Tomorrow is the day. Billboards around the world have proclaimed “Judgment Day May 21, 2011”. The “prophet” making the prediction is 89 year-old Harold Camping, president of the California-based Family Radio with 150 broadcasting outlets. Camping’s last prediction for the end of the world was September 1994, and we all know how that one turned out.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

“Eternal life is found in a relationship with the Roman Catholic church”. That was talk show host Michael Coren’s message on a recent Oakley show on 6:40 AM. A shocking statement, not only for evangelical Christians, who have given Coren a platform, but also to many Roman Catholics, who believe salvation is in Jesus Christ, not in an institution. I kept listening as Coren promoted his book, Why Catholics are right? After reading it from cover to cover, it is crystal clear; Coren propagates salvation through Roman Catholicism, and Roman Catholicism alone.

Because I know many Catholics, who sincerely trust in Jesus Christ, and who wouldn’t agree with Coren’s assertions, I hesitate to say anything that could be misconstrued as bashing Catholics, but frankly Coren has crossed a line that demands a response.

This article was published in the St.Catharines Standard.

Religion is a lot about who is “in” and who is “out”, who “belongs” and who doesn’t. We have “catholic” and “protestant”, “saved” and “unsaved”. Some talk about people who have accepted or rejected Jesus, which causes me to wonder; which Jesus has been “accepted” and which one has been “rejected”?
There are a lot of Jesuses, his story has been told in so many ways. What does the real Jesus look like? Can we know?

While in Finland last week, I discovered the story of a Roman Catholic saint, Holy Henry, Bishop of Finland, allegedly murdered with an axe in 1156 AD. That’s long ago, and I imagine the reader asking “what does this have to do with today?” Hang on; we will get there in a moment.

Article for St. Catharines Standard newspaper by Peter Youngren.

The brutal killing last week of Pakistan’s only Christian government minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, for which the Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility, hit close to home. Bhatti, the Federal Minister for Minorities, was a friend and on several occasions he helped World Impact Ministries, the organization I lead, to obtain permission for Gospel Campaigns in a country where 97% are Muslims. A co-worker emailed, “This is the darkest day for freedom of religion in the history of Pakistan”.