Posts by Steve Rabey
12 Tribes Group Denies Starting Devastating Colorado Fire

Colorado officials are investigating claims that a small fire in December on a rural property of the “Jesus People” group Twelve Tribes jump-started two major fires south of Boulder, which, fanned by 100 mph winds, destroyed more than 900 homes and forced the evacuation of 35,000 people.

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Christian 'Health Share' Ministry Left Members With Millions In Unpaid Medical Claims

On Nov. 29, the U.S. District Court in Kentucky entered judgments of nearly $4.7 million against Aliera, which marketed “sham policies” and “realized exorbitant profits” by declining to pay claims and instead retaining 84% of customer donations, in violation of federal requirements.

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Controversial Christian Figure's Charity Raises Afghan Relief With No Plan For How To Use It

The Light a Candle charity — a project of Sean Feucht, 38-year-old worship leader, political activist and former Republican candidate best known for his 120-city tour of “worship protests” — has raised more than $200,000 for its Afghan Emergency Relief Fund. But the charity has no experience in the country and has provided no concrete plans.

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WWF Fighter-Turned-Evangelist Embezzles Millions With Sons — And Brett Favre

Christian speaker Ted DiBiase — a former World Wrestling Federation fighter whose character, The Million Dollar Man, was all about wealth and greed — along with his sons and former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, fraudulently collected more than $6 million from the state of Mississippi to deliver speeches and presentations that never happened.

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Missionaries To Amazon Unwelcome By Indigenous People And Prohibited By Law

The vast Amazon basin has long drawn missionaries seeking to reach people who haven’t yet heard the gospel of Christ. But now, missionaries working with New Tribes Mission Brazil and other groups are facing a formidable foe: Indigenous groups backed by laws that protect small isolated tribes from both pandemics and proselytizing.

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Most Popular Christian Facebook Pages Were Fake, Designed To Deceive

All but one of the top 20 Christian Facebook pages operating in Oct. 2019 were fakes, according to an internal Facebook report entitled “How Communities Are Exploited on Our Platforms” that was publicly released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September.

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Philip Yancey’s New Memoir Critiques Fundamentalist Upbringing

In an interview with Religion Unplugged, bestselling Christian author Philip Yancey discusses his new memoir, “Where the Light Fell,” about a painful upbringing in poverty and fundamentalism with his brother and single mother that birthed a passionate curiosity and a writing career of many celebrated Christian books over the last 40 years.

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TrustBridge Helps Americans Donate Directly To Ministries Around The World

TrustBridge — an organization founded by atheist-turned-Christian Robert Collins — tries to make it easier for Americans to give directly to foreign ministries. Its approach cuts out the usual intermediary charities, which sometimes take a significant portion off the top for their expenses, while still allowing donors to get a tax deduction.

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Christian Adoption Center Splintering Over Allowing LGBTQ Families

Safe Families for Children, a national nonprofit that markets itself to churches and evangelical donors as a faith-based alternative to foster care, is losing some of its 100 local chapters that are starting new, independent groups to work only with traditional heterosexual couples.

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Resignations, Turmoil, Continue at Piper’s Bethlehem Baptist Church

Jason Meyer, John Piper’s successor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, has stepped down from his position as pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem’s downtown campus. Meyer is part of a growing exodus of leaders and members leaving Bethlehem, a church with some 4,500 members on three campuses which is seen as a flagship church in Converge, formerly the Baptist General Conference.

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How evangelical media ministry Focus on the Family fueled lies and insurrectionists

(ANALYSIS) In the months since the election, the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family has regularly provided election skeptics with plentiful ammunition and has embraced men and women in Congress who voted to overturn state election results. Meanwhile, Focus’s partner organization in Washington, D.C., the Family Research Council, continues to claim the election was stolen, and that Antifa—not Trump supporters—may have caused the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.

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Religious Nonprofits in 'Evangelical Mecca' Face Unprecedented Challenges

The coronavirus pandemic has confronted ministries with an unprecedented triple whammy: declining donations, unexpected expenses for sanitation and remaking workplaces for remote employees, and challenges in delivering their services, some of which are more needed now.

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Christian Colleges Face Uncertain Future Amid COVID-19

Nearly a third of America’s public and private universities were already operating at a deficit before the coronavirus pandemic. Now the crisis threatens the survival of the weaker institutions in higher education, and even those that survive will emerge weaker as they struggle with destructive ripple effects for years. Here’s how Christian colleges are coping.

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