line up, citing disagreements with him over a humanistic message of social justice.

The station has a statement on its site that says, in part:
"While we value the work of Life Promotions, proudly partnering with them for many years in our shared mission to reach youth for Christ, we became concerned with the beliefs and teachings of one of the main speakers at Lifest 2010, Jim Wallis. After researching extensively the words and published positions of Jim Wallis and his organization, Sojourners Magazine, and seeking fervently the guidance of the Holy Spirit in prayer, we believe the social justice message and agenda they promote is a seed of secular humanism, seeking an unholy alliance between the Church and Government."

it continues:
"Humanism says, "It's up to us to save us, our planet, the poor", instead of "It's up to God and His power through us". Humanism says "man is inherently good--it's only the social constructs, such as too-limited a government or our free-enterprise, capitalist economy that oppress man, making him do evil", instead of "man is inherently sinful, responsible for his own choice to sin, and in need of a Savior." (Romans 1:25). The humanistic social justice message in many of Sojourners' issue FAQs points to government as the solution, instead of our Lord Jesus Christ."

And most notably, the station ends their statement with this (emphasis theirs):
"We are not calling for a boycott of Lifest. We do not view Jim Wallis as an enemy nor do we think of Life Promotions as the enemy or a bad organization. We believe Life Promotions is doing great things for the Kingdom of God . We just have a fundamental disagreement on the wisdom of bringing Mr. Wallis to Lifest. We realize many great things occur at Lifest through the music and many of the speakers. In these increasingly challenging times with growing threats to God's people, we ask every Christian to read the Bible with great discernment, look at the views of Sojourners and the opposing views, and prayerfully seek God's wisdom and guidance. If you do attend Lifest this year, our prayer is that you will be blessed and that God will bless Lifest and our friends at Life Promotions."

For months, Lifest founder Bob Lenz has been in conversations with local pastors and others who raised concerns over featuring Wallis – who is considered a progressive Christian – at the popular Lifest.

Glenn Beck appears to place a lot of emphasis on research and prayer, and he has not called for a complete boycott of all things "social justice." What he rails against is the social justice that's tied to politics, the "I'll let the government fix my problems" mentality, which if you read the Scriptures is something we're warned to avoid.

On his March 2 radio show, Glenn Beck told listeners:

I beg you, look for the words “social justice” or “economic justice” on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words…social justice is a perversion of the Gospel.”

On-air he continued:
Progressives have done such an effective job perverting charity over the years it is stunning. There are millions of people who accept now that social justice comes from the government. It doesn't. It comes from individuals and God. But it's people like Wallis teaching us that that is the essence of the Bible.

His producer further clarified in the Washington Post.

So, what can we learn from all of this?

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The untamed faith of the Discovery Channel’s ‘Man vs. Wild’ star

It takes guts to para-glide over Antarctica, hike through remote jungles and eat yak eyeballs for dinner.

It also takes a little faith, according to a fun new profile of Bear Grylls, the star of Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild adventure show in Relevant magazine.

Grylls, the appropriately-named star of the nature show, is a devout Christian and told Relevent that he gets strength from God to take risks in nature. He says he sometimes feel as if he is “being held” when he is in the wild:

It’s about being strengthened. It’s about having a backbone run through you from the Person who made you. It’s about being able to climb the biggest mountains in the world with the Person who made them.

Best Selling Songs of the Year... So Far

TobyMac comes in at #43 (Get Back Up) and #45 (City on Our Knees) on Amazon's list of Top 50 best selling songs. Amy Grant appears at #50 (Better Than A Hallelujah).

TobyMac also shows up at #29 on best selling albums. Lifehouse shows up at #34 and #48.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Francesca Battistelli Heads Back to the Studio

It’s been quite a busy summer for Francesca Battistelli. She started recording her next album, she and her husband Matt have begun to 'baby-proof' their new home in Georgia and travels to shows almost every weekend. Despite the crazy life she may have right now, she can clearly see God working in her life and is thankful for it all! On StereoTruth she talks about the top 5 musicians she’d like to tour with some day including Needtobreathe and TobyMac.

Former Live Frontman Feels Reborn With New Solo CD

Live was one of the most popular rock bands of the last decade selling 20 million albums. Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk has moved on, however, and reunited with his Christian faith. After growing up Catholic, Kowalczyk experimented with Buddhism and has now come full circle recording songs with Christian overtones as a solo artist with former “American Idol” rocker and Christian Chris Daughtry.

Ed Kowalczyk spoke about his faith in recent interview with CNN's Belief blog: "I went through a whole seeker's life," he said.

The 38-year-old will soon be touring to promote his debut solo album "Alive," out July 6, and says fans will see a "rekindled Ed" and one at peace as a Christian:

"I definitely feel the presence and continue to feel the presence of a higher power that I'm connected to in faith," he said. "That's God."