Focus on the Family founder James Dobson will leave the daily radio broadcast at the end of February, the Associated Press reports.

Focus on the Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger told the AP that it was a mutual decision of Dobson and the board, and that more details are forthcoming.

Dobson resigned as president in 2003 and resigned as chairman in February but continued to lead the radio program.

The Colorado-based group laid off 8 percent of its staff in September, including a staffer of "Love Won Out," a same-sex attractions conference series that Focus on the Family handed over to Exodus International.

The AP reported in September that Focus on the Family had about 860 employees, down from a peak 1,400.

Dobson is author of several books, including The New Dare to Discipline.

Following student protests, the University of Sheffield in England decided to not close the department of biblical studies.

A review by the pro-vice-chancellor had recommended shutting down the department down after current and 2009-2010 students completed their degrees, citing the loss of staff and declining student demand.

At 8 a.m. today, 1,064 members had joined the Facebook group "Don't shut down Biblical Studies at Sheffield" and a website was created to send the vice chancellor petition letters, several of which were posted on the website. Ben Hurrell, who created the Facebook group, told CT that citing the lack of student interest and staff was "unjust."

"The number of entries last year were capped at eight, but this year's graduates and level three students represent all-time high figures," Hurrell said in an e-mail. "While five senior lecturers have left over the last 2 years, the university has not allowed the department permanent staff to replace them for a variety of reasons."

The university senate was supposed to vote on the department's future on October 7, but after students heard through the students' union and protested, the decision was postponed.

"The vice chancellor has said that he feels the faculty handled consultation with staff and students so badly that it cannot justify a closure," Holly Taylor, education officer for the students' union, said in an e-mail this morning.

Taylor said that the the faculty will draw up plans for the department, including new staff appointments.

Collin Hansen contributed to this report. Another report will be forthcoming.

A judge in Orlando said today that he plans to send Rifqa Bary back to Ohio. Bary, a 17-year-old who fled to Florida because she believes her Muslim family would physically harm her for converting to Christianity.

Florida police found no evidence that her family would harm her and her mother's evangelical lawyer believed her Sri Lankan parents were right. Bary left for Florida on a bus in July to stay with husband and wife pastors she met through a prayer group on Facebook.

The judge said today that her parents must provide immigration paperwork and that she can continue her education through a Florida online school. A representative from the children's services in Ohio said a foster home has been identified for Rifqa in that state, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The Columbus Dispatch reports that the judge said he expects Bary to return to Ohio by October 27.

Ever since last year's gathering of the Evangelical Theological Society, Today's New International Version translator Mark Strauss and English Standard Version translator Bill Mounce have been friendly but public sparring partners.

"The ESV seems to me to be overly literal—full of archaisms, awkward language, obscure idioms, irregular word order, and a great deal of 'Biblish,'" Strauss wrote in his ETS paper, "Why the English Standard Version Should not become the Standard English Version."

"While the content of the paper was helpful, I am afraid that it only increased the gap between the two 'sides' of the debate," Mounce replied on his blog. "There has been a lot of hurt and damage done toward people on both sides of this debate (e.g., someone shot a bullet through a TNIV and mailed it to the publisher), and I got the feeling that Mark was getting tired of being attacked. I would be tired if I were in his shoes. He kept saying that the ESV has "missed" or "not considered" certain translational issues. While I am sure they were not intentional, these are emotionally charged words that do not help in the debate. They are in essence ad hominem arguments focusing on our competence (or perceived lack thereof) and not on the facts."

At the annual ETS meeting next month, Mounce will give a rejoinder, "Can the ESV and TNIV Co-exist in the same Universe?"

That title was published before Zondervan announced that it would cease publication of the TNIV and would launch a new version of the New International Version in 2011.

"In light of the recent announcement, I am tempted to stand before the ETS crowd, read the title, answer, 'Evidently not,' and sit down," Mounce recently wrote. "Do you think that type of humor would go over in an academic setting?"

Now Mounce has even more fodder for joking about his paper. Yesterday, he announced that at Strauss's invitation he will be joining the Committee on Bible Translation, which is updating the NIV.

"I don’t want anyone to think that I am unhappy with the ESV or that I am 'jumping ship.' I am not. I thoroughly enjoy reading and studying from the ESV. But ... I strongly believe in different translation philosophies, that there is not a 'One Size Fits All' and that the translator’s responsibility is to be consistent with that stated philosophy. So I have no trouble looking at the NIV’s translation philosophy and working within those guidelines."

Still, Mounce has been critical of Strauss's emphasis on colloquial English (which is, broadly speaking, the emphasis of the CBT). "To confine 'English' to a colloquial form does not give due credit to the true breadth of language," Mounce wrote. "Whose colloquial English? Someone from southern California, dude? Or someone from Texas? The deep south? New English? ... Time and time again on the ESV translation committee I was shocked to find how different we all heard words depending on the subculture to which we belong (or is it, 'we belong to')?"

Mounce, who has been an employee of NIV publisher Zondervan since July (he works on BibleGateway), suggested that he might push for less gender-inclusive language in the 2011 NIV than the TNIV contained. (The ESV's usage of "men" and "brothers" rather than "people" and "brothers and sisters" was one of its selling points.)

"My biggest concern [in joining the NIV team] was the gender language, and the mishandling of the TNIV rollout that has been such a problem, and how that could happen again," Mounce wrote. "You should know that I have been absolutely assured that the gender language is truly on the table for discussion, and since so much of the committee has changed, it is not a forgone conclusion as to how this committee will vote. Without that assurance, I could not have joined.

"I am not expecting 'brother and sister' to go away (nor should it, given the NIV’s translation philosophy), and thankfully 'humankind' never occurs in the NIV/TNIV. What an ugly word! But 'mankind' continues to be used as a generic term in English, as does 'man.' I know there are people who disagree with this point, but the fact that it is used generically over and over again cannot truly be debated; the evidence is everywhere. ... But who knows where the NIV 2011 will go and how I will vote."

On Thursday, the board of the National Association of Evangelicals endorsed without dissent a resolution that urges comprehensive immigration reform by the U.S. government. The resolution summarizes the biblical principles that should guide the needed change, but it stops short of endorsing any specific policy proposal. Read the Religion News Service coverage elsewhere on our site, and the resolution itself.

Presenters for the Capitol Hill press conference that followed the vote on the resolution included NAE president Leith Anderson (who reminded those present that Jesus was a refugee), national director of the Vineyard USA Berten Waggoner, president of Elim Fellowship Ronald Burgio, and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) Samuel Rodriguez.

The NHCLC serves 15 million Hispanic Christians and is an affiliate organization of the National Association of Evangelicals.

I asked Sam a copy of his press conference statement to share with CT's readers:

In an interview with Rob Bell earlier this year, CT senior managing editor Mark Galli asked the Mars Hill Bible Church pastor how he would present the gospel on Twitter. Bell replied:

I would say that history is headed somewhere. The thousands of little ways in which you are tempted to believe that hope might actually be a legitimate response to the insanity of the world actually can be trusted. And the Christian story is that a tomb is empty, and a movement has actually begun that has been present in a sense all along in creation. And all those times when your cynicism was at odds with an impulse within you that said that this little thing might be about something bigger—those tiny little slivers may in fact be connected to something really, really big.

In his response, Bell provoked a fair bit of criticism in the blogosphere (as he did again last week when he told The Boston Globe, “I embrace the term evangelical, if by that we mean a belief that we together can actually work for change in the world, caring for the environment, extending to the poor generosity and kindness, a hopeful outlook. That’s a beautiful sort of thing.”)

But Galli pointed out that he was cheating anyway. His answer was a lot more than 140 characters. "You can't really tweet the gospel," Bell replied.

Well, last night, Bell gave it a second shot on his Twitter feed: "The gospel is the counterintuitive, joyous, exuberant news that Jesus has brought the unending, limitless, stunning love of God to even us."

At 117 characters, he even left enough to retweet.

When? Tuesday, October 6, 10 a.m. CST
Where? CT's Webinar Page
Why? Because when else will you have a chance to have a conversation with Christian Smith?

If you haven't yet read Christianity Today's interview with sociologist Christian Smith in the magazine's redesigned October 2009 issue, tune in for the live version, tomorrow morning at 10 CST.

I will be speaking with Christian — professor at the University of Notre Dame and director of its Center for the Study of Religion and Society — about his latest research on young adults. Souls in Transition, The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults in America is the follow-up to his and Melinda Lundquist Denton's groundbreaking 2005 book, Soul Searching. We will talk about the social and religious instincts of Americans ages 18-29, a group sociologists have coined emerging adults (and one that Christian profiled in his 2007 Books & Culture cover story). Christian and I will also discuss ways the church can root emerging adults in Christ at a time they are most likely to leave all things religious.

Join us for an informative, lively conversation, and come prepared with your own questions for Christian.

Thursday, 9 p.m., CDT. Christianity Today news received this eye-witness, first person account from a Christian leader in Manila, where local officials are still counting the dead from the lethal weekend typhoon Ketsana:

* * *

By Rheea Hermoso-Prudente, Manila, Philippines.

Rain—even the kind that drums incessantly on our galvanized iron roofs with a deafening beat for days on end—is no big deal in the Philippines. Floods are also taken in stride. So Ketsana’s persistent downpour didn’t cause any alarm. We just expected the usual traffic and the usual flooding in the usual areas.

Then came status updates on Facebook, from friends not in the normal flood areas. “Our basement is flooded. Water is chest-high. Goodbye car!” “For the first time in 30 years my lola’s house in Merville is flooded!” “Trapped in our house in Makati.”

Pictures and videos appeared next: chocolate-colored water rampaging through trendy Eastwood City; the pedestrian underpass in the central business district of Makati, filled to street level with water; a van slowly sucked down a vortex on Katipunan; drenched families huddled together on the roofs of their houses, raging river just a foot below; people everywhere else, struggling through chest-to-neck-deep water, holding their bags and their babies aloft. The speed of the events blindsided everyone.

Calamities, like rain and floods, are nothing new in the Philippines. But Ketsana was wreaking havoc just a few kilometers from us, on people we know; people who worked, had fellowship, had fun with us. For the first time—for my generation of youngish urbanites at least—a calamity struck so close to home. Or in some cases, struck our homes.

I could only imagine the terror my friend, her husband and young son felt as they watched the water rise rapidly inside their house while they struggled to push their door open, against the raging current outside. My other friend went to work that morning and left her baby and nanny in their home in Marikina. By afternoon, she lost contact with them. What desperation she must have felt, knowing that their village was submerged, yet not knowing what happened to her family.

My husband, daughter and I, though trapped in our subdivision, were safe and dry. We could only monitor updates online with a growing sense of helplessness and worry.

Yet from the disaster emerged stories of courage, sacrifice and hope. Stories of how an 18-year old man saved 30 lives before losing his own. Of a young man, trying to save his belongings, took his neighbors to safety instead. Of families opening their homes to total strangers, sharing what little food they had left.

The outpouring of aid happened quickly as well. As rapidly as disaster updates spread through Facebook, so did updates on how and where to help. Victory Christian Fellowship in The Fort (www.victoryfort.org), where we attend, had a relief operations center up by the evening of Saturday. Other Victory Christian Fellowships around the metro, and other churches too, had their own relief programs.

It amazes me, this resilience and generosity of the Filipinos that come out in times of great need. If you listen to stories of the victims, yes, they talk about their loss. Mostly, they speak of hope.

In the aftermath of Ketsana, I stand with my fellow Filipinos as we praise Him in the storm.

Click here for a powerful slide show of the devastation.

Christianity Today editors have received a number of reports from mission agencies in the region. ACTION Philippines reports:

As of September 30, there are 304 dead and almost 400,000 sheltered in schools, churches and evacuation centers. At least 1.9 million people have been adversely affected one way or another.