Harold Camping suffers stroke, but is recovering

The man who hit the headlines almost two months ago for predicting after a 50-year intensive study of the Bible that the world would end on May 21, has suffered a severe stroke and was hospitalised as a result.

Harold Camping, who is president of Family Radio, a Christian radio ministry, suffered the stroke last week and the 89-year-old was immediately rushed to hospital. He is now out of danger although friends and family report his speech is still slurred.

Charles Menut, the regional manager for Family Stations Inc., the parent company of Family Radio, has asked the media and public to not contact Camping or his family, but rather to pray for them and his swift recovery.

Camping’s failed prediction earned him notoriety around the world with several groups calling him a fraud and urging authorities to audit Family Radio, which is estimated to be worth around $100 million, according to the International Business Times.

Tony Blair in attempt to rescue religion from extremism

The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched his faith foundation in the Ukraine and he used the opportunity to urge the country's young people to make a difference.

Mr Blair warned his audience that although religious extremists were well funded and highly organised, everything possible needed to be done to rescue religion from extremism.

"We need to ensure that those who are open minded recover the true meaning of religion," he argued.

"I want to see faith viewed not as reactionary or redundant but for it to be true to its spirit: working for the common good and as a civilising force which pursues social justice."

Mr Blair informed his audience of 400 students from Kiev that young people could effect real change in the world around them and create greater tolerance and understanding if they really made an effort to do so.

“In the end things can change but not unless there are people committed to doing it. It is your generation who will make the difference," he said.

"If you don’t think the world you live in is perfect get involved and make it better.”

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation will work among the students to create religious tolerance by increasing the understanding of religion in a globalised world.

Blair’s foundation will partner with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which seeks to create leadership skills among young people in the fields like health, education, culture, international affairs, and human rights. 



“Through our work, with Ukrainian partner schools and universities, we aim to contribute to the emergence of a cohort of Ukrainian young people and students who are critically analysing the role and influence of religion in today’s modern world and actively forging better relationships across religious and cultural divides," added Mr Blair.



“We are grateful to the Victor Pinchuk Foundation for their support, and look forward to a close cooperation with the Ukrainian government and educational system to further these aims."

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation also works among school with their Face to Faith programme that attempts to connect student across international boundaries in 17 different countries via educational modules and the use of video-conferencing technology.

The second programme instituted by Blair’s foundation is called Faith and Globalisation that will work with tertiary institutions to institute an academic discipline of studying faith in the modern world and which can be applied to business, politics and civil society. 

Mr Pinchuk said he hoped the joint work of the two foundations would develop the Ukraine into a country of true religious tolerance.

"I am happy to support a programme focused on the next generation, the core target group of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation's work," he said.

"We want to prepare them to develop the skills to bridge divides between faiths and cultures, develop a global outlook, and make diversity an asset.

"Ukraine has known long periods of peaceful living together of different faiths, this is what we need to build on, foster, and share with others."

Young people still have positive view of marriage, finds new study

A new study conducted by a team of academics on young people in the U.S. and Canada has found that marriage is still viewed positively by the majority of them.

These findings directly contradict widespread anxiety over the future of marriage as an institution, and even surprised the researchers working on this project.

"What was so striking about what the young people said is that no one really described rejecting marriage," said the academic in charge of the study, Maria Kefalas, a sociology professor at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

"I had a category all written — marriage rejector — and we couldn't find any. There was no one who said, 'Marriage is meaningless and I don't want to get married.'"

The study also found a huge difference between rural and urban young adults in their views of marriage. Rural young adults were named as "marriage naturalists" by the study because they still hold to a generations old view of marriage in seeing it as the inevitable "next step" in a long-term relationship.

"It was like a time capsule," Kefalas reported. "Marriage was expected. It wasn't fretted about, there was very little hand-wringing about it. A lot of the pressure for marriage was external in terms of social expectation that that's what you do."
However, urban young adults were more "marriage planners" said the study, in that they set high standards for potential marriage partners and revealed a conviction that marriage was something they had to be "ready for."

"We hear a story of, 'Of course we want to get married, but there's a lot more to it. There are so many more things I have to accomplish before I get married,'" Kefalas added. "It was crazy, how much work they were putting into this."

While more young people are living together first and common-law couples are growing at a much faster rate than ever before, Kefalas said this is more because of economic factors than a disillusionment with marriage. The current shifting economic landscape makes it increasingly difficult to gain the financial stability that most young adults feel they need before they marry.

"One of the great myths has been that young people, in particular millennials, are saying, 'We don't want to get married and marriage is irrelevant to us,' and that's not true," Kefalas insisted.

Kefalas' co-authors on the paper, published in the July issue of the Journal of Family Issues, are Frank Furstenberg and Laura Napolitano of the University of Pennsylvania and Patrick Carr from Rutgers University in New Jersey, reports canada.com.

Francis Chan writes new book about hell

Popular author and speaker, Francis Chan, has weighed into one of the biggest debates the church is currently struggling with in his new book ‘Erasing Hell’ (due out in July). Chan made a big impression last year after he left his megachurch because he felt it was preventing him from truly following Jesus’ call. Chan was involved in mission work in Asia before writing this book, and early reports suggest he has entered into the conversation around hell and the afterlife with his typical mixture of candour and grace.

Chan was interviewed by Relevant Magazine about the new book, and we have included a section of this interview below.

RM: Is there any coincidence that you have a book coming out right after Rob Bell’s book on hell, or is this a specific and intentional response to what he’s written and put together?

Chan: Yeah, you know, it definitely was spurred on after reading his book. [It raised] some new thoughts for me, and praying through those. You know, [I] just [had] a range of emotions as I read the book. But one thing, for sure, it made me study again and go, “Gosh, I’m not so sure about some things anymore.” As I studied and as I got into it, I just felt like: “You know what? I need to write something to this issue.” So that definitely got the ball rolling for me as far as thinking, and so I’m very grateful for that, because hell isn’t something I normally think about—I almost try not to think about it. But then as I was thinking through these thoughts [and] I realized, “This is a topic we avoid, and there really isn’t a lot written on the topic, at least to the mainstream.” So I just felt like God wanted me to write something about it.

RM: Do you find the topic of Hell has been a difficult thing for you to dig into in conversations with friends, or even as a pastor? Is it something you feel like you haven’t emphasized enough, or emphasized in the wrong way in the past?

Chan: Man, this whole study has been so sobering to me. It’s hard to talk about right now, honestly. There’s so many emotions that run through me whenever I even say the word “hell.” So, I think it’s healthy, and it’s good for my soul to discuss and to study, but it’s very difficult—it’s always difficult.

RM: This topic over the last several months seems as though it’s exposed a lack of unity in the Church. What do you feel like it’s exposed within dialogue and conversations that you’ve been around related to people’s thoughts on Hell?

Chan: Gosh, I think it exposes a lot. I think you’re right: It shows a lot how unhealthy we are as believers and as a body, especially here in the U.S. We don’t know how to disagree well. I think we revert to name-calling or labeling, belittling, versus really getting into the Word and loving each other, and saying, “Hey, let’s study this together a little bit more" or, "Let’s talk through the issues a little bit more.” So I think it’s exposed some of that. Everyone just kind of runs to their camp and I don’t know how open they are to just really listening or to just studying the Word deeply for themselves.

RM: Did your opinions or your belief systems about hell change during the study and process and research related to the book at all? Or did it solidify what you felt like you already believed?

Chan: Yeah ... some things changed. Some things I feel more strong about, and other things I realized, “OK, I always thought that was a lot clearer than that,” and it wasn’t. So yeah, some of my views have changed.

RM: What conclusions have you come to after the research and the study you did for the book specifically on the topic of Hell?
Chan: That it’s very real. It is a place we need to avoid at all costs. It is a terrifying thought to fall into the hand of the Living God as Scripture tells us. But I was also surprised that these passages are really written to people who call themselves “believers.” Usually we only talk about Hell in this evangelistic, “I’m going to preach the Gospel” and “Hell, fire and brimstone” to these unbelievers, but these passages really were written to those who called themselves the Church. It’s a very sobering thought, and a very interesting warning.

RM: If the texts are so clear, why are we all still disagreeing about it?

Chan: I don’t want to guess at anyone’s motives. I know my own, and I know there are certain things I really, really want and wish to be true, and I know that gets in the way. I mean, I—I’m not ... you know, I don’t want to look for, like, an obscure detail, or try to find some nuance in the language. I’m a pretty simple guy. I just read the Bible and go, “OK, if I read this 50 times on an island, what would I come up with?” Pray, fast—I’ll study. I’ll look into the language, but I think I really don’t try to bring up some strange thing that a 15-year-old couldn’t come up with. It’s just [like], "Gosh, this seems like the obvious teaching of Scripture." So that’s where I hang my hat.

You can read the full interview on www.relevantmagazine.com.

Dawkins calls for Irish Constitution to remove all church influence

On the back of his planned involvement alongside other leading academics in launching a new College of Humanities, the renowned atheist and scientist Richard Dawkins has called on the Irish Constitution to be reformed to remove the influence of the church.

Dawkins is in Ireland to attend the the World Atheist Convention, and on Sunday he informed The Irish Times that the country should change its Constitution to “remove all influence of the Roman Catholic Church and all other churches … incorporating tolerance for all religions.”

Dawkins did not hold back as he described the Roman Catholic Church as “an evil institution” and said it is “by far the worst where the churches are concerned.”

The author of The God Delusion was indignant that Irish presidents and judges still had to take an oath to God when they are sworn into office, and expressed joy that secularism is growing and the number of priests is declining in Ireland.

Approximately 350 locals attended the inaugural, three-day World Atheist Convention in Dublin.

London hosts Pentecost Festival

A Pentecost Festival is being staged in the heart of London for ten days between 3 and 12 June. The festival intends to impact upon the political, cultural and entertainment scenes of the city as art galleries, theatres, bars and streets will play host to Christians celebrating the birthday of the church.

The Festival will include 74 events and 82 performers in 56 venues over the ten days. Event line-ups will include an X factor finalist, an Edinburgh Fringe award winner, a Guinness World Record holder, live comedians, a Cambridge lecturer, renowned worship leaders and more.

People will be invited to enter into various debates around fashion, science and theology, while there will also be opportunities to meet MP’s, and also tour the city from a ‘faith’ perspective.

You can find out more on www.pentecostfestival.co.uk.

Centuries old Spanish church discovered in Florida

A 300-year-old church belonging to the Spanish colonial period has been uncovered by a team of archaeologists from the University of Florida.

The team of archaeologists estimate this could be the oldest stone building left of that period. The foundations indicate a structure of around 27 meters (90 feet) long by 12 meters (40 feet) high, which would be "the only mission church made of stone," the university announced in a statement.

The ruins were discovered in St. Augustine, where the first Franciscan mission was built in Florida.

This mission was known as Nombre de Dios (Name of God), and actively ministered from 1587 until 1760.

"This is a truly exciting rediscovery of a long-lost building," said the distinguished research curator emeritus of historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Kathleen Deagan.

St. Augustine is America’s oldest city, and the church itself was build in the 1650s, but after the English destroyed it in the 18th century, the ruins were slowly covered and the place forgotten, reports Foxnews.com.

(Image from wlox.com).