In misguided attempt to combat swine flu, Egypt's government has announced plans to destroy the mostly Muslim nation's 400,000 pigs--which are owned by members of the country's Christian minority. The action comes despite comments from the United Nations that the slaughter is "a real mistake." The disease cannot be caught from eating pork. Egypt's Christians, understandably, are bewildered.

The move to slaughter the pigs, kept mainly by the country's Christian minority, sparked an angry response from farmers, who said reported government pledges of compensation of $105 per animal were inadequate.

Clashes were reported in Khanka, 25km north of Cairo, with pig farmers setting up road blocks and smashing the windscreens of veterinary services' vehicles as they sought to take people's pigs away.

"Our pigs are healthy. They are our capital and they have no diseases," Adel Ishak, a rubbish collector from Manshiet Nasser, northeast of Cairo, told the AFP news agency.

"How will they replace the capital if these pigs are killed?"

Think the churches in your neighborhood don't get along? Then, this should put things in perspective: The pastor of Rubaga Miracle Centre in Kampala, Uganda, has accused the pastor of Omega Healing Centre of trying to destroy his reputation by 1) kidnapping and torturing his personal aide and 2) bribing the aide to accuse him of sexually abusing boys.

Omega Healing Centre's pastor, Michael Kyazze, denies he was involved in kidnapping:

I have never been engaged in as nefarious and criminal an act of kidnapping. My struggle has been and will continue to be the fight for the increasing number of victims of sodomy in our society. If it has been interpreted as an effort to discredit Pastor Kayanja, then it is both unfortunate and a dangerous insinuation.

This comes soon after an assistant pastor of Omega Healing Centre was arrested while trespassing at Rubaga Miracle Centre, allegedly while trying to investigate Kayanja .

The aide is currently recovering in a Kampala hospital.

Uganda’s New Vision reported the story and says it highlights growing tension among competing Pentecostal churches. The Daily Monitor says "Cases of alleged homosexuality in churches have now become common." New Vision says rival pastors also accuse each other of witchcraft.

Amazingly, this is not the worst ad for a Christian dating site I've seen.

But the worst was merely lascivious and not worth commenting on. This one, however, struck me because it's the only site I've seen that offers to "certify" Christians as such.

Those worried about their eternal security, take note.

Just two years after The Dallas Morning News cut its religion section, editors have decided to cut its local religion beat by moving two religion reporters to covering suburban schools.

It's unclear whether the religion blog will still be updated, but Sam Hodges said in an e-mail that he probably won't be able to keep it up. He and other writers are still posting interesting items, including this today:

The swine flu scare has prompted at least one Texas church to order a shipment of individually wrapped communion wafers and juice packets, thus cutting down on handling that could spread the disease.

Columnist Rod Dreher writes more on his blog:

Depressing very local news: there is no longer a religion beat at the Dallas Morning News. Our last two religion reporters have been reassigned to covering suburban schools. I have no idea why this decision was made, and I am in no position to question it, certainly. All newspapers, and certainly my own, are in serious trouble during this economic crisis, and we can't cover everything. But it is a shame, and indeed more than a shame, to think that the DMN's Religion section used to be routinely acclaimed within the profession as the best religion section in the country. And given how passionately religious Dallas and its environs are, this is to be expected, and welcomed.

Cross-posted from The Christian History Blog

When theologian George Kalantzis returned to the Wheaton College campus last fall after spending the summer in the Holy Land, he had a very pleasant surprise. While he was out of the country, two donors had approached the college administration about funding a program that would encourage interaction between Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism over their mutual legacy from the early church.

No one at Wheaton knew just how much these donors would fund, but George and his colleagues decided to dream big: they envisioned a Center for the Study of Early Christianity, with a vertically integrated program from undergraduate courses up through master's and doctoral studies.

Their big vision was rewarded.

Broadcaster Pat Robertson announced his plans to retire next summer as president of Regent University, the school said today.

Robertson, 79, will retire July 1, 2010 and continue to serve as chancellor and on the board of trustees at the 4,500-student, Virginia-based school.

"As chancellor and a trustee, I will now focus on helping guide the university toward the next level of strategic growth and the implementation of our master plan," he said in the statement.

A newly appointed search committee will name a new president by the fall semester of 2010, according to the release.

Robertson founded numerous organizations, including the American Center for Law and Justice, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and the Christian Coalition. He unsuccessfully campaigned to become the Republican Party's nominee in the 1988 presidential election but became widely known as a leader for the Christian right.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association has decided to not stage another consumer-focused Christian Book Expo next year. This year's event, held last month in Dallas, drew only 1,500 of an anticipated 10,000 to 15,000 attendees and left the ECPA with $250,000 in bills. Christianity Today participated in the event by convening five author panel discussions on topics such as "Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?" (Podcasts and videos of these discussions are available.) Mark Kuyper, ECPA's president, told Publisher's Weekly, ""We want to clean up the debt before we consider future options."

This week's Gospel Coalition Conference - the second one open to the public - was packed out. About 3,400 registered participants meant breakout sessions and the main assemblies overflowed, with people sitting on the floor and peeking in from the hallways.

And these participants were overwhelmingly young men. I tried counting from my seat and came up with about 20 men per woman - not too surprising in a mid-week conference for pastors with Calvinist and complementarian views. Don Carson estimated that 80 percent were under forty.

The theme was based on 2 Timothy, a letter from a pastor near the end of his life to a young pastor. It was clear, especially in John Piper's sermon and the panel discussion at the end, that TGC see themselves in that role of pastoring pastors.

As far as the conference itself goes, clearly it's come a long way since 2007, when Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was able to fit everyone on their campus. The lineup of speakers continues to represent a very broad range of styles (John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, among others). Nevertheless, it's also a place where someone can say "peculiar unction" and be understood by all.

But it's no longer just a conference. One of the few non-sermon events was an introduction, led by Keller and Don Carson, to forming official chapters of the Gospel Coalition. Those will have a virtual existence on The City (a social networking site developed at Mars Hill). They're also expected to facilitate face-to-face meetings and conferences. On three separate occasions, people told me TGC seemed like a nascent denomination.

Some sessions are well worth listening to: Keller on contemporary idols, Driscoll on dealing with difficult people, Ajith Fernando on preaching the uniqueness of Christ in a pluralistic society (there doesn't seem to be an available audio file on this), and the second half of the panel discussion, where Keller, Piper, Ligon Duncan, and Crawford Loritts talk about suffering (also not online).

I celebrated Earth Day by purchasing a plane ticket and reserving a hotel room. From May 13 to 15, I'm going to join other evangelical Christians who care for God's creation at the Flourish Conference in Duluth, Georgia.

The lineup of speakers is intriguing. It blends people who don't usually appear on the same platform because of their differing constituencies and mixes veteran environmental presenters with other well-known speakers who haven't addressed this issue with their publics. Add to that the symbolism of a Southern Baptist venue for an environmental conversation and the fact that several of the speakers are "professional Southern Baptists" (that is, their public face is linked with Southern Baptist institutions).

But what is most interesting about this conference is this:

Cedarville University students will not publish the final issue of their student newspaper Cedars to protest the school's new policy that public relations staff review the newspaper.

"The public relations department, directed by university trustees and some administrative officials, now reviews, approves, censors and cuts the content of your student newspaper," Cedars staff members wrote in a circulated letter. They wrote that public relations employees approved every published article beginning with the second issue this spring.

The students write that review and censorship by public relations breaks the operating model approved by the administrative council on October 9, 2006, which says "The student editors prepare copy for print and take responsibility for making decisions, along with the Faculty Adviser, for what ends up in print."

"...the PR department's excessive attempt to censor Cedars necessarily violates our operating model, and the Cedars staff has thus decided to cease publication," the students write. "Review by the public relations department undermines our ability to think critically and engage culture. We grieve the loss of free expression and healthy discourse once found in your newspaper, traits that ought to characterize all vibrant institutions of higher learning."

Carl A. Ruby, vice president for student life, wrote in a campus-wide e-mail that the newspaper will not be in publication until spring 2010. He said that the newspaper will reorganize and return next year under a new journalism program.

"We acknowledge that finding the right balance of freedom of expression is difficult, especially in the context of a community of believers who voluntarily give up some of our freedoms for the sake of our shared mission," Ruby wrote. "This has been a difficult arrangement, both for the students and for our staff in Public Relations and we recognize that it probably isn't the most ideal approach to editorial oversight for the future."

When Frodo sailed into the West, never to return to a Middle Earth that was itself slipping away, I got choked up. When Narnia was no more, I felt a longing of regret:

The spreading blackness was not a cloud at all: it was simply emptiness. The black part of the sky was the part in which there were no stars left. All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home.

As a billion people observe the 40th Earth Day today and think about the noble goal of preserving (and for Christians, stewarding) the planet on which we live and move and have our being, I am thinking about heaven.

There's a reason the Bible promises us a new heaven and a new earth. This world, as seemingly solid and as breathtakingly beautiful as it is, is transient beyond our comprehension. And despite our best (and sometimes misguided) efforts, this pale blue dot in a sea of inky blackness is headed for extinction. That's not a world-denying premillennial eschatological perspective that cannot be verified. It's the latest findings of the new science of astrobiology.

According to Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, life on earth is the result of a precarious - and temporary - balance of air, rock, and solar activity. In The Life and Death of Planet Earth, They write, "Our neighboring planets, Venus and Mars, one blisteringly hot and the other frozen, have provided valuable insights into how rare, unique, and wonderful our own home is."

Ward and Brownlee, authors of Rare Earth, say the planet is already in decline and make the following predictions related to earth's eventual demise:

- The long-term climate threat to human civilization comes not from global warming, but from a new ice age: "Human civilization has arisen in a brief ?interglacial' that has lasted only about twelve thousand years and may already be ending."
- The loss of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 100 million years will spell the end of plant life (meaning the Age of Plants is 95 percent over);
- All life, even microbial life, which most scientists believe began 3.4 billion years ago, will be extinct in a mere 500 million years;
- When earth, currently estimated at 4.5 billion years old, is 12 billion years old, it will be swallowed by an expanding sun.

This world is not my home, I'm just passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

Yes, while we pass through this world, let's take care of it for our good and for God's glory. But let's remember that Jesus has promised to prepare an even better place for his followers. For us, the end of the world represents the beginning of something far better.

Today was Holocaust Remembrance Day (or Yom HaShoah in colloquial Hebrew). On this day, Jews do not have a uniform ritual for memorializing those who died as part of the Nazi genocide. The observance was established too recently (inaugurated only in 1951), for any genuine tradition to have developed. Jews marked the occasion in different ways today. I have even less sense of what I should do, but I decided this morning to wear my kippeh (yarmulke) to work as a sign of solidarity with my Jewish brothers and sisters. It gave me a number of opportunities to remind my Christian coworkers of today's significance.

The key issue Christians face is trying to grasp the degree of Christian responsibility for the Nazi genocide. Clearly, many German Christians were utterly complicit, but certainly not all. Clearly, there are cultural links between this history of Christian anti-Semitism and Nazi anti-Semitism. But there is more to the story than that.

Here are three things to remember and to help us have a balanced, accurate view of Christians' relationship to this great horror.

So which is more interesting? (1) This video?

or (2) the comments from people who think it's terrifying and resembles "one of hitler's speaches from the propaganda films"

* Tuesday, April 21.

Wow. Across three days and meeting in total for 25 hours with seven meals, about 65 Muslim and Evangelical leaders met in Pasadena, Calif., to discuss a wide range of topics.

Don Wagner, a leader in this initiative and a professor at North Park University, at the end exclaimed, "The Holy Spirit has been present with us!." True confessions, he's right. Yes, Islam teaches about the Holy Spirit, not as a person, but as God's active force. (Yeah, we disagree on that one too.)

In summary, here are my three take-aways from this event:

-- The person of Jesus and our relationship with him must be central to discussions between Muslims and evangelicals.

-- Evangelical advocacy for religious freedom worldwide is best positioned when it is clearly linked to the benefit of religious freedom for all faiths, not just for Christians.

-- Religious labeling of all kinds is hazardous to our spiritual health.

* Friday, April 17, 10 pm, update

About 60 Muslim and Evangelical leaders and seminary students met for 12 hours of meetings, meals, and discussion on the Fuller Seminary campus today. (The session resumes tomorrow morning. See below for additional details.)

My head is spinning from the quality of the presentations and the passionate exchanges. So far, this has been a richly rewarding event.

Here are some of my initial impressions after interacting with these scholars, authors, editors, professors, students, and ministry leaders:

1. Muslims and Evangelicals who are committed to the work of dialogue spend a lot of time explaining to each other why extremists do what they do in the name of their own faith.

2. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have been, are now, and will be in a deep encounter for generations to come. While there was little discussion of Jews and Judaism, the reality of this encounter was for me inescapable. Dialogue that does not lead to tri-a-logue will not survive the test of time.

3. Muslims and Evangelicals once and for all must settle, resolve, mutually understand, and respect their divergent doctrines of God. The end value of such a heroic effort of understanding must not be underestimated.

4. One scholar admitted to what he called "dialogue fatigue." Actually, I see that as real progress. When Muslims and Evangelicals press beyond the far point of verbal exhaustion, isn't that when we can breakthrough to some other new place? Listening to God requires our silence.

5. Evangelicals and Muslims do each other a disservice when they mutually shy away from airing their grievances openly due to quick pursuit of easy faith-based harmony.

6. There is true urgency to this pursuit of relationship and understanding between Muslims and Evangelicals. The consequences of growing tension between Islam and Christianity are growing greater. As I said to one participant, "Lives and souls hang in the balance."

* Friday, 9 am

I'm on campus at Fuller Seminary in sunny & warm Pasadena, CA, for today and tomorrow as about 65 Muslim and Evangelical leaders from North America and the Middle East are discussing a wide range of mutual concerns. The World Islamic Call Society is sponsoring this session, the third one of its kind.

The title is, "A Common Word Between Us and You."

Among the evangelicals here are: Donald Wagner, Leith Anderson, Gary Burge, Len Rogers, Colin Chapman, Dudley Woodbury, and Martin Accad.

Muslim leaders include: Mahmoud Ayoub, Assad Busool, Asma Afsaruddin, Muhammad Sammak, Jamal Badawi, Sayid Sayeed, Abed Ismail.

See below for five of the questions under discussion. I welcome your input since I will be a presenter on Saturday afternoon.

What additional questions would you want explored?

Email me, here. Or, add your question in the comments section below.

Some of the topics to be explored, in question format:

1. What is role and meaning of worship in the New Testament and the Qur'an?

2. What lessons are there for us in looking at the treatment of Christian minorities under Muslim rule and Muslim minorities under Christian rule?

3. What are the consequences, goals, and obstacles of dialog between Muslims and Evangelicals?

4. How should we approach the problem of terrorism and the plight of American Muslims and also the plight of Middle Eastern Christians?

5. How does the call for equality and justice influence the treatment of Muslims and Christians in the North American media, and also in the Muslim media?

(Photo: 'Blue Mosque,' Istanbul, Turkey.)

The video of the Christian apologist verbally sparring with the atheist professor at Princeton is finally available. Here is D'Souza's March column, "Staring into the Abyss," for Christianity Today, based in part on their debate.

Breaking news:

Top conservative Anglicans have been meeting in London this week and as expected they have issued a communique that offers recognition to Bishop Robert Duncan, former Episcopal Bishop of Pittsburgh, and his organization the Anglican Communion in North America, a proposed new province.

The ACNA expects to meet this summer to more formally establish an organization of traditional and conservative Anglicans in the United States and Canada. In the meantime, the ligitation over church property, financial assets, trust funds, and endowments continues between the Episcopal Church and parishes and dioceses that have separated from TEC.

See below for the full statement, released early this morning:

Former atheist A. N. Wilson has slowly emerged from the closet as a believer - again. The renowned journalist and biographer, who was raised in the church of England and who had once considered himself a believer, had a "conversion" to atheism 20 years ago at age 38 (midlife crisis, anyone?). And it really looked like a conversion. In an article in the April 6 New Statesman (partial text available here), he compares the tremendous sense of relief he felt when he stopped believing to the experience of Christian converts at a Billy Graham Crusade he was covering for the Independent on Sunday:

As a hesitant, doubting, religious man I'd never known how they felt. But, as a born-again atheist, I now knew exactly what satisfactions were on offer. For the first time in my 38 years I was at one with my own generation. I had become like one of the Billy Grahamites, only in reverse. If I bumped into Richard Dawkins (an old colleague from Oxford days) or had dinner in Washington with Christopher Hitchens (as I did either on that trip to interview Billy Graham or another), I did not have to feel out on a limb.

After that conversion, his biographical writing turned to demythologizing gospel stories about Jesus and viewing C. S. Lewis through a Freudian lens. (That effort provoked an outcry among Lewis lovers.)

But Wilson never fully disbelieved, just as before his conversion he never fully believed.

"On the third day he rose again."

But have you ever wondered how it works out to three days, when the chronology of Jesus' death and resurrection--Friday afternoon to the early hours of Sunday morning--only takes 36 hours or so? And doesn't Jesus compound the problem when he foretells his death and resurrection in Matthew's gospel: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth"?

Over at Zondervan's Koinonia blog, Walter C. Kaiser Jr. explains that "three days and three nights was a stereotypical phrase that allowed the full day and night to be counted when any part of that time was included."

Books & Culture Editor John Wilson likes David Dark's new book, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, but he has some searching questions for the author. Here's the podcast of his discussion with Stan Guthrie.

A few weeks ago, I had a chance to meet over the phone Daniel Furst, who was telling me about a drama that I had never heard of before.

It's called, "The Quarrel." Click on the play button for a 4 minute YouTube video about this play

The amazing news is that "The Quarrel" will be staged twice this weekend, on Easter Sunday, April 12. But, of course, you have to live in southern California to take it in. (See below for performance details if you are lucky enough to be close by.)

Passover and Easter are powerful times for folks with cosmic questions about God, the Bible, and the meaning of life to explore the answers, hopefully in a faith-based (and orthodox) context.

Every year, I have found new friends with deep hurts who are grappling with theological questions that dramatists and screenwriters skillfully explore on our behalf, while we are at a safe distance away in the audience.

True confession, I was a lit major as an undergraduate, so I have a life-long weakness for powerful drama. I don't think "The Quarrel" will disappoint. Rabbi Joseph Teluskin, one of two playwrights for "The Quarrel," notes that Christians are becoming big fans of this modern Jewish drama with a Holocaust theme.

Perhaps this is because the storyline, though Jewish, mirrors many of the identical questions that Christians have about a loving God, an evil world, and the possibilities for reconciliation.

Here is additional information from the press kit:

Maundy Thursday is the day the church remembers the Last Supper and Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet. Anglican "blogger" Barbara Gauthier posted this ancient hymn on her daily newsletter:

What could be stranger than this?
What more awesome?

He who is clothed with light as with a garment (Ps. 104:2)
is girded with a towel.

He who binds up the waters in His clouds (Job 26:8),
who sealed the abyss by His fearful Name,
is bound with a girdle.

He who gathers together
the waters of the sea as in a vessel (Ps. 33:7)
now pours water in to a basin.

He who covers the tops of the heavens with water (Ps. 104:3)
washes in water the feet of His disciples.

He who has weighed the heavens with His palm
and the earth with three fingers (Is. 40:12)
now wipes with undefiled palms
the soles of His servants’ feet.

He before whom every knee should bow,
of those that are in heaven,
on earth and under the earth (Phil.2:10)
now kneels before His servants.

Cyril of Alexandria (375-444)

On the CT podcast blog I discuss some of the political and theological implications of the new push for homosexual marriage. John Blok of Prime Time Florida hosts.

The following podcasts are now available:

What is the Gospel?
Darrell Bock moderates a Christian Book Expo panel with Richard Stearns, Mark D. Roberts, Tullian Tchividjian, and Justin Taylor.

The Emerging Church
Mark Galli moderates a Christian Book Expo panel with Scot McKnight, Tony Jones, Kevin DeYoung, and Alex and Brett Harris.

They are each about an hour and a half. More podcast panel discussions, which are already available on this Liveblog in video format, will be available tomorrow.

UPDATE: The other three panel discussion podcasts will, God willing, be made available next week. Sorry for the delay.

Some observers point to the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) as evidence that religion is finally in decline in the United States. However, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge say the nation's free-market principles of innovation and competition help keep religion vibrant.

Religion, no less than software or politics, is a competitive business, where organization and entrepreneurship count. Religious America is led by a series of highly inventive "pastorpreneurs" -- men like Bill Hybels of Willow Creek or Rick Warren of Saddleback. These are far more sober, thoughtful characters than the schlock-and-scandal televangelists of the 1970s, but they are not afraid to use modern business methods to get God's message across.

The authors, who this week are releasing their book God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World (Penguin), have nothing to say in their Wall Street Journal article about how the forces of capitalism may affect orthodoxy for good or ill. But it is probably fair to say that reports of religion's death have been greatly exaggerated.

On March 21, William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens were part of a larger, CT-sponsored panel discussion on "Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?" After listing multiple argument's for God's existence that he said Hitchens failed to address, in his closing statement Craig, author of Reasonable Faith and a CT cover story on arguments for God's existence, warned Hitchens, author of God Is not Great, to come better prepared to deal with the arguments at their scheduled debate at Biola University on April 4, on the question, "Does God Exist?"

That Biola debate was indeed held this past weekend, drawing thousands of spectators (confirming a CT report on the popularity of such events). The Evangelical Philosophical Society provides a helpful roundup of the coverage.

Who won? Read the summary transcript and coverage and decide for yourself. Biola prof Doug Geivett had this to say in his snap analysis:

[T]his debate exposed a difference in preparation on the part of these two debaters. This is far more significant than it might seem at first. William Lane Craig has debated this topic dozens of times, without wavering from the same basic pattern of argument. He presents the same arguments in the same form, and presses his opponents in the same way for arguments in defense of their own worldviews. He's consistent. He's predictable. One might think that this is a liability, that it's too risky to face a new opponent who has so much opportunity to review Craig's specific strategy. But tonight's debate proves otherwise. Hitchens can have no excuse for dropping arguments when he knows - or should know - exactly what to expect. Suppose one replies that William Craig is a more experienced debater and a trained philosopher, while Christopher Hitchens is a journalist working outside the Academy. That simply won't do as a defense of Hitchens. First, Hitchens is no stranger to debate. Second, he is clearly a skillful polemicist. Third - and most important - Hitchens published a book, god Is Not Great, in which he makes bold claims against religion in general and Christianity in particular. With his book, he threw down the challenge. To his credit, he rose to meet a skillful challenger. But did he rise to the occasion? Did he acquit himself well? At one point he acknowledged that some of his objections to the designer argument were "layman's" objections. His book, I believe, is also the work of a layman. It appears to have been written for popular consumption and without concern for accountability to Christians whose lives are dedicated to the defense of the Gospel.

UPDATE: CT plans to post podcasts of the five author panel discussions starting later this week.

The Senate just passed an amendment to lower the estate tax. CT last reported on Obama's budget recommendation to maintain the estate tax at 2009 levels: 45 percent on assets after $3.5 million or $7 million for couples.

The Senate voted to allow exemptions up to $10 million and tax estates at 35 percent above that level.

The question (for those of us not worried about being affected by this) is: Will the new level decrease charitable giving, since it encourages people to hang on to their money?

In four years, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killed 1.7 million of their fellow Cambodians. In the first trial that addresses the horrors of the regime, the man known as Comrade Duch has asked forgiveness for crimes against humanity, war crimes, homicide, and torture.

Duch is the nom de guerre of Kaing Guek Eav. He ran Security Center 21, a prison where 17,000 people, including children were "smashed." As The Financial Times reports, that's "the Khmer Rouge's chilling euphemism for torturing and murdering victims as part of the regime's attempt to create a perfect agrarian society."

Duch is making the news for taking responsibility and apologizing - something none of the other accused have come close to. "At the beginning I only prayed to ask for forgiveness from my parents, but later I prayed to ask forgiveness from the whole nation."

Prayed? It's not a mistranslation. Duch was baptized under the pseudonym Hang Pin after his wife was murdered in 1996. Purpose Driven Connection published a story about his conversion and discovery by British journalist Nic Dunlop (Dunlop discovered Duch's identity; Mary Murphy wrote the Purpose Driven Connection article). Their reporter, Mary Murphy, spoke to his pastor the only one who has been let in to see him. He says Duch has been reading the Bible to prisoners and guards during his imprisonment.

However, Murphy reports,

Truth be told, it is hard to find many in Cambodia who believe in Duch's sincerity. [Chief investigator] Youk skirts around the spiritual implications of the question. He pauses for a while to collect his thoughts. "I think Duch was living with guilt and perhaps looking for something to reconcile with, within himself," he says. "Duch is looking for an exit strategy, an internal reconciliation with himself. But he dare not go to anybody here, because they are all his enemies. The only ones he can go to are Christians."

Buddhist monks I interview later at their temple are even more dismissive. "Duch has become a Christian to earn points," one monk scoffs. "In our belief, you take your sins with you to the next life. Duch will surely come back in a form befitting his crime."

What sort of form of life? The monk doesn't hesitate. "A bug."

Duch's defense is arguing that he shouldn't face the life sentence because he was following orders, trying to save his and his family's lives. He says he is a scapegoat for those who were higher up in the regime. The trial is expected to last a few months.

Perhaps because of articles like this, suggesting a new Great Depression is upon us, or TV shows like this, suggesting we just might avoid that fate, or maybe because we've all got friends, family, or neighbors who are out of work, but Americans have quickly adopted new mores when it comes to public displays of money.

Even those who are well off, in consideration of others who are financially hurting, are toning down any evidence of conspicuous consumption. "I just feel so decadent with all the stuff I've got," says Ethel Knox.

And the values replacing those of consumption are laudable. "I think this economy was a good way to cure my compulsive shopping habit," Maxine Frankel, 59, a high school teacher from Skokie, Ill., said as she longingly stroked a diaphanous black shawl at a shop in the nearby Chicago suburb of Glenview. "It's kind of funny, but I feel much more satisfied with the things money can't buy, like the well-being of my family. I'm just not seeking happiness from material things anymore."

The New Atheists usually make two charges against Christianity: (1) that it is untrue and (2) that it is harmful. A panel of apologetics experts responds to an atheist critic with evidence from Scripture, science, and history about why the faith is both reasonable and good for the world. Christianity Today’s Stan Guthrie moderated this panel on March 21, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.

Panelists:
•Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus, The Case for a Creator (Zondervan)
•William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith (Crossway)
•Douglas Wilson, Is Christianity Good for the World? (Canon Press)
•Christopher Hitchens, Is Christianity Good for the World? (Canon Press) and God Is Not Great (Twelve Books)
•Jim Denison, Wrestling with God (Tyndale)

We hear much about the emerging church, but pinning down its beliefs and goals can be challenging. What is the movement emerging from and where is it headed? How influential is the emerging church? Participants, observers, and critics examine this movement from all angles - biblical, theological, pastoral, and missional. Christianity Today's Mark Galli moderated this panel on March 21, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.

Panelists:
•Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet (Zondervan)
•Tony Jones, The New Christians (Jossey-Bass)
•Kevin DeYoung, Why We Are Not Emergent (Moody)
•Alex and Brett Harris, Do Hard Things (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

A Christian consensus could once be pretty much assumed for Western culture, even if many people didn't possess personal faith. That is no longer true. Christianity is today viewed as just one of many spiritual options - and often with suspicion. How do followers of Christ respond in both word and deed? Christianity Today's Andy Crouch moderated this panel on March 20, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.

Panelists:
•Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz (Nelson)
•Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms (Inter-Varsity Press)
•Randy Frazee, Making Room for Life (Zondervan)
•Mary E. DeMuth, Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture (Harvest House)

Polls show that more Americans believe in heaven than in hell. The Bible, however, tells us both are real destinations. What are heaven and hell like, and how do we enter one and avoid the other? Author experts examine the afterlife from theological, pastoral - and personal - perspectives. Christianity Today's Mark Galli moderated this panel on March 20, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas. Here's a video courtesy of Tangle.

Panelists:
•Don Piper, 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death & Life (Baker)
•Sam Storms, The Hope of Glory (Crossway)
•Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Tyndale)
•J I Packer, Knowing God (Inter-Varsity Press)

Is there one gospel, or many? A panel of pastors and scholars shows why we can trust our Bibles - and how to separate the doctrinal wheat from the chaff. Darrell Bock moderated this panel on March 20, 2009, for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas. Here's a video courtesy of Tangle.

Panelists:
•Richard Stearns, President, World Vision International and author of The Hole in Our Gospel (Nelson)
•Mark D. Roberts, Can We Trust the Gospels? (Crossway)
•Tullian Tchividjian, Do I Know God? (Multnomah)
•Justin Taylor, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (Crossway)

Oh Twitter. Don't be fooled by it today.

Relevant Editor Cameron Strang posted a message that almost fooled many of us at CT: "Many of you know I've been on sabbatical for a while. Full story is last month I had to sell Relevant. Now looks like I won't be going back."

Just a few months ago, Strang posted these messages with no further explanation: "Just got some devastating, life-will-never-be-the-same-again kind of news. Please pray for me. Sorry for being vague. Still in shock. BTW, thanks to everyone who's prayed for me this week. It's been the worst of my life, but God is still God. My faith's still strong. Thanks"

But he texted me and said, "It was a joke! I'm fine, Relevant's fine. I'm still there. :)"