religion

"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;

They will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

- Mark 16:17-18 (NIV), quote attributed to Jesus following His resurrection

A 48 year-old woman died on Sunday after being bitten by a timber rattlesnake during a church service in London, Kentucky. Despite reptile-handling in churches being illegal in Kentucky, this is the seventh such liturgial fatality in that state since 1980.

October 31 is All Hallows Eve. Over the years it has been corrupted into Halloween. The Church of England Diocese of Manchester is promoting a campaign called Halloween Choice. It's not intended to eliminate all the gruesome "fun" of Halloween, but rather to promote the positive and Christian aspects of All Hallows Eve and lobbies retail outlets to provide more diversity in their marketing.

halloweenchoice.org has more information. I think it would be nice to see this campaign taken up by the church in other areas, including Australia.

It's not just Sydney's Islamic and Anglican clerics who have been shooting themselves in the foot lately, as rabbis from the Sydney Beth Din demonstrate that orthodox Judaism can do daft things as well.

The Australian Jewish News takes up the story. (And I'll have a lot more to say about the Anglican Synod at another time.)

The Baptist church campus ministry at the University of Louisville, Kentucky has begun conducting evangelical sports events with the university's cricket-playing students from India.

The Baptist Press takes up the story, which doesn't make it totally clear whether the evangelism is aimed at converting the Indians to Christianity, or to baseball. (Or indeed, both.)

Mrs Madonna Ritchie, 48, of Marylebone has been copping a lot of flak this week, what with "adopting" a Malawian child and transplanting him to a foreign society. Is that what the American Family Association is worried about? Nope:

AFA helps force NBC to cancel scene mocking crucifixion of Christ

AFA supporters have won a great victory! The efforts of AFA Online supporters has forced NBC to cancel a scene in the upcoming Madonna special in which she mocks the crucifixion of Christ!

More than 750,000 AFA supporters emailed NBC asking for the scene to be deleted from the special which is scheduled to air in November. NBC saw a potential loss of $25,000,000 and decided to edit out the scene.