Religion – Page 33 – Warren Throckmorton

Fellowship Church Spokesman Says LDS Doctrine Teacher Glenn Beck's Knowledge of History is Unmatched

UPDATE: Beck defended his appearance; says he won’t teach theology. I dispute that here and note that the LDS believe the founders were redeemed into the church via baptism.
Nicola Menzie’s Christian Post article examined the evangelical megachurch fascination with Glenn Beck, but Fellowship Church’s statement about Beck’s knowledge of history stood out to me. Unmatched? Unmatched in error perhaps, but I think the clueless spokesman meant it as a compliment. The full quote was Glenn Beck’s:

knowledge of our history and his understanding of our nation is unmatched.

Beck got history wrong (see also this) when he spoke at Liberty University in 2014. He even messed up Mormon history in that talk at the same time he promoted LDS theology in his speech.
As I noted recently, Beck is speaking this coming weekend at Fellowship Church, a Southern Baptist church pastored by Ed Young.
Beck is the Gospel Doctrine teacher at his Mormon church and is about to teach his audience from the Bible next week. Watch:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/1pa2kEzpN_A[/youtube]
Menzie’s article did not get comment from Beck on his status with the Mormon church but apparently he has a position teaching doctrine there. You can review the teacher’s manual for the New Testament on the LDS church website. This site gives lessons from the Book of Mormon. The gospel doctrine teacher is to teach the doctrines of the Mormon church, which are outlined here.
Of course, all are free to practice their religion but it appears that celebrity worship is the religion of the modern Christian megachurch.

Glenn Beck to Appear at Ed Young's Fellowship Church on July 5

Glenn Beck will be interviewed at 11am Sunday morning at Fellowship Church near Fort Worth, TX. According to the website, the event will take place at the Hawkins/Allaso Ranch retreat center.

Fellowship Church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
It seems surreal to have an unabashed Latter Day Saint apologist address a Baptist congregation on Sunday morning.

Why Christians Should Listen to the Pope's Encyclical on Climate Change

The Pope’s encyclical on climate change will probably change the conversation among religiously conservative people.
Writing on the Biologos website, Katherine Hayhoe and Edwin Maurer argue that religiously conservative Christians should heed and follow the encyclical.
Biologos’ press release begins:

INTRO: Yesterday saw the release of “Laudato Si’,” an encyclical letter from Pope Francis. Although the massive document provides counsel on many contemporary issues, its primary focus is the worldwide ecological crisis caused by modern human activity. It explicitly affirms the reality of human-induced climate change, and urges Christians to move beyond debating the causes to stopping the damage. Today, we feature a response by world-renowned climate scientist and evangelical Christian Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, along with her colleague Dr. Ed Maurer. Look next week for further thoughts by the BioLogos staff as well as scholars in our community.

Hayhoe and Maurer agree with the pope and add a good bit more:

The Pope is not alone; the 2006 Evangelical Climate Initiative , the 2011 National Association of Evangelicals report, “ Loving the Least of These ,” and the 2013 letter from 200 evangelical scientists to Congress all state in clear and unmistakable terms that the basis for caring about climate change is nothing less than love—a fundamental Christian value espoused by any believer from any denomination. So whom should we believe? As scientists, we know the importance of evidence; whether revealed through God’s written word or through creation. There is nothing in the Bible that says human-induced climate change isn’t possible. And there is plenty in creation that tells us that it is.

In my opinion, Hayhoe and Maurer are bringing good information to Christians. The work I have seen certainly indicates a human element to the elevation of temperatures, as well as other problems.
Read the entire article here.

Gospel for Asia, and the $9 Million Interest Play

In note H of GFA’s 2013 audited financial statement, GFA describes a $9 million transfer to India to take advantage of what is described as “favorable interest rates” (see the last paragraph in the image below).

The Indian FC-6 forms requires NGOs to report the amount of foreign contributions received and the amount of interest made on those contributions. It appears that GFA in India made about 6% on contributions in 2011-2012. According to the Bank of India, the benchmark interest rate peaked at 8.5% during the period.

source: tradingeconomics.com

While 6-8.5% sounds high compared to U.S. rates, the unfortunate thing about the move is the fact that Indian rupee continued to weaken. On August 15, 2011, one rupee was worth .02177 cents. By December, the rupee had declined to .01816. By August of 2012, the decline continued to .01796. The financial statement doesn’t say when the money was returned but even if it was January 2012 (.01889), GFA lost just over 13% due to currency devaluation.

Franklin Graham Takes Money Out of One Gay Friendly Bank, Then Puts It In Another Gay Friendly Bank

Update: Graham has responded to criticism via an editorial in USA Today.
Don’t you hate it when you boycott (personcott?) your bank because it is too gay friendly and then you switch banks and then find out that the new bank is also gay friendly?
Read all about it at WaPo in an article by Sarah Pulliam Bailey.
When I first converted, I was told by my youth pastor that one shouldn’t go to movies because doing so would support Hollywood. I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now.
Franklin used Facebook to make his declaration. Well, that is a problem for him going forward. He said Christians don’t have to shop at Tiffany & Co. Well, that’s good because I can’t really afford to. I guess evangelists who run big charities have a choice.
Last night, I asked Franklin’s PR rep, Mark DeMoss, for a comment about the new bank, BB&T, but didn’t hear back.