December (Web-only) 2005

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Weblog is still officially on vacation, but we're still reading religion news online (albeit on a very slow dialup connection). Fortunately, it's a very slow religion news week. But there are a few stories worth noting:

Jews for Jesus sues Google over blog  (Reuters)
jewsforjesus.blogspot.com has few posts since its launch in January 2005, but one imagines it's getting a lot of traffic this week. Jews for Jesus says the critical site is guilty of trademark infringement.

Texas church plans to give away a house (The Daily News, Galveston, Tex.)
In past years, Abundant Life Christian Center in La Marque, Texas, has given away a car, a motorcycle, and furniture. It draws about 2,000 each year to its New Year's Eve service. One wonders if the potential of leaving church with a $120,000 three-bedroom house might boost that attendance a bit this year. Any out-of-staters planning on making the trip?

KKLA-FM's evangelical voice has grown louder (Los Angeles Times)
This profile of the country's largest Christian talk radio station (with more than 250,000 listeners each week) isn't terribly exciting. The interesting factor is how poverty issues, which generally aren't considered a conservative Christian radio staple, keep coming up. KKLA general manager Terry Fahy tells the Times, "We believe [the station] inspires people to live better lives. We are constantly exhorting people to reach out more to their fellow men, be more giving to the poor."

Later, Clay Schmit, professor of preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary, says, "They're obviously targeting a particular kind of Christian audience. That audience may not include all Christians. But there is a spirit of care that you get in these programs—to help children through World ...