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Have you seen this video? At first, I thought it was a “Saturday Night Live” parody. But it’s not. Stuart Shepard, digital media director of a political arm of James Dodson’s Focus on the Family, is asking for viewers to pray for heavy rains of “biblical proportions” to shower down on Sen. Barack Obama […]

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7:16 p.m.: A few closing thoughts. Rick Warren did a remarkable job. Very well done. Second, Sen. Barack Obama was good. He was personable, answered the questions thoughtfully, and showed humor, intellect and depth. Sen. John McCain was even better. His rich life experience took the forum from mono to stereo, from black-and-white to color. […]

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The Los Angeles Times had a nice story on Pastor Rick Warren and Saturday’s appearance of presidential candidates Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest.
I’ve become a big fan of Warren over the years. Despite being the Billy Graham of his generation, Warren has avoided the pitfalls of fame […]

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I’ve received some nice early praise for my memoir, “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace.” Here are some of the highlights:
From Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, author of “How We Believe,” “Why Darwin Matters,” and “The Mind […]

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Last week, I wrote about the dangers of someone such as Pastor Benny Hinn, who as a self-proclaimed faith healer has told thousands of sickly believers that they have been cured by God. In recent years, he regularly cautions people to check with a doctor to make sure the healing happened, but I’d imagine those […]

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The Orange County District Attorney’s Office last week filed felony charges of illegal weapons possession. Aguilar and six other members of the Set Free Soldiers biker gang had been arrested on suspicious of attempted murder for a double stabbing at a Newport Beach bar. Only one Set Free Soldier will face attempted murder charges.

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On the heals of the arrest of biker gang leader/Pastor Phil Aguilar of Anaheim on suspicion of attempted murder, I started to wonder: Who is the more dangerous man who appeared regularly on Trinity Broadcasting Network: a person who allegedly broke a pool cue over someone’s head in a barroom brawl in Newport Beach or a […]

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The story broke today that authorities in Orange County, Calif. arrested six members of the Set Free Soldiers Christian motorcycle gang and charged them with conspiracy to commit murder. Phil Aguilar, leader of the Set Free Soldiers and founding pastor of the Set Free Worldwide Ministries movement, was among those arrested.
During my multi-year investigation into […]

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In the media, I always thought open and honest debate about religion is healthy for everyone. What I hate is the natural media bias that seeps into news story.
Below is a little feature on some parents who were rushing to catch a plane and left one of their five children behind (”Home Alone 6″?). The […]

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It appears Sen. John McCain has finally found a way gain some traction in the presidential election: poke fun at Sen. Barack Obama. His first satirical campaign ad dryly compared Obama’s celebrity status with Britney Spears’ and Paris Hilton’s, and became a YouTube sensation. Making it worse was the Obama campaign, which seemed to lose […]

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