Obama’s Secret Climate Slush Fund- Americans For Prosperity

President Obama and Budget Direct Peter Orszag have thrown transparency out the window and created a black box for taxes and spending on climate change hidden inside their 2011 budget.

February 02, 2010
By Phil Kerpen – FOXNews.com

The big news in last year’s budget release was the revelation that the Obama administration planned to use cap-and-trade to raise $646 billion dollars over ten years to finance its big spending programs. I checked in this year’s budget was how much revenue was expected from the cap-and-trade energy tax, to which the president reiterated his commitment in his State of the Union address last week. The surprising answer is the budget actually has, literally, a blank line for the cap-and-trade tax. A black box. A slush fund. A secret budget-within-the-budget. Talk about a lack of transparency.

http://americansforprosperity.org/020210-obamas-secret-climate-slush-fund

God is in my life, says Ringo Starr- Google News

In the new interview, Ringo said: “Being on this quest for a long time, it’s all about finding yourself. For me, God is in my life. I don’t hide from that. I think the search has been on since the ’60s. I stepped off the path there for many years and found my way (back) onto it, thank God,” he added, in reference to his heavy drinking in the 1970s.

Late bandmate John often tackled the subject of religion in both his songs and in interviews. He notoriously upset Christians in 1966 when he said: “We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5i8y_IX57Jh-qud-TZOD5iVk4lOyQ

Churches Use Mixed Martial Arts to Recruit- CBS News

(CBS)  A growing number of evangelical churches have embraced mixed martial arts as a recruitment tool to convert young men, the New York Times reports.

The increasingly popular sport – which combines kickboxing, wrestling and other fighting styles – has drawn millions of TV viewers. One such telecast was the top pay-per-view event in 2009, the newspaper reports.

The outreach effort is part of a broader goal of pumping more testosterone into churches that some pastors fear have “become too feminized, promoting kindness and compassion at the expense of strength and responsibility,” the newspaper reports.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/02/national/main6166611.shtml

Baptist prof fears Haiti arrests will set back adoption movement- associated baptist press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A Southern Baptist seminary professor says the arrests of a group of Baptists from the United States accused of trying to remove children from earthquake-stricken Haiti without proper documentation could give a black eye to a budding movement of evangelicals who view adoption as a means of spreading the gospel.

Russell Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recounted his reaction to hearing the news that 10 Americans accused of human trafficking were members of Baptist churches Feb. 1 on the “Albert Mohler Radio Program.”

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/4798/53/

Graham Tops List of Most Influential Preachers- Beliefnet News

The Rev. Billy Graham was named by U.S. pastors as the country’s most influential living preacher, according to a recent survey by LifeWay Research.

The study, conducted last November, interviewed more than 1,000 Protestant pastors by telephone. The participants were asked to “name the top three living Christian preachers that most influence you.”

Graham was cited as most influential by 21 percent of clergy, followed by pastor and author Charles Swindoll, at 8 percent. Charles Stanley, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, and Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., followed closely behind Swindoll with 7 percent of the vote each.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2010/02/graham-tops-list-of-most-influ.php