BREAKING NEWS: Bishop Eddie Long Reaches Settlement In Sexual Abuse Case

A settlement has apparently been reached in the ongoing sexual misconduct lawsuits against Bishop Eddie Long.



As previously reported, the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church head was accused by four men of sexual misconduct and was thought to be heading to trial later this year.


Now according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution “all matters have been resolved” and the plaintiffs will not seek trail against him.


The AJC reports that Barbara Marschalk, who represents New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and LongFellows Youth Academy, said she anticipates " the lawsuits will be dismissed, with prejudice, by close of business tomorrow."


The attorney for the four men B.J. Bernstein, also confirmed that the lawsuits had been settled..


Bernstein's office made sure to add that neither she nor the plaintiffs would be available for an interview "on this matter, now or in the future.”



No word on what settlement was reached.






 

Race Relations:Study Reveals Whites Feel More Discriminated Against Than Blacks

Do whites face more discrimination than blacks do? Considering that African-Americans largely suffer from higher rates of unemployment, hunger and poverty than whites do and struggle to receive quality educations and healthcare of the same caliber as whites, you'd think not. However, a new study conducted by researchers at Harvard and Tufts universities found that white Americans believe they suffer more racial bias than blacks do.

More than 200 white and black men and women participated in the study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Although both blacks and whites agreed that anti-black bias had decreased from the 1950s to the present day. Caucasians believed that anti-white bias had increased on a scale of 1 to 10 from 1.8 in the 1950s to 4.7 in the 21st century. Meanwhile, blacks believed that anti-white bias had only slightly risen--from 1.4 to 1.8 during the same timeframe. To boot, while 11 percent of Caucasians said that anti-white had risen all the way to 10 on a scale from one to 10, just two percent of whites felt that anti-black had risen to such a drastic degree. Clearly, there's a gaping disconnect between each group's perception about racism toward the other.


According to the Daily Mail, researchers of the study concluded: "A flurry of legal and cultural disputes over the past decade has revealed a new race-related controversy gaining traction: an emerging belief in anti-white prejudice. Whites believe...the pendulum has now swung beyond equality in the direction of anti-white discrimination."


Since when did the U.S. become a nation that's grown "beyond equality" concerning race? If that were true, the resumes of job applicants with "black-sounding names" wouldn't be 50 percent more likely than applicants with "white-sounding names" to be passed over. The legal system wouldn't penalize blacks more than whites for committing similar crimes. Blacks, even those with good credit, wouldn't have been disproportionately steered towards sub-prime loans to buy homes doing the housing boom. And, for that matter, housing discrimination would be a thing of the past. I could go on and on providing examples of how the United States has not moved beyond equality. Yes, there's a biracial man in the White House, but he's an anomaly in terms of how power is distributed in the nation.


Evidently, whites' perception of growing anti-white bias has little to do with the reality of being black or white in the United States. Researchers of the bias study concluded, for example, that whites typically view "any focus on ethnic minorities as an 'attack' on white values." This could mean that whites at a corporation with a diversity agenda may feel victimized, even though blacks make up a small minority at the company and the diversity team aims to have a workforce that better reflects the racial makeup of society.


Certainly, some of the whites who took part in the study were thinking about affirmative action when they answered the survey questions. But given that several states have banned affirmative action and that cases of alleged "reverse discrimination" make news headlines precisely because they're fairly rare, whites by and large aren't being disadvantaged by equal opportunity practices.


For those readers who still don't believe that blacks face more discrimination than whites do, ponder how many whites would be willing to swap places with a black person in this country, you know, to take advantage of all the supposed benefits African Americana enjoy.










.

Oprah Winfrey Signs Off On Legendary Talk Show After 25 Years

There was only one guest on the final episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" -- Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey walked out on a stage for the last time to a standing ovation from an audience filled with friends and family, including her longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham, filmmaker Tyler Perry, her fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Duncan and her former Baltimore talk show co-host Richard Sher.


"There are no words to match this moment," began Winfrey, clad in a pink dress with ruffles cascading down the front.


But somehow Winfrey, striking a more reverent tone than the preceding days when a parade of surprise celebrity guests saluted the media mogul, found the words over the next hour to express her gratitude to her audience, her staff and even God for allowing her to fulfill her calling.


"It's no coincidence that a lonely little girl who felt not a lot of love...it's no coincidence that I grew up to feel the genuine trust, validation and love from you," she said toward the end of the show, addressing her audience in the studio and the one watching her from television sets in 150 countries.


"You and this show have been the greatest love of my life," she said, choking back tears.


With only a single pink chair on stage, Winfrey held court, telling the audience that today she would not be giving away cars nor were there any trinkets hidden beneath their seats. Instead, Winfrey used her final show, the 4,561st, to thank the audience that made hers the No. 1 talk show for its entire 25-year run.

She reminisced about her various hair styles and earrings "the size of napkins," showing a few clips from her early years, when she first came to Chicago to host "AM Chicago" before it became "The Oprah Winfrey Show."



Early on, Winfrey discovered she needed an audience to make magic and she pulled in her staff, friends and people off the street. She was soon getting feedback from her audience, citing a letter from Carrie in Anne Arbor, Mich., who wrote the first week Winfrey went national, "Watching you be yourself makes me want to be more myself."


Winfrey, who has always said she wanted to be a teacher, said her show became her classroom and in some cases she did the teaching and other times, the learning. Over her final hour on television, she reiterated the lessons that she has learned and imparted to her audience over the years.


They included finding your calling, remembering the Golden Rule, taking responsibility for your life and allowing God or grace to work in your life.


Winfrey did not shy away from invoking God, saying that the secret to her success has always been "my team and Jesus."


"God is love," she said. "God is life and your life is always speaking to you."


Winfrey implored her audience to embrace their "light and use your life to serve the world."


Through her show, Winfrey said she was able to drop the veil on people's lives and have them speak their truths, whether they were addicts, abusers or abused. Though she said she has no regrets, the one thing she wished she could have done more of was expose the horrors of child sexual abuse.


One of her proudest moments, she said, singling out Tyler Perry, was when 200 men who had been victims of sexual abuse stood in her audience holding pictures of them as boys.


After giving out a new e-mail address, oprah@oprah.com, Winfrey said, "I won't say goodbye, I'll just say until we meet again, to God be the glory."


Walking through the audience, she stopped to hug and kiss her steady, Graham, as well as others. Then she stood under the lights one last time, her hands outstretched as if to soak in this final moment, before leaving.


As the credits rolled, listing her Harpo team, which will remain in Chicago while she moves full-time to Los Angeles and her network OWN, Winfrey is seen kissing, hugging and crying with her staff members. The final image is of Winfrey, with her cocker spaniel Sadie tucked under her arm, walking off alone.

Iran's Largest Lake Turning Into Salt

OROUMIEH LAKE, Iran – From a hillside, Kamal Saadat looked forlornly at hundreds of potential customers, knowing he could not take them for trips in his boat to enjoy a spring weekend on picturesque Oroumieh Lake, the third largest saltwater lake on earth.



"Look, the boat is stuck... It cannot move anymore," said Saadat, gesturing to where it lay encased by solidifying salt and lamenting that he could not understand why the lake was fading away.


The long popular lake, home to migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls, has shrunken by 60 percent and could disappear entirely in just a few years, experts say — drained by drought, misguided irrigation policies, development and the damming of rivers that feed it.


Until two years ago, Saadat supplemented his income from almond- and grape-growing by taking tourists on boat tours. But as the lake receded and its salinity rose, he found he had to stop the boat every 10 minutes to unfoul the propeller — and finally, he had to give up this second job that he'd used to support a five-member family.


"The visitors were not enjoying such a boring trip," he said, noting they had to cross hundreds of meters of salty lakebed just to reach the boat from the wharf.


Other boatmen, too, have parked their vessels by their houses, where they stand as sad reminders of the deep-water days. And the lake's ebbing affects an ever-widening circle.


In April, authorities stopped activities at the nearby jetty in Golmankhaneh harbor, due to lack of water in the lake, now only two meters deep at its deepest. Jetties in Sharafkhaneh and Eslami harbors faced the same fate.



The receding water has also weakened hotel business and tourism activities in the area, and planned hotel projects remain idle since investors are reluctant to continue.


Beyond tourism, the salt-saturated lake threatens agriculture nearby in northwest Iran, as storms sometimes carry the salt far afield. Many farmers worry about the future of their lands, which for centuries have been famous for apples, grapes, walnuts, almonds, onions, potatoes, as well as aromatic herbal drinks, candies and tasty sweet pastes.


"The salty winds not only will affect surrounding areas but also can damage farming in remote areas," said Masoud Mohammadian, an agriculture official in the eastern part of the lake, some 370 miles (600 kilometers) northwest of the capital Tehran.


Other officials echoed the dire forecast.


Salman Zaker, a parliament member for Oroumieh warned last month that, "with the current trend, the risk of a salt tsunami is increasing." Warning that the lake would dry out within three to five years — an assessment agreed to by the local environment department director, Hasan Abbasnejad — Zaker said eight to 10 billion tons of salt would jeopardize life for millions of people.


Masoud Pezeshkian, another lawmaker and representative for city of Tabriz in the eastern part of the lake said, "The lake has been drying but neither government nor local officials took any step, so far."


How did this disaster develop, and what can be done now?


Official reports blame the drying mainly on a decade-long drought, and peripherally on consumption of water of the feeding rivers for farming. They put 5 percent of the blame on construction of dams and 3 percent on other factors. Others disagree about the relative blame.


The first alarm over the lake's shrinking came in late 1990s amid a nagging drought.


Nonetheless, the government continued construction of 35 dams on the rivers which feed the lake; 10 more dams are on the drawing boards for the next few years.


Also completed was a lake-crossing roadway between Oroumieh and Tabriz, cities on the west and east of the lake. No environmental feasibility study was done in the planning for the road, and environmentalists believe the project worsened the lake's health by acting as a barrier to water circulation.


Nasser Agh, who teaches at Tabriz Sahand University, suggested miscalculations led to late reaction to save the lake. "Experts believed it would be a 10-year rotating drought, at first," he said. But long afterward, the drought still persists, with devastating effects.


In the early 2000s, academic research concluded that the lake could face the same destiny as the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which has been steadily shrinking since rivers that feed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects in 1960s. It is now less than one-tenth of its original size.


In April, the Iranian government announced a three-prong effort to save the lake: a cloud-seeding program to increase rainfall in the area, a lowering of water consumption by irrigation systems, and supplying the lake with remote sources of water.


Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh, vice-president to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in charge of environmental affairs, said the government approved the three-part approach.


Some experts termed the weather control portion of the program as only a "symbolic action" by government, saying the best answer would be to release more water currently being held back by dams. The evaporation rate has been three times the rainfall rate, making the rivers' historic role vital to sustaining the lake.


"The lake is in such a misery because of the dams," Ismail Kahram, a professor in Tehran Azad University and a prominent environmentalist, told The Associated Press. Three-fifths of the lake has dried up and salt saturation has reached some 350 milligrams per liter from 80 milligrams in 1970s, he said.


Kahram said the government should allow 20 percent of the water from the dams to reach the lake.


Mostafa Ghanbari, secretary of the Society for Savior of the Lake Oroumieh, believes transferring water from the Caspian Sea may be "the only way to save" the lake. But such a project would be ambitious, requiring the pumping of water some 430 miles (700 kilometers), from a body of water at considerably lower elevation.


In the green and beautiful city of Oroumieh, famous for peaceful coexistence between Azeri people, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians as well as Muslims and Christians, talk about the fate of the lake is common among ordinary people in teahouses and on the streets.


Many express happiness with the government decision to manipulate clouds in hopes of increasing rainfall.


"It is a good decision. Every evening I look at the dark clouds that are coming and I tell my family soon there will be rain," and on some nights there have been showers, said Masoud Ranjbar, a taxi driver.


However, Eskandar Khanjari, a local journalist in Oroumieh, called the cloud-seeding plan "a show." He said recent rainfall was only seasonal, as predicted by meteorologists.


Scoffing at the promises of officials and what he called "non-expert views," he said of efforts to save the lake: "It seems that people have only one way; to pray for rain."


Beyond the debates by national and local authorities some folks here suggest another way Oroumieh could be saved.


A local legend says wild purple gladiolas have had a miraculous role in doing just that. The flowers have grown every year for a thousand years in the spot where a princess of Oroumieh was killed as she warned the people of the city about an invading enemy.


As a recent sunset turned the lake golden, Kamal the boatman tried to find some hope in the returning blossoms.


"You see, still wild purple gladiolas are appearing in the spring," he said. "The city and its lake can eventually survive."

Abdul Akbar Muhammad Falsely Arrested, Detained In Guyana

Abdul Akbar Muhammad, international representative of Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, is back safely in the United States after being detained by law enforcement officials in the South American country of Guyana.



In an exclusive interview, Akbar Muhammad told The Final Call May 21 that when Guyanese police officers came to his hotel room in the country, an officer said the Central Intelligence Agency had told local authorities he was a terrorist. There are also suspicions that the false arrest and detention could be tied to tensions between the ruling Indian-dominated political party and Black opposition party as elections loom.


The false charges and arrest is part of a sustained effort to trash the good name of Minister Farrakhan and the good works of the Nation of Islam, charged Mr. Muhammad, who has traveled to Guyana on numerous occasions since 1975 and has never had any problems with law enforcement. His most recent visit was about five years ago to speak to young people.

“The Minister is well known in that society, so when you see his name on the front of the paper, people are going to read it,” said Mr. Muhammad. “It's absolutely to try to make Minister Farrakhan look other than the champion that he is (on behalf) of Black people, and to say that he's got one of his assistants down there who is a terrorist and dealing drugs and planning some terrorist act against Guyanese society,” he added.


Just hours after touching down on American soil, Mr. Muhammad spoke to The Final Call from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, explaining that the trip to the South American country involved a series of speaking engagements, media appearances and business meetings. During his time there, he spoke to the mayor of Georgetown, the nation's capitol, as well as some pre-teen students in an economically depressed area of town.


Strange call and then arrest


While in his hotel room at the Princess Hotel in Georgetown, Mr. Muhammad said he got a strange telephone call at about 1:30 a.m. The caller asked to speak to someone, and he told them they had the wrong room.


About 15 minutes later, he heard banging on his door and the voices outside said they were the police. Mr. Muhammad said he was not sure if they were police so at first he refused to open the door, then they threatened to break the door down. He told them that was not necessary and knowing he had done nothing wrong, he opened the door, saw four Guyanese police officers and one of them said they were contacted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency saying that he was a terrorist.


Angered yet under control, Mr. Muhammad began defiantly questioning the officer in charge.


“I felt it was erroneous, I felt that it was fake, so I said to the officer in charge, ‘You got a message from the CIA? Are you the CIA's boys? They just call you and tell you I am a terrorist and you come and arrest me? I thought this was a sovereign country? Is the CIA running this country, or are you running it?' He didn't say anything,” recounted Mr. Muhammad.


After grabbing a few belongings and walking out of his hotel room, he saw two White men standing in the hallway and heard them talking. They appeared to be with the police, but were not uniformed.


Mr. Muhammad walked over and asked one, “Are you the CIA agents who gave them this information?” He said the man answered, “No.” Asked if he was an American citizen, the man replied, “yes,” according to Mr. Muhammad. “Then how come you've got that British accent?” Mr. Muhammad asked, but the man was silent. The two men remained in the building after Guyanese officers escorted Mr. Muhammad outside, presumably to go through the hotel room and search through his belongings.


Mr. Muhammad was concerned that perhaps something could be planted in his room, but there was nothing that he could do about it at the time.


False media reports circulate


The first news many heard regarding the situation was an Associated Press report early afternoon May 19 stating that Akbar Muhammad, described as a “U.S. Muslim cleric,” had been detained on suspicion of ties to drugs and terrorism.


In the Islamophobic climate of America, that wording was sure to push buttons and create a perception in the minds of viewers and readers.


Guyanese assistant police commissioner Seelal Persaud was quoted in several news articles as saying, “Based on the information we have, he is involved in drugs and terrorism.”



Mr. Muhammad said, however, after being taken to the police station, he was subjected to a bizarre line of questioning from Guyanese law enforcement officials.


He was never handcuffed, which seems strange given the fact that he was allegedly involved in terrorism and drugs. He sat in a chair from approximately 2:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., answering their “ridiculous” questions while authorities went through the contents of his laptop computer.


“I said I'm not a drug dealer. I preach against drugs and I am not a terrorist. If anybody around me even had thoughts of a terrorist act, I'd get as far away from them as I possibly can,” said Mr. Muhammad. “They just had something that they were trying to do,” he added.


Following questioning, he was jailed.


He read and reflected on the situation while confined to the overcrowded and squalid conditions in the cell where he was held and swarmed by mosquitoes that bit him all over his arms and face.


During the ordeal, Mr. Muhammad reached out to his representative in the U.S. Congress, William “Lacy” Clay Jr. (D-Mo.) and the U.S. Embassy in Guyana was contacted and representatives immediately arrived to inform him that according to Guyanese law, an individual can be detained and jailed for up to 72 hours before officially being charged with a crime.


After appearing before a judge, it looked as if he would be jailed over the weekend.
The Nation of Islam has an active study group in Guyana located in Linden, which is about one hour outside of the capitol city of Georgetown. Its coordinator, Brother Dennis Muhammad upon hearing that Brother Akbar was in the country and experiencing difficulty, immediately contacted Student Regional Minister Rasul H. Muhammad who presides over the Seventh Region of the Nation of Islam, which includes South America.



A telephone conference was quickly arranged between the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and President of the Republic of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo and the diplomatic wheels were placed in motion. Additionally, a television station Mr. Muhammad had made an appearance on earlier in the week enlisted Attorney Nigel Hughes, one of the leading lawyers in Guyana, for legal assistance.


Akbar Muhammad, who regularly takes heart medication, had not taken it for three days and had left it at the hotel. He asked officials to allow him to go and retrieve it and his request was granted. During that time, he got access to a phone, and placed a call to Minister Farrakhan, who informed Brother Akbar that he had spoken with Guyana's President regarding the situation.


“It was impressive in the character of the President of Guyana that he sought to speak to the Honorable Louis Farrakhan to understand what was going on with our Brother Akbar Muhammad,” said Student Minister Rasul Muhammad. “I'm impressed with the President of Guyana after having been contacted, and the government of Guyana being contacted by the federal government and the CIA in the United States spreading negative rumors that would disrupt the good works of Brother Akbar, that the President had the character to seek out the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to get the facts,” Student Minister Rasul Muhammad added.


The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan praised and thanked Pres. Jagdeo for his swift intervention and shared aspects of the telephone conversation with The Final Call.


“I informed His Excellency that Brother Akbar has been my friend and companion for over 46 years and I can say with truth and certainty that he is as far away from drugs as the far planet Pluto is away from the sun and that is four billion six hundred million miles, and as far as terrorism—he would never come to any country to inspire such acts,” Minister Farrakhan told The Final Call. “The president informed me that no man in his country would be charged with a crime and remain in prison who is innocent. I want to thank His Excellency and I am grateful for whatever he did in looking into the case.”


The Guyanese people know and love Minister Farrakhan. Mr. Muhammad said as soon as he entered the jail, one Black man came up to him and asked, “Hey, aren't you that brother from the Farrakhan program?”


With the consistent outreach work of the Nation of Islam there, Minister Farrakhan's lectures are broadcast daily for one-hour and have been airing for years. Guyanese-Canadian Phillip Muhammad, who was also arrested, was instrumental in establishing and maintaining Minister Farrakhan's television ministry in Guyana. He paid for the entire trip—including airline tickets and lodging—out of his own pocket, said Akbar Muhammad.


Akbar Muhammad said once he arrived back to the police station, presumably to be subjected to more questioning, he noticed a change in the approach of his interrogators.


“I noticed that when I got back, they had a whole different attitude,” said Mr. Muhammad.


Emboldened by the recent conversation with Minister Farrakhan, Mr. Muhammad turned the tables on his would be accusers.


“They never mentioned anything about the president's office, so I brought it up with them,” Mr. Muhammad said. “I said, ‘Well, my leader—the leader of the Nation of Islam—has talked to your president about the situation.' They didn't respond. They didn't say a word.”


Within hours, he, Phillip Muhammad and a 26-year old Guyanese brother who was also arrested in connection with the bogus charges were released.


Akbar Muhammad and Atty. Hughes held a press conference outside of police headquarters demanding a formal apology. Atty. Hughes called the arrests and detainment “outrageous” and an “unjust claim from the beginning.”


“I think it was one of the worst moments for law enforcement in Guyana,” Atty. Hughes told The Final Call. “Within 10 minutes of arriving at the police station at the prison detention department of the police headquarters, I inquired about the reason for the arrest of Brother Akbar, the reason for his detention and what were the specifics of the allegations that they were attributing to him. They could provide absolutely no specifics of any activity that was remotely criminal. There was nothing of narcotics, nothing of terrorism.”


Atty. Hughes said the entire interrogation concentrated on basic information, such as his age, how many children he had, and who he met with. The fact that he met with political officials appears to be key. In his 23 years of practicing law in Guyana, the attorney had never seen a case like this.


“I have not come across such an act of maliciousness in terms of detaining somebody against whom they have absolutely no evidence,” said Atty. Hughes.


He has filed a formal demand for a formal apology from Guyana's police department with the commissioner of police for the arrest and detention and is exploring possible civil proceedings for false imprisonment and unlawful arrest. He will also be in discussion with attorneys in the U.S. regarding possible actions against Guyana regarding the prison conditions, which Atty. Hughes described as “appalling.”


Guyana's history and racial tension


Guyana, the only English speaking country in South America, is located on the northern tip of South America nestled between Venezuela and Suriname.


The Black slave trade flourished there with many slave traders becoming rich from the highly profitable and productive sugar cane fields. Originally a Dutch colony, it became a British possession in the early 1800s. Once the trans-Atlantic slave trade subsided, many Blacks remained there, however, other profiteers brought in “indentured servants” from East India to continue working the sugar plantations. Since obtaining its independence on May 26, 1966, and even before, ethnic tension has existed between Blacks and East Indians.


According to census figures, East Indians make up 50 percent of the population with Blacks 36 percent of its total population of nearly 767,000. This has led to political tension between the ruling political party dominated by East Indians and the opposition led by Blacks. Mr. Muhammad said this could have acted as a contributing factor to his arrest and detention.


National elections are scheduled to take place in August and perhaps the ruling party wanted to show Guyanese voters and the international community that they were being tough on terrorism.


Through the entire ordeal, described by Mr. Muhammad as “humiliating,” he thought about his 10 children, his 14 grandchildren, the members of the Nation of Islam and all those friends across the country and world who know him seeing the false media reports and wondering how they were affected. This incident has only inspired him to do more work, and to speak out for Muslims who have gone through the same harassment in airports and other places, said Mr. Muhammad.


“This is happening to too many Muslims,” he said. “Many (Muslims) have suffered this and have been harassed and detained and don't say anything, so they continue to do it. So what we have to do is that when this happens, we have to make some noise and let the world know that because I am a Muslim, I am being harassed like this and they just have to cease and desist. Anybody with a Muslim name can be accused of anything,” he added.

Will Graham, Grandson Of Rev. Billy Graham Continues Family Tradition Of Worldwide Evangelism

Ocean Grove, N.J. – Will Graham preached about God's purpose in life to thousands of youth Saturday at the Great Auditorium, reaching a new generation with the same Christ-filled message his grandfather Billy Graham is known for.



Standing on the same stage that his legendary grandfather spoke from over half a century ago at the same age, the 36-year-old evangelist challenged a crowd of 5,500, comprised of mainly students, to not live a life defined by a job title but by a God-given purpose.




"What's the purpose? You were created for a relationship. God created you in order to have a relationship just with you," said Graham on Saturday, the second day of the Jersey Shore Will Graham Celebration Event in Ocean Grove , N.J.




Graham, the oldest son of Franklin Graham, went on to explain man's separation from God by sin and that the only way to restore that relationship is by accepting Jesus as an atonement. All the methods people use to get to God – from philosophy, education to religion – can never help man "get to God," he pointed out.




"That's why tonight I'm not asking you to join a religion. Tonight, I'm asking you to come to Jesus Christ. Because religion is trying to make your way perfect, to get to God, but we can never do it," said Graham.




While the North Carolina native has often been compared to his "granddaddy" for having a similar build, speaking with a Southern accent and sharing mannerisms, Graham looked comfortable in his own skin as he delivered a message in converse sneakers and occasionally joking with the audience.


Toward the end of his message, Graham gave a visual illustration of how a person can only realize his purpose by coming to Jesus. Taking out a pen, he asked the audience, "What's the purpose of a pen?" To which the crowd replied, "To write with." He then laid the pen on a blank piece of paper, demonstrating that while the pen had purpose, it was unused. At the urging of voices in the audience, Graham finally picked up the pen and signed his name on the paper.


"The only way a pen can fulfill its purpose in life is when it's in its master's hand," said Graham to a chorus of affirming "Amen’s" and cheers.


"Many of you here tonight are like that pen sitting on that paper ... You are meant for so much more but you're not experiencing what you are meant for because you have not surrendered your life to Jesus Christ."


Over 300 people responded to the invitation to receive Christ Saturday night, with 62 percent new decisions. While the venue was filled with many youths, people of all ages and walks of life came forward during the invitation.


Ronan Flores, 32, who attends Calvary Assembly of God in Union , N.J. , said he is already a Christian but was moved by Graham's message to rededicate his faith.


"I know I am saved but it's to reignite the flame. Sometimes I backslide and I go through my emotions. When you get an invitation like that, I want to feel it. I want to be inspired to have him in my heart again and in my walk. I don't want to stray away from him again," Flores said.


Brenda Spedaliere, one of the Celebration counselors, said she prayed with a 53-year-old woman.


"She just wanted to rededicate her life to the Lord. She does attend a church but she's been going sporadically and wanted to pray for rededication of her life."


On Friday, around 200 of the 3,000 attendants came forward for prayer, with 75 percent first-time decisions reported.


Everyone who came forward during the invitations received a package with a CD, Gospel of John and a response card.




Speaking to The Christian Post, Graham called the responses to the invitation a "blessing" and highlighted teamwork that made the event possible. An association of more than 265 churches representing 25 denominations hosted the three-day event in partnership with The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.


"The churches have been doing all the work and preparing all the soil. I think God's just starting to allow the fruit to pop up and we're seeing it here and there," said Will Graham, the third generation Graham to preach the Gospel under the BGEA banner.


The Jersey Shore Will Graham Celebration event concludes Sunday.

Randy White, Former Senior Pastor Of Without Walls International Church Arrested On Charges Of DUI

Randy White, the former co-pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., was arrested on charges of driving under the influence Saturday night.



He posted $500 as bail Sunday morning and was released, according to Tampa Bay Online. Jail records show that his blood-alcohol level was 0.09. In Florida, a person with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or above is considered intoxicated.



On Sunday, his ex-wife, Paula White, said about Randy’s arrest at church: “This ministry is a ministry of restoration. This ministry does not compromise the principles of God, but we are the perfect church for people who are not.


“This does not mean I am an enabler. That doesn’t mean I condone. That doesn’t mean I agree with things. It means that I will help you walk through life. And I want you to walk with me through life. And I think that’s what the church is all about.”


The White's, who split in 2007 after nearly 18 years of marriage, built Without Walls International into one of the biggest churches in the nation. It was estimated that the church boasted some 23,000 members before the divorce, and Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-Iowa) Senate probe for possible financial misconduct of the church’s nonprofit status caused some congregants to be disillusioned and leave.


The White's subscribe to what is called the “prosperity gospel,” where God’s blessing is often tied to material blessings. Sen. Grassley led the investigation beginning in 2007 on six popular televangelists who preach the prosperity gospel. The Iowa senator, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Finance, questioned whether the ministries abused their tax-exempt status as churches while living lavish lifestyles.

Some of the leaders of the ministries investigated had astoundingly high salaries, private jets and Rolls-Royces, Grassley noted.



After three years with little cooperation from the ministries, Grassley released a report that showed Without Walls International Church, among others, provided incomplete responses. There were no penalties handed out.


In April, Paula White broke her silence about all the scandals that have surrounded her since her divorce in 2007.


At the 2011 Pastors and Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla., White said, “I think it’s time we stop being hypocrites in the pulpit. I think … it’s time that we take the mask off to this generation and show them that we have the same issues and the same struggles.”


She shared candidly about her family problems, saying that Randy had closed up to her and that “in a really weak moment” the couple agreed to divorce. The split was amicable.


She also said at the conference that she was proud of her ex-husband. “He never quit … God or anything else.”

Harold Camping: Judgment Day October 21

OAKLAND, Calif. – A California preacher who foretold of the world's end only to see the appointed day pass with no extraordinarily cataclysmic event has revised his apocalyptic prophecy, saying he was off by five months and the Earth actually will be obliterated on Oct. 21.

Harold Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before catastrophe struck the planet, apologized Monday evening for not having the dates "worked out as accurately as I could have."


He spoke to the media at the Oakland headquarters of his Family Radio International, which spent millions of dollars_ some of it from donations made by followers — on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.


It was not the first time Camping was forced to explain when his prediction didn't come to pass. The 89-year-old retired civil engineer also prophesied the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but said later that didn't happen then because of a mathematical error.


Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, it dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a "spiritual" Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ's judgment, he said.


The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God's judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there's no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on Oct. 21.


"We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said. "The fact is there is only one kind of people who will ascend into heaven ... if God has saved them they're going to be caught up."


Josh Ocasion, who works the teleprompter during Camping's live broadcasts in the group's threadbare studio sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader's business, said he enjoyed the production work but never fully believed the May 21 prophecy would come true.


"I thought he would show some more human decency in admitting he made a mistake," he said Monday. "We didn't really see that."


Follower Jeff Hopkins said he spent a good deal of his own retirement savings on gas money to power his car so people would see its ominous lighted sign showcasing Camping's May 21 warning. As the appointed day drew nearer, Hopkins started making the 100-mile round trip from Long Island to New York City twice a day, spending at least $15 on gas each trip.


"I've been mocked and scoffed and cursed at and I've been through a lot with this lighted sign on top of my car," said Hopkins, 52, a former television producer who lives in Great River, NY. "I was doing what I've been instructed to do through the Bible, but now I've been stymied. It's like getting slapped in the face."


Camping's hands shook slightly as he pinned his microphone to his lapel, and as he clutched a worn Bible he spoke in a quivery monotone about some listeners' earthly concerns after giving away possessions in expectation of the Rapture.

Family Radio would never tell anyone what they should do with their belongings, and those who had fewer would cope, Camping said.


"We're not in the business of financial advice," he said. "We're in the business of telling people there's someone who you can maybe talk to, maybe pray to, and that's God."


But he also said that he wouldn't give away all his possessions ahead of Oct 21.


"I still have to live in a house, I still have to drive a car," he said. "What would be the value of that? If it is Judgment Day why would I give it away?"


Apocalyptic thinking has always been part of American religious life and popular culture. Teachings about the end of the world vary dramatically — even within faith traditions — about how they will occur.


Still, the overwhelming majority of Christians reject the idea that the exact date or time of Jesus' return can be predicted.


Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels about the end times, recently called Camping's prediction "not only bizarre but 100 percent wrong!" He cited the Bible verse Matthew 24:36, "but about that day or hour no one knows" except God.


Camping offered no clues about Family Radio's finances Monday, saying he could not estimate how much had been spent advertising his prediction nor how much money the nonprofit had taken in as a result. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.

Jesus Facebook Page Beats Out Lakers, Bieber, Gaga

So what’s more engaging than Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Twilight, and apparently the Los Angeles Lakers?



Jesus Daily, to be exact.



Taking the top spots in All Facebook’s – the unofficial Facebook resource page – weekly rankings, religious pages continue to dominate and infiltrate the charts.


Pages like “Jesus Daily” and “The Bible” fall above American pop stars and much beloved sports teams as the “Most Engaging Pages,” demonstrating that religious faith is still much a part of the culture today, regardless of what many believe or rather, don’t believe.


With over 5,108,270 fans and 2,127,067 interactions, “Jesus Daily” maintains the number one spot for a second week in a row, with “The Bible” close behind at second, moving up rapidly on the list, recording over 7,015,719 fans and 1,119,413 interactions.


The goals of both pages are similar, with the former challenging others to “strive to follow Jesus daily by contemplating His sayings daily,” and the latter hoping to see the Word of God shared across Facebook.

Mark Brown, founder of “The Bible,” shares his vision on YouTube and provides testimonies of how the simple page is touching people’s lives.



Started just two years ago in 2009, Brown wanted to encourage people to go deeper into God’s presence and into a deeper relationship with God. He knew that one clear way this could be accomplished was through reading and being immersed in Scripture itself.


“In [these] pages you don’t encounter just words, you encounter the Holy Spirit. God works through those words, with the power of the Holy Spirit transforming us,” Brown relayed. “The Bible isn’t about information, it’s about transformation – us being more of what God wants us to be.”


Seeing the potential in Facebook two years ago and desiring to go where people would be, the Australian CEO of Bible Society New Zealand, started the page where he and now several other volunteers all over the world post small passages of Scripture throughout the day.


Simple right from the beginning, the page remains the same two years later and has grown tremendously since.


Brown, also an Anglican priest, attributes all the success to God, whom he genuinely believes has blessed the page and grown it for one purpose – to glorify Him.


One of the aspects of the page the Aussie absolutely loves is that it is filled with people who are full of questions, people who constantly challenge his and many others’ faith.


“I want them to be here. What a wonderful opportunity. We don’t have to go out and find people asking questions about our faith; they’re coming to the page in droves.”


“There are lots and lots of people who ask questions, some of them ask very challenging questions [and] some of them can be very rude. [But] at the heart of it, they’re struggling [or] ... they might just be having an intellectual exercise, having fun.”


Sharing a testimony relayed to him by a volunteer, Brown recalled how one of those questioners entered the page to “have a go” at the Christians and to challenge what the skeptic thought were “silly thoughts.”


But the more questions he asked, the more answers he received which resounded as something genuine and real about the Christian faith. Eventually, the man gave his life to the Lord, through the simple Bible page and through his questioning.


“This is the vision,” he expressed. “To draw people deeper into God’s presence and to see people grow in their relationship.”


Brown’s goal for the page is to reach 10 million fans, “not for any sense of numbers, whatever that means, but to influence a generation to grow deeper in their relationship with God and to share the good news of Jesus.”


Started the same year as Brown’s page, “Jesus Daily” also began in 2009, founded by Dr. Aaron Tabor who was motivated by a similar desire.


“Two years ago, I saw a need on Facebook for a page that focused on Jesus Christ – the other pages focused broadly on Christianity,” Tabor told The Christian Post.


“For me, the excitement comes from a personal relationship with Christ. Focusing on His Words daily is the inspiration behind ‘Jesus Daily.’”


With a more specific goal in mind, Tabor shared with CP that his mission is to help 50,000 people annually accept Christ as their personal Savior.


“We focus on bringing in Seekers through the viral nature of Facebook by asking Jesus Daily members to LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT on the content we post. This spreads the message to their Friend’s List and spreads further from there.”


Having recently begun to measure the number of those who have come to know Christ through their website, Tabor reported of 1,434 salvation decisions made, just in the past 10 days.


“People are hungry for a relationship with God, particularly during these rough economic times, wars, uncertainties, and the breakdown of a family unit. People are wounded emotionally and need Christ to heal their broken hearts.”


As a physician himself, Tabor understands the need for healing, not just spiritually, but physically and emotionally as well. “Jesus Daily” offers visitors the chance to post their prayer requests, which the group together “lifts up to the Lord.”


Though many support the page, as evidenced by the growing number of followers, several people have attacked and continue to harass the site and the people on it as well.


Nonbelievers have littered the wall with pornographic images and pictures of starving children, and mock those who request prayers for illnesses.


“I’ve been shocked at how mean the Atheists are that attack our site,” the Johns Hopkins graduate wrote to CP. “It just shows how dark the human spirit is and verifies Biblical truth that mankind loves darkness more than light.”


Regardless of all of the hateful acts that permeate the site, however, Tabor is confident that God is using Facebook to spread the Gospel.


“We hope that Jesus Daily is the Light on social media to fulfill the Great Commission by sharing the Good News globally.”


Currently, there are over 600,000 members in the Philippines and Indonesia, and hundreds of thousands more in Africa.


The page has also just released a free iPhone app where people can enjoy Scriptures, prayers and praises “on the go” worldwide.


Whether or not the increasing number of fans on pages like “The Bible” and “Jesus Daily,” or even others like “Jesus Christ” and “Dios Es Bueno!” which stand lower on the list, is a true indicator of the number of those being saved, no one is certain. But many are praying and hoping so.