Zach Sobiech, the Christian teen whose song "Clouds" recently reached 3 million YouTube views, died yesterday surrounded by family at his home in Lakeland, Minnesota. He was 18.

Sobiech was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer at age 14. In 2012, after being told he had months to live, he recorded and released his song about facing death, which caught the attention of People, a New York record label, and Soul Pancake, Office actor Rainn Wilson's YouTube channel. Earlier this month, Wilson led a group of celebrities in a lip-synching tribute.

"I want to be remembered as a kid who went down fighting and didn't really lose," says Sobiech in a short documentary, "My Last Days," produced this month by Soul Pancake. "You don't have to find out you're dying to start living."

"It is with heavy heart that we announce the passing of our son Zachary David Sobiech," his family said in a statement yesterday. "Our family has been blessed not only by his amazing presence in our lives, but also by the love and support of our family and friends and by so many people in the community. In particular we'd like to thank those people who listened with their hearts and helped Zach bring his message and his music to the world."

Tributes have poured in from Japanese high schoolers and the PS22 Chorus, and digital sales of "Clouds" and Sobiech's other songs have raised more than $100,000 for the Children's Cancer Research Fund.

According to an extended profile in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, the Sobiechs are devout Catholics. "When Zach was first diagnosed, I remember thinking: 'God can see us. We're not just plugging along, living our lives,' " mother Laura Sobiech told the Pioneer Press. "I told God, 'You can have him, but it had better be good. It had better be something big.' "

Laura Sobiech told radio station KTIS:

“It’s been a gut-wrenching and heart-breaking walk, but you know, so was Christ’s life. I have just really tried to hang on to how Christ showed us to suffer and just meditate on that….and continually pray for God’s grace. And I know that’s what it is. It’s all of these prayers of people out there holding us up.”

Update (Feb. 1): A new study from the Department of Veterans' Affairs suggests that suicides by veterans have increased 20 percent since a 2007 study, now numbering about 22 suicides per day. But the lead researcher says this does not represent an epidemic, according to the Washington Post.

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New data from the Pentagon reveals a record number of soldiers committed suicide last year—amounting to almost one every day.

A presidential report has recommended that France legalize "accelerated deaths"—but not euthanasia.

Update (May 14): Massachusetts residents voted not to legalize physician-assisted suicide last November, allowing Vermont to slide in as the third state to allow the practice. Vermont joins Oregon and Washington state, allowing terminally ill patients to opt to self-administer life-ending drugs.

Across the Atlantic, France and Belgium also have recently considered expanding their end-of-life laws.
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Massachusetts residents will vote for more than presidential candidates on this fall's ballot. In addition, voters will decide on the Death With Dignity Act, potentially another step on the slow spread of laws permitting physician-assisted suicide.

The Massachusetts Death With Dignity referendum would allow terminally ill patients to choose to take their own lives with doctor-prescribed medication, similar to already-approved right-to-die legislation in Montana, Oregon, and Washington state.

Sterling W. Huston, who directed many of Billy Graham's crusades, died of cancer on Friday, June 29, in Rochester, New York. He was 76.

An early advocate of online evangelism, Huston was chairman of Evangelism Explosion as well as the Internet Evangelism Coalition.

Wheaton College's Billy Graham Center has posted a memorial page with photos.

Chuck Colson, who died Saturday, will be buried in the coming days at a private family service at Quantico National Cemetery with full military honors.

Prison Fellowship is working with the National Cathedral to schedule a public memorial service, a spokesperson said. CT will update this post when a date for the service becomes available.

Update: A public memorial service will be held at Washington National Cathedral Wednesday, May 16, at 10 a.m. The service is open to the public and seating is limited. There will be reserved seating for individuals who RSVP to a formal invitation. Others will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. The service will also be webcast live on the Cathedral's website.

Articles on Colson, his death, and his legacy include:
Evangelical Leader Chuck Colson Dead at 80 | The infamous convicted Nixon adviser became famous for prison reform, evangelical-Catholic dialogue, and his Christian worldview.
Remembering Charles Colson, a Man Transformed | The real story of how "Nixon's hatchet man" ended up in, out, and back in prison (and the White House), shaping a movement in the process. Jonathan Aitken
Chuck Colson and the Conscience of a Hatchet-Man | What's behind the snarky obituaries and media retrospectives infuriating many Christians. Russell Moore
Q & A: Karl Rove on Colson | President Bush's deputy chief of staff explains the former Nixon adviser's widespread impact. Interview by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
The Legacy of Prisoner 23226 | After leaving prison, Charles Colson became one of America's most significant social reformers (July 9, 2001)
Colson was a regular columnist for Christianity Today from 1985 until his death.

Tony Carnes, Christianity Today senior writer and founder of A Journey Through NYC Religions writes about the sinking of the Titanic:

In every large tragedy New Yorkers' religious faith has been a key element in the city’s perseverance and recovery....

...

As we come to the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, we thought that it would be useful to remind ourselves of the role that religious faith has had during the catastrophe and, in the aftermath, of its impact on New York City’s moral culture. We have excerpted British poet and songwriter Steve Turner’s The Band That Played On The extraordinary story of the 8 musicians who went down with the Titanic. Turner has made frequent appearances at art gatherings here in the city. In addition to the Titanic book, Turner has written an extraordinarily good book on Johnny Cash.

On the evening of April 18th in the New York Evening World Carlos F. Hurd wrote the first article with eyewitness accounts of the sinking of Titanic: “The ship’s string band gathered in the saloon, near the end, and played ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee.”

Pat Robertson advised a viewer of yesterday's 700 Club to avoid putting a "guilt trip" on those who want to divorce a spouse with Alzheimer's. During the show's advice segment, a viewer asked Robertson how she should address a friend who was dating another woman "because his wife as he knows her is gone." Robertson said he would not fault anyone for doing this. He then went further by saying it would be understandable to divorce a spouse with the disease.

"That is a terribly hard thing," Robertson said. "I hate Alzheimer's. It is one of the most awful things because here is a loved one—this is the woman or man that you have loved for 20, 30, 40 years. And suddenly that person is gone. They're gone. They are gone. So, what he says basically is correct. But I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something he should divorce her and start all over again. But to make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her."

Co-host Terry Meeuwsen asked Pat, "But isn't that the vow that we take when we marry someone? That it’s For better or for worse. For richer or poorer?"

Robertson said that the viewer's friend could obey this vow of "death till you part" because the disease was a "kind of death." Robertson said he would understand if someone started another relationship out of a need for companionship.

Robertson gave the example of a friend who faithfully visited his wife every day even though she could not remember his visits to illustrate the difficulty of caring for someone with the disease.

"It's really hurtful because they say crazy things," Robertson said. "Nevertheless, it is a terribly difficult thing for somebody. I can't fault him for wanting some kind of companionship. And if he says in a sense she is gone, he's right. It's like a walking death. Get some ethicist besides me to give you an answer because I recognize the dilemma and the last thing I'd do is condemn you for taking that kind of action."

By now you've heard that Family Radio president Harold Camping has made yet another prediction that a rapture will take place tomorrow and the world will end on October 21.

The idea is making an impact across the globe as the Vietnamese government tried to portray several thousand Hmong followers of Camping followers as orthodox Christians, Compass Direct reports.

Here's a round-up of what some American evangelicals are saying about Camping's predictions:

Ed Stetzer says "Yes ... Jesus is coming back."

I want to live ready in light of the soon return of Jesus, not acting like a nut because someone said he is coming back tomorrow. Honestly, I think that is part of why Jesus says, "no man knows the day or the hour." It's because we don't have to think, "Jesus is coming! Look busy" because we have been living in light of his return.

Lee Grady of Charisma magazine doesn't buy it.

There is urgency in the gospel, for sure, but it is not about a countdown to the rapture. Hundreds of thousands of people die every day without Jesus, whether or not He returns in their generation. This alone should motivate us to avoid foolish distractions and false prophecies so we can get busy with the task of genuine evangelism.

Al Mohler says the church should not arrogantly set dates.

In Hebrews 9:28, we are taught that Christ will come a second time “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” That is the faithful Christian response to the New Testament teachings about Christ’s coming. The church is not to be arrogantly setting dates, but instead to be eagerly waiting for him. Of that we can be truly certain.

Tim LaHaye says the prediction is bizarre and 100 percent wrong.

You can be sure the rapture will not occur when anyone sets a date because God wants us all to live every day as though Christ could come today. A great motto for daily living is PERHAPS TODAY. For one day it will happen and we don't know when, but we don't want you to be left behind!

Matthew Paul Turner isn't laughing.

I’m not saying that I won’t Tweet a punch line or two. But my jokes won’t be personal attacks on the May 21st believers.

...Some of them will lose their faith and yet be unable to escape it. And some of them will go on like nothing happened and probably end up setting and believing in another “date”.

And there’s nothing funny about that…

@Xianity: APOCALYPSE: On May 21st, one of two things should end ; either the world or Harold Camping's career as a prophet.

Check out CT's previous coverage on Camping and end times predictions, including
Camping Misses End of World (October 24, 1994)
New Dispensation? Camping: 'Leave Church' (May 21, 2002)
Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is? (July 17, 1995)
Apocalypse Not (Christian History, August 8, 2008)

David Wilkerson, author of The Cross and the Switchblade and founder of World Challenge Ministries, died in a car crash today, Charisma and CBN are reporting. CBN reports that Wilkerson, 79, was driving and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Wilkerson was driving east on U.S. 175 in Texas Wednesday afternoon, and moved into the opposite lane where a tractor trailer was driving westbound. The truck driver saw the car and tried to move out of the way, but still collided with the pastor's car head on, according to Public Safety Trooper Eric Long.

It's unclear what caused Wilkerson to veer into the other lane. His wife Gwen was also involved in the crash and rushed to the hospital, along with the truck driver.

The church that he founded, Times Square Church in New York City, has more than 8,000 members.

In 2009, Wilkerson posted a message warning of riots, fires, and economic collapse in New York City. CT wrote at the time about why Wilkerson's message received so much attention.

Wilkerson has more credibility and name recognition than many other online prophets. He is the author of The Cross and the Switchblade, one of the most popular books in evangelical history. (It ranked #32 in Christianity Today's list of "Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals.") His Teen Challenge ministry is very prominent in discussions of drug treatment and social service partnerships between church and government. And Times Square Church, which he founded, reportedly draws 8,000 people weekly and is known for its many social service ministries.

Wilkerson continued to write blog posts until his death.

Update: Details about Wilkerson's memorial service will be posted on Times Square's website, which states that it will be streamed live.

David Wilkerson has been a top 10 trending topic on Twitter tonight, including tweets from Wilkerson's cousin and Joel Houston, leader of the Sydney-based youth worship band Hillsong United.

Rich Wilkerson: "The term LEGEND is often used to describe a person of extreme influence but what about a man that supersedes superlatives..david wilkerson"

Joel Houston: "The cross and the switchblade was the first book I ever read. Seeded NYC in my heart. So grateful for the life and legacy of David Wilkerson"

Jimmy Dean, a country singer star who was perhaps best known for his sausage brand, has died at 81.

"I loved music since the Seth Ward Baptist Church outside of Plainview (Texas)." he said in a 2004 interview. He also gave some colorful quotes to Esquire in a 2001 interview.

--Being a Baptist won't keep you from sinning, but it'll sure ... keep you from enjoying it.

--Do what you say you're going to do. And try to do it a little better than you said you would.
God is bigger than people think.

--My favorite song? "Amazing Grace." Anybody singing it. But the best it'll ever be done is by the Scottish National Pipe band and their National Orchestra. It'll bring tears to your eyes.

In 2008, Dean donated 1 million dollars to Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.

“Poverty was the greatest motivating factor in my life. They laughed at the clothes I had to wear to school and the house we lived in. But what they did, unbeknownst to them, was they lit a fire in here,” Dean said at a university luncheon. “And for a long time, I’d say, ‘One day, I’ll show you.’ That was a great driving force in me.

In 1969, Dean started the Jimmy Dean Meat Company in Texas. He sold the company to the Sara Lee Corporaton in 1984. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of fame earlier this year.

Michael Spencer, who also went by iMonk or Internet Monk, has died, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.

Mark Galli and Spencer discussed "the coming evangelical collapse" last year. Several bloggers, such as Scot McKnight and Tony Kummer, have offered their memories of Spencer. Trevin Wax has listed his favorite blog posts from Spencer and offered a few words.

On the one hand, Michael was giving voice to some thoughts and questions I had wrestled with, but never fully articulated. On the other hand, his honesty was brutal, intense, and often made me uncomfortable.

What I eventually came to appreciate most about Michael – both from his blog and from personal contact – was that the center of his thought and ministry was grace: extravagant mercy and favor to undeserving, broken sinners.

Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette will begin her quest for Olympic gold today with a heavy heart. Just hours before Rochette took to the ice on Sunday, her mother died unexpectedly. Rochette’s parents had flown in from their home in Montreal earlier in the day to watch her daughter compete this week.

They had been traveling to watch their daughter compete for years, and before that they had been shuffling her to and from ice skating practice from the time Rochette was a little girl. “She was a very supportive mom,” said one friend. “Supportive of the figure skating, but very much in the background of Joannie’s career. They had a really tight bond.” Rochette’s mother’s heart attack came completely unexpected, making her passing all the more devastating to the Olympian.

It must surely be difficult, then, for her to head back out onto the ice in pursuit of Olympic gold. Yet her competitors and friends on the Canadian team are full of support and encouragement. Benoit Lavoie, president of the Canadian Olympic skating association, said that Rochette was quickly able to control her grief. “The thing that amazed me is that she was so composed, going back into her Olympic mode.”

“Joannie is a very courageous person, and just to be here in the practice hall, I was very impressed,” the Canadian skater Cynthia Phaneuf said after the training session. “I think she is doing the right thing. She won’t get any better staying in her room. It shows how strong she is. It shows that she is a person to look up to here.”

The public too seems to hold unrealistically high expectations for Rochette. The New York Times closes its story by quoting an American skater whose mother has cancer. “I think this will spur her on to do even better.”

One critique that professional grieving counselors make of these kinds of statements is that we don’t like to be confronted with the emotions of a grieving person, so we expect the bereaved to function as if nothing had ever happened. It used to be that when someone died in Christian societies, the normal activities of life stopped. They were replaced by rituals of mourning. This provided a healthy respect for the deceased and allowed the bereaved to fully express their grief. Such rituals involved lots of community activity so that a person could–in his or her own time–resume normal life once again.

The historian of Western Christian attitudes toward dying, Philippe Aries, wrote that a death in a community once “solemnly altered space and time.” People stopped their activities and visited family members. The home was decorated so that all would know a grieving family was inside. They cared for the beloved’s corpse. And eventually, they carried it on to the church to worship a final time and then to the grave to rest until Christ returned.

Christians made a big deal out of death. If the death of a member of a community wasn’t worth lamenting, then what was her life worth? Of course, Christians historically made sure they did not mourn as those who have no hope, as the apostle Paul admonished. Yet, hope in the resurrection and belief that we would be reunited with our loved ones only means that a relationship, now broken, will be repaired. The ache of loss still mattered.

Of course, the Olympic Games cannot be stopped to allow space for a skater in mourning. And Rochette may truly feel that competing today is what is best for her and what her mother would have wanted. After all, the Olympics only come every four years. I wish her the best of luck out on the ice this evening.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder: Would it be so bad if Rochette chose not to skate, out of respect for her mother and her own grief? And if she did, would the public also respect that choice? Would we be as quick to commend her actions if she made a different — equally courageous — choice and didn’t take to the ice? Or would we be disappointed that she wasn’t able to compartmentalize her grief and focus on “getting back to normal”?

Pentecostal evangelist Oral Roberts died today of complications from pneumonia. He was 91.

Roberts was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday.

“If God had not, in His sovereign will, raised up the ministry of Oral Roberts, the entire charismatic movement might not have occurred," Jack Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, said in a statement. "Oral shook the landscape with the inescapable reality and practicality of Jesus’ whole ministry. His teaching and concepts were foundational to the renewal that swept through the whole church. He taught concepts that spread throughout the world and simplified and focused a spiritual lifestyle that is embraced by huge sectors of today’s church.”

The Tulsa World has a lengthy obituary and special section on Roberts, who founded Oral Roberts University.

He was a pioneer of the healing evangelism movement in the 1940s and ’50s and of radio and television ministry, which made his a household name to generations of Americans.

Roberts’ life was fashioned by what he described as a call to take “God’s healing power” to his generation, and every major effort he undertook was to that end.

Charisma magazine has a round-up of reactions from the Charismatic/Pentecostal community:

Born Jan. 24, 1918, north of Ada, Oklahoma, Roberts survived a raging flu epidemic that wiped out more Americans than World War I. Before his life ended, he had written more than 120 books, pioneered American television evangelism, bolstered belief in divine healing and founded his trademark university.

"He's one of the most significant figures in American religious history," said Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan. "I think he planted the seeds publicly of what became the charismatic renewal after 1960 because the American public first saw Pentecostalism in their living rooms through his televised tent crusades."

MercyMe’s tour bus collided with a car on Friday in Indiana, leaving the driver’s unborn baby and two passengers dead.

Singer Bart Millard and drummer Robby Shaffer used Twitter to get the word out shortly after the accident. Millard tweeted that evening:

Car just hit our tour bus. We are ok, but 2 of the 3 in the car did not make it. The one that did is pregnant. Please start praying.

The band canceled their concert scheduled for Saturday, August 8 at Six Flags Saint Louis (it was rescheduled for September 5), but the band will play tonight at the Wisconsin State Fair.

The band posted a picture of the front of their bus on their blog but took it down.

Please join with us in praying for the families of the car that hit our bus last night. Our hearts break for their families.

Mark Galli points out a study that confirms my own anecdotal evidence through interviews with Christian doctors--particularly those in hospice or working with the elderly: Christians are surprisingly aggressive in attempting to forestall their own death through the use of medical interventions.

This is surprising because the basic belief of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ died and rose from the grave. And as Paul says in Romans, Christians have the life of the God who rose Jesus from the dead. Because of this death-defeating life, the Christian believes, as the Bible repeats, "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

This fearlessness toward death, especially as taught by Paul in I Corinthians 15 and given evidence in his life, is not at all apparent in the decision making of many, many Christians (according to the study Mark cited) who use medical technology to fight death.

In research for my book on the Christian art of dying well (due out from InterVarsity Press next year), I found at least two reasons why Christians in particular pursue aggressive medical interventions at the end of life.

The first is a transference of pro-life values from the beginning to the end of life. "We're so pro-life," one doctor told me, "we're anti-death." Over and over again, he sees patients defend their desperate decisions by appealing to their pro-life beliefs.

The second reason why Christians pursue aggressive medical treatment at the end of life is related to the health and wealth idea of claiming a promise of God. Another hospice doctor--and a Christian--told me that he regularly hears patients who have entered hospice say they refuse to claim whatever illness threatens their life. By refusing to claim it, they deny its existence. Or by claiming a verse or passage that promises healing (even "Death has been swallowed up in victory", many Christians believe they will be the first since Elijah to be taken directly to heaven--a gift even Jesus was denied.

Of course, both these explanations are cover for a deeper issue: the fear of death. And while Christians have a hope in Jesus' defeat of death on the cross, their fear is not unique and perfectly understandable.

But the problems with such fear leading to aggresive medical treatment at the end of life are two-fold. First death is always made more difficult by refusing to come to terms with its arrival. Aggressive treatment not only provides the (often false) hope of a cure, but is typically exhausting and therefore doesn't allow a patient the time or energy to make peace with life's end. Without this acceptance of death, the dying process is often physically difficult, painful, and lengthy. And for family members, such a difficult death makes the grief and mourning process more painful and thornier to work through.

The next problem is related. Through the 19th century, Christians practiced various forms of the good death. While some details changed, the basic belief is that Jesus' death and resurrection is a model for the Christian's death and expected resurrection. Dying well therefore required 1) a willingness to die, 2) an expression of the Christian hope in the bodily resurrection and everlasting life with God, and 3) a farewell to one's family and community often accompanied by last words. This pattern was consistent throughout Christian history until the 20th century.

The 21st century, because of a range of medical and social issues, makes it a good time to try to recover the lost art of Christian dying. (My book and perhaps future CT articles explain this further.) But these values are best learned before a patient needs to make the decision to enter hospice or pursue curative treatment. And they are best taught by a church community that offers hope in the resurrection after death--and not the promise of health and wealth right now.

Michael Balboni, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard, responded to my column, "Man Up, Christians," and corrects/complements what I was trying to say there:

I appreciate your article and point of view. I am part of the research team at Dana-Farber which conducted and published this study [you refer to]. While it would initially appear that this specific patient population is "clinging to life" or are afraid of death, we do not believe that this is the best interpretation. In fact, patients who were positive religious copers were far more likely to recognize that they were terminally ill cancer patients! So they are pursuing aggressive measures despite the fact that they knew they were dying! So what gives?

We believe that part of the answer lies in a forthcoming research study from our group that finds that their is a direct connection between patients who receive spiritual care from the medical system (particularly doctors and nurses) and their decision to enter hospice care (which is a choice leading to non-aggressive care). When you put these two studies together, we believe that the problem is that religious people who are dying (and remember that this patient population was almost entirely Christian - 95%+) along with their families are not receiving spiritual counsel IN THEIR MEDICAL DECISION MAKING. The patients are not clinging to life but are instead not being counseled in how to die. Patients who received spiritual care from the medical system did vastly better in measures of quality of life at the end of life and choosing hospice over cure.

Based on this, we hypothesize that there is a gap about formation of death for religious communities. It would appear that Christians as a pattern do not talk about death, model a good death, or articulate the characteristics of faithful dying. Terminal patients and their families are left alone in making these decisions -- and there is a significant minority (we are guessing between 10-30%) who are receiving aggressive care at the end of life because they do not know how to navigate the spiritual intersection involved in the complexities of medical decision making.

We believe that this is a place where religious communities have a major role to play in educating their congregations on the intersection of faith and medicine. We also believe that religious physicians and nurses have the potential role of helping those who are sick and dying in understanding how to navigate the spiritual complexities of dying because they are much more familiar with the world of medicine.

Michael Balboni
Research Associate
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Boston, Massachusetts