Moral issues have created some of the most divisive controversies in recent political campaigns. While some Christians try to argue these issues from the Biblical perspective, their arguments have been falling on deaf ears, often because the Christians themselves are such an integral part of the problem.

For His followers, Jesus laid out a set of moral values, expanded by the Apostle Paul, that were intended to be the lifestyle blueprint for anyone claiming to be a Christian.

In a recent Gallup poll, 77 per cent of Americans claimed to be followers of Christ. At least, they declared themselves to be Christians. But integrating the results of various polls, we are hard-pressed to find credibility in this percentage.

http://www.westfargopioneer.com/content/christian-church-failing-its-mission

The Internal Revenue Service was unable to suppress a lawsuit over its failure to audit thousand of churches that allegedly violated federal tax law by engaging in partisan advocacy.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of the Western District of Wisconsin on Monday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation against the IRS.

“If it is true that the IRS has a policy of not enforcing the prohibition on campaigning against religious organizations, then the IRS is conferring a benefit on religious organizations (the ability to participate in political campaigns) that it denies to all other 501(c)(3) organizations, including the Foundation,” Adelman wrote.

The Internal Revenue Code prohibits tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches, from intervening or participating in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/20/irs-faces-lawsuit-for-failing-to-enforce-church-electioneering-ban/

Dueling young columnists discussed the rise of atheism among millenials Sunday morning on CNN.

Rachel Evans, an evangelical blogger, attributed the number of millenials abandoning the church to a loss of connection to the traditional religious values of service and spiritual connection, and not superficial questions of style. “I think there’s this assumption among a lot of Christian leaders that, you know, if we bring in some hipper worship bands and a coffee shop in the fellowship hall and maybe a pastor who wears skinny jeans young adults will come flocking back to the church,” she said. “Clearly, that’s not happening.”

But Hemant Mehta, author of The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, connected the rise of modern atheism to the increasingly-obvious problem of squaring religious belief with modern scientific reason and social ethics.

“Not all the millenials who are leaving church are necessarily flocking to atheism. But if you ask young people, if you ask millenials what comes to mind when they think of Christianity, when they think of the church, they will tell you it’s anti-gay, anti-doubt, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-sex education,” Mehta said. “We all know what the church is against, and we really don’t care what the church is for when you have that much baggage.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/18/hemant-mehta-on-rising-atheism-among-millenials-its-not-that-christianity-is-unpopular-its-that-its-untrue/

A search for a religion with 'more morals' than the Catholicism she was raised in led Katherine Russell, 24, the widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to convert to Islam, her husband's former friend has revealed.

According to the Boston Globe, retiree Donald Larking, 67, commenced an unlikely friendship with Tamerlan in 2011 when the Boston bomber was 25 and his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaev had begun caring for Larking's quadriplegic wife in their home just west of the city.

'She wanted a church with more morals,' Larking told the Globe. 'She felt that a mosque would be a safer place for her daughter to go to nursery school.'

Larking, who is himself a convert from Catholicism to Islam, met Tsarnaev's wife when Zubeidat Tsarnaev returned to Russia last year. When Zubediat left the country for good Katherine Tsarnaev reportedly took over the role of carer to Larking’s wife.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Boston-bombers-wife-turned-to-Islam-due-to-scandals-in-Catholic-Church-219386651.html

Crystal Mitchell is angry about a drawing hanging in her daughter's classroom, on which a student wrote the phrase, "God is Dead."

"It made my daughter very uncomfortable," Mitchell said. "If my child can't pray in school and they've taken religion out of school, for this to be plastered on the walls of school, is a huge concern for me."

Mitchell may not have read "The Crucible," or seen it on Broadway, or seen one of the two film adaptations, but the canonical American play that depicts the Salem witch trials as an allegory for Red Scare McCarthyism is standard high school reading. The play was written by Arthur Miller, who also penned "Death of a Salesman."

Delivered by wrongfully imprisoned protagonist John Proctor, the phrase "God is dead" was metaphorical. But Mitchell's daughter may not have been in class that day.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/Blog/2013/08/19/Georgia-mom-upset-over-God-is-dead-artwork-in-school/9621376926924/

Religious people are less intelligent than non-believers, according to a new review of 63 scientific studies stretching back over decades.

A team led by Miron Zuckerman of the University of Rochester found “a reliable negative relation between intelligence and religiosity” in 53 out of 63 studies

Even in extreme old age, intelligent people are less likely to believe, the researchers found - and the reasons why people with high IQs shun religion may not be as simple as previously thought.

Previous studies have tended to assume that intelligent people simply “know better”, the researchers write - but the reasons may be more complex.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html

Icelanders Protest Evangelist Franklin Graham By Reserving Tickets To His Festival With No Intention Of Showing Up

Icelanders are outraged that Franklin Graham is holding a festival in Reykjavík next month, but they’re literally not taking it sitting down.

In a social media-fueled protest against the avowed anti-gay-marriage evangelist, Iceland residents are reserving hundreds of tickets to Graham’s upcoming sermons with the intention of leaving the seats empty.

The protest was reported Thursday on Visir.is, an Icelandic-language news site. The report was confirmed to International Business Times by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, a deputy and features editor for Iceland Review magazine.

http://www.ibtimes.com/icelanders-protest-evangelist-franklin-graham-reserving-tickets-his-festival-no-intention-showing

Sheriff Lee Baca announced the destruction Tuesday of 5,495 weapons confiscated from criminals in Los Angeles County and collected through the “Gifts for Guns” exchange program. Annually, Gerdau Steel Mill, located in Rancho Cucamonga, generously donates its furnace, equipment and personnel to convert these weapons into steel rebar. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works also donates the trucks every year that transport the weapons to the Mill.

These weapons will be melted into steel reinforcing bar (rebar) and ultimately transformed into elements of construction for upgrades in freeways and bridges in Arizona, California and Nevada. “Our partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department allows us the opportunity to make an impact in our community,” said Jim Crompton, Vice President and General Manager of Gerdau Steel Mill. “We are taking weapons that could destroy our community and repurposing them into steel that will literally help build our community.”

http://scvnews.com/2013/07/30/nearly-5500-seized-guns-melted-into-rebar/

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Police can keep nearly 50 guns they seized from a man after he was found watching a Bloomington bar where an Indiana University student partied the night she went missing more than a year earlier, a state court ruled Tuesday.

The 2-1 ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a local judge's ruling allowing Bloomington police to keep 48 weapons they confiscated from Robert Redington's Indianapolis home in August 2012, including more than a dozen tucked under the sheets and pillows of his bed. Redington's attorney, Guy Relford, said he would ask the Indiana Supreme Court to hear the case.

Bloomington police had found Redington on the third floor of a parking garage, where he was peering at the bar through a range finder. It was the same bar that Lauren Spierer visited on the night of her June 2011 disappearance. Redington told officers who approached him with their weapons drawn that he had a shotgun and another gun in his car.

Police confiscated two loaded semi-automatic handguns they found in Redington's pockets, as well as the shotgun and ammunition.

http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/indiana/police-can-keep-guns-seized-near-spierer-hangout

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post about how non-Christians perceive Christians. The article was based on an interchange with one non-Christian lady on this blog. I was surprised at the number of responses, including those from a number of non-Christians. I am grateful for all who responded.

A few Christians were concerned that I might be compromising my beliefs and convictions by writing the post. To the contrary, I still hold firmly to the exclusivity of the gospel and the mandate to evangelize. But, while I am convicted about the never-changing message of the gospel, I am concerned how we messengers sometimes treat others who don't believe as we do.

For now, I have provided four examples of what non-Christians are asking of Christians. They were all comments at different points on my blog. Each section represents a different non-Christian.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/four-thoughts-from-non-christians-about-christians-101439/