A prayer purportedly written by evangelist Billy Graham is being spread via the Internet. Give it a read. Does it sound like real deal of a fake?
(more…)

Attendance at Lexington’s First United Methodist Church is reportedly down by about 200 per week since the firing of organist Albin Whitworth, the Herald-Leader reports.
(Click here to read it all.) I wrote about Mr. Whitworth when I worked in Lexington and was amazed by his musical talents. He conducted the choir and played the organ and kept a “rear-view mirror” next to him, so that he could observe the audience while he played. If you showed up late for services, he knew it. Choir members adored him, and the church was always standing room only on Fifth Sundays, because they were devoted entirely to music. I don’t know everything that went on behind the scenes, but I know this much: Firing Albin Whitworth [for reasons great or small] was a recipe for schism. The uproar here was entirely predictable and forseeable.

The archbishop of Atlanta speculates that Obama’s groundbreaking victory in the U.S. could be followed by another extraordinary election — this one in Vatican City. With the Roman Catholic Church dwindling in much of the West and booming in the Global South, it seems likely that there’ll be a non-European holding the office in coming decades.

Click here to read more on this topic from The Times of London.

The diocese is struggling to raise money. Catholic Charities isn’t. So the bishop is ordering Catholic Charities board members to synchronize fund raising efforts with the diocese — or get out.
Click here to read it all.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin reportedly will earmark all of its assessments (the annual fees paid by parishes) to pay for lawsuits against the Anglican diocese of San Joaquin.
Click here for the latest from The Living Church.

White evangelical Christians voted overwhelmingly for John McCain, but it wasn’t enough to rescue the Republican from defeat.
(Click here for the numbers from the Pew Forum.) Obama claimed 26 percent of the white evangelical vote, five points more than John Kerry captured in 2004.

Apparently, young people are willing to buy newspapers, as long as the headline reads: “Yes He Can!” or “Yes He Did!” or “Oh-Bama!” Papers across the country, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sold out of their product Wednesday, one day after Barack Obama’s historic triumph. In Chicago, Washington and Atlanta, they restarted the presses, I understand.

Here in Little Rock, I managed to find a copy of USA TODAY with the headline “America makes history: OBAMA WINS” but I had to visit three newsstands before I was able to get my hands on one. From the recycle bin, I managed to fish out an extra copy of our day-after-election edition. Are the newsstands empty in your cities, too?

Kentucky’s polls began closing at 5 p.m. Central Time, and results are already being posted by the Secretary of State’s office… Click here for the latest…

By The Associated Press
Preliminary results from a national Associated Press exit poll of voters in Tuesday’s elections:
THE ECONOMY DOMINATES
Six in 10 voters picked the economy as the most important issue facing the nation. None of four other issues on the list — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was picked by more than one in 10.
Not surprisingly, voters also have a very sour view of the condition of the nation’s economy. About half said it’s poor and nearly all the rest said it’s not good.
At least four in 10 said their family’s financial situation has gotten worse in the past four years. A third said it’s about the same and about a quarter said it’s gotten better.
Looking ahead, half of voters said they’re very worried the current economic crisis will harm their family’s finances over the next year and another third were somewhat worried about that. But nearly half said they think the nation’s economy will get better over the next year.
OTHER WORRIES
Two-thirds of voters said they’re worried about being able to afford the health care they need. And at least as many said they worried there will be another terrorist attack in the United States.
NEW VOTERS
One in 10 voters said they were voting this year for the first time, and that group was disproportionately young and nonwhite. Six in 10 of those voters were under age 30. One in five new voters were black and about as many were Hispanic. A quarter of new voters said they don’t have landline phones at home, only cell phones.
BUSH AND CONGRESS
As they have in pre-election polls, President Bush and Congress get low marks from voters. Only about one in five approve of how Bush is handling his job, and Congress fared no better.
CANDIDATES’ QUALITIES
More than a third of voters said they most wanted a candidate who would bring change to Washington, while nearly as many said they wanted one who shares their values. About one in five were looking mostly for experience, while a smaller portion were seeking a candidate who cares about people like them.
OTHER ISSUES
Six in 10 voters said future appointments to the Supreme Court were an important factor in their vote.
Two-thirds favor drilling for oil offshore in U.S. waters where it is not allowed now.
More than half oppose the $700 billion government plan to help failing financial companies.
DEMOGRAPHICS
As usual, women were a little more numerous than men in the electorate.
About one in seven voters were under age 30 and as many were over 65.
A third reported household income of less than $50,000; a quarter had income of more than $100,000.
One in five had no more than a high school diploma; nearly half had a college degree.
One in four voters were white born-again evangelical Christians.
Nearly half of voters have a gun in their household.
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The results are based on a preliminary, partial sample of about 10,000 voters in Election Day exit polls and telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.

This is a tragic story out of India. (Click here to read it.) At the moment, Indian Christians are facing grave persecution from Indian nationalists in some parts of the country. So the “spin” on this story is worth noting.

“The police version was that Pushpa, who was dejected by the problems in her married life, had committed suicide. The issue of large-scale conversion of poor families and the consequent depression they undergo after being isolated from their kith and kin were also the factors behind the suicide.” The reporter presents as fact that the woman was 1.) depressed 2.) because of her conversion to Christianity, and 3.) that the conversion had led to the suicide.