Corn hole, pizza, and cake shaped like a kidney. Folks here at Frontline Ministries in Busy are having a party. Their pastor is getting a new kidney, and a new lease on life, from his daughter Kristen.

“Well to me it wasn’t even an option really,” said Kristen Hurt. “I mean it was just something that I knew I was going to do. I knew it wasn’t even a question.”

From an early age, heart problems plagued Pastor James Madden. Antibiotics damaged his kidneys, eventually requiring him to go on dialysis. But it just so happened his daughter was a perfect match for kidney donation.

“It’s kind of funny the way they explain it. They said they put our bloods together, mixed my blood with her blood and the bloods didn’t fight each other. They accepted each other,” Madden explained.

While this was a day of celebration here at Frontline Ministries, Pastor Madden says his illness has brought along with it difficulties over the years; difficulties in mind, body and spirit.

Madden says the dialysis has strained his faith, but not to the point of breaking.

“If I don’t get a supernatural healing from God, I’ll go to Heaven some day, still proclaiming that God does heal,” Madden said.

If the operation is a success, and Madden says his doctors are confident it will be, Madden says he’ll be a brand new man.

Madden and his daughter will go under the knife June 19th. He says their recovery time should be just a few weeks. WYMT TV

Tamerlan had traveled to al Qaeda hotbeds in southern Russia, where authorities believe he may have met with known jihadists.

Closer to home, he and his brother attended a Boston-area mosque with radical ties.

“The fact is that these fellows attended, blocks from their house, a radical mosque that has been the center of controversy in Boston for 10 years,” said Charles Jacobs, who heads Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a group that has closely monitored Islamic radicalism in the Boston area.

Jacobs told CBN News the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge has seen convicted Islamic terrorists pass through its doors.

“The founder of that mosque, blocks from where the Tsarnaevs lived and where they prayed, was Abdulrahman Alamoudi,” he said. “He is the model of deception in American-Muslim history…”

“He…convinced President Clinton and also President George W. Bush that he was precisely the kind of moderate Muslim leader that America was looking for,” Jacobs said. “In fact, he deceived everyone. He’s now in jail for 23 years for giving money, for funding al Qaeda.

Other worshippers at the Cambridge mosque have included these Islamists:

• Aafia Siddiqui, an al Qaeda member convicted of plotting attacks on New York City
• Tarek Mahenna, sentenced to 17 years in prison for planning to assault a Boston-area shopping mall with automatic weapons

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a former trustee of the mosque, is a Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader and terrorist supporter who’s banned from entering the United States.

Jacobs stressed that it’s unclear whether the mosque played any role in the Tsarnaev brothers’ radicalization.

But CBN News spoke to one moderate Muslim leader who visited the mosque with his wife in 2003 and was shocked by what he found.

“We go upstairs and I find the library and it’s full of flyers, full of newsletters in Arabic,” Dr. Ahmed Mansour of the International Quranic Institute explained. “And they call for jihad against America and against the Jews and against the Christians,” he said. “…at that time, there was a sheikh giving a sermon, and the sheikh was as fanatical as the written materials.”

US Arm of the Brotherhood

The group behind the Cambridge mosque is called the Muslim American Society, or MAS. It was founded in 1993 by Muslim Brotherhood members and has dozens of chapters throughout the United States.

Federal prosecutors have called MAS “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”

Its ties to the Brotherhood — a group dedicated to establishing Islamic sharia law worldwide — have not stopped MAS from expanding in Boston.

In 2009, it opened another mosque in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, just a few miles from the Cambridge location.

That mosque, called the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, is the second largest mosque on the entire East Coast. It cost over $15.5 million to build — and more than half of that money reportedly came from Saudi Arabia.

The Roxbury mega-mosque is the sister mosque to the one in Cambridge.

“They share the exact same leadership,” Jacobs said. “They’re owned by the same people, the Muslim American Society. The trustees are the same. They may have different day-to-day managements, but it’s the same.”

Jacobs says the two MAS mosques also share the same radical, Muslim Brotherhood ideology.

Mass. Governor Endorses Mosque

Yet Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino both endorsed the Roxbury mosque when it opened in 2009.

Jacobs’ organization released a video showing Patrick publicly embracing a controversial imam at a 2010 event at the mosque.

During a sermon just two months prior, that imam, Abdullah Farooq, had seemingly encouraged worshippers to engage in violence when supporting Muslims who have been arrested on terrorism charges.

“Grab onto the typewriter, grab onto the shovel, grab onto the gun and the sword,” Farooq implored. “Don’t be afraid to step out into this world and do your job.”

Too Little, Too Late?

Jacobs was encouraged recently when Gov. Patrick disinvited the imam of the Roxbury mosque from an event honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon terror attack.

But he says the damage is done in Boston and other cities where mega-mosques tied to the Muslim Brotherhood are being built.

The number of mosques in America nearly doubled between 2001 and 2011.

“When a Muslim group goes in any city and asks the mayor for help to build a mosque or to support them in building a mosque, the mayor only has one way of thinking about this: that this is another vulnerable minority that must be protected.” Jacobs said.

“And if you question them, even if you question them, you’re a racist, Islamophobic bigot,” Jacobs continued. “You can’t possibly raise the question that these people are not who they say they are.”

CBN News requested an interview with representatives of the Roxbury mosque but received no response. A spokeswoman for the Cambridge mosque declined an interview due to health reasons.

Local Muslim sources told CBN News that followers of the Muslim Brotherhood have also tried to take over other mosques in the Boston area.

Dr. Mansour calls it a nationwide problem.

“They are using the American Constitution, the American values, of freedom of belief and freedom of speech-and the American mosques,” he warned. CBN News

In the past seven weeks, burglars have targeted 16 churches in an area that stretches from Kearney to Lee’s Summit.

The Fort Osage Church of the Nazarene in Independence was targeted by thieves twice in the last month.

In the first break-in, the church’s alarm system was turned off, and burglars systematically worked their way though the pastoral offices, stealing five laptop computers and a small amount of cash.

“I just came in to find out that the church office and my study was in (a) shambles and they had gotten what they wanted,” said Pastor Shaun Sutton, who discovered the damage the next day.

When would-be thieves broke a second window at the church nine days later, the alarm was on, and the intruders left with nothing.

Now, Sutton says, he takes extra care in setting the church’s alarm, and has added exterior lights around the building. He is considering installing security cameras inside, as well.

Burglars were likewise unsuccessful at another Nazarene church in Independence two weeks ago, where an alarm scared off someone who had broken a ground-floor window.

Pastor Rebecca Mulford of St. Mathew’s United Methodist Church in Independence said her church was not so lucky. Thieves smashed a window there and stole a small amount of cash and a digital camera in early May.

Neither church had security cameras outside.

Police believe the crimes could have been committed by the same people, and are asking the public for help tracking down possible suspects.

They have released a photo of a possible suspect — a white male in a red T-shirt — that was taken at one of the crime scenes.

At Wood’s Chapel church in Lee’s Summit, a burglar last Monday took a different tack. The man pulled up to a trailer in the church’s parking lot around 9 a.m. and snipped the lock.

A surveillance camera captured a white male loading several items into a white pickup before driving off.

The contents of the trailer had been collected for tornado victims in Moore, Okla.

“The whole idea that somebody would rob a church, or that somebody would take things destined for tornado victims is pretty disappointing,” said Jeff Brinkman, a pastor at the church.

But on Sunday, church members said that an outpouring of support from the community had allowed them to replace stolen donations many times over, and that the trailer carrying supplies will head to Oklahoma as scheduled early next week.

“When people heard of what this guy had done, it really did touch a lot of people, and the response has been very good,” said Craig Brandon, who helped organize the donations. KSHB

In a press release, church officials say Rev. R. Guy Erwin was elected Friday at a church annual assembly.

The church’s rules changed in 2009 to allow gays and lesbians to be ordained in the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination.

Erwin currently serves as a pastor at Faith Lutheran Church and a professor of Lutheran Confessional Theology at California Lutheran University.

Officials say the “partnered gay man” is also the first Native American to be elected. Erwin is part Osage Indian.

With more than 4 million members in 10,000 congregations, the ELCA is the largest of several Lutheran denominations in the United States. The ELCA’s decision to allow gay clergy has strained ties between those denominations, some of whom have partnered for relief work.

“The ELCA is a church that belongs to Christ, and there is a place for all here,” said church spokeswoman Melissa Ramirez Cooper. “The election of Pastor Erwin illustrates what many in the 4-million-member church believe – that God calls each of us by name.”

The ELCA lifted its ban on openly gay, partnered clergy in 2009, clearing the way for priests like Erwin, but angering conservatives. By some estimates, some 600 conservative congregations have since left the ELCA for more conservative churches.

“It may be happening, but Americans don’t like it,” Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor in chief, said of religion’s waning influence. “It is clear that a lot of Americans don’t think this is a good state of affairs.”

According to the Gallup survey released Wednesday, 77% of Americans say religion is losing its influence. Since 1957, when the question was first asked, Americans’ perception of religion’s power has never been lower.

According to the poll, 75% of Americans said the country would be better off if it were more religious.

The poll doesn’t reflect Americans’ personal religiosity, such as church attendance, but rather how large events and trends shape shared views, Newport explained.

For example, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War and the rise of the counterculture fed the perception that religion was on the wane during the late 1960s, he said.

Views of a secularizing America peaked in 1969 and 1970, when 75% of Americans said faith was losing its clout in society. A similar view dominated from 1991-94 and from 2007 to the present.

Americans saw religion increasing its influence in 1957, in 1962 and at a few points during the Reagan presidency in 1980. This number also spiked to its highest point ever – 71% – after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The pollster didn’t speculate on the contemporary factors that led to the current views on faith’s influence.

Still, the poll numbers are dramatically influenced by church attendance, according to Gallup. More than 90% of people who attend church weekly responded that a more religious America would be positive, compared with 58% of Americans who attended church “less often.”

The Gallup poll was conducted via telephone from May 2 to May 7. A total of 1,535 people were sampled for the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. CNN

“I’m a Christian,” he began as he spoke on Outside the Lines along with LZ Granderson, an avowed homosexual. “I don’t agree with homosexuality. I think it’s a sin. I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is [sin] and LZ knows that.”

“Personally, I don’t think you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle, or [engage in] premarital sex between heterosexuals [as a Christian],” Broussard continued. “If you’re openly living that type of lifestyle, then the Bible says you will know them by their fruits. It says that it’s a sin, and if you’re living in unrepentant sin — whatever it may be, not just homosexuality — adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals, whatever it may be, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God.”

Born this way? Try being born again! | Christians should not bully homosexuals: Pat Robertson |

He then stated that a person willingly living in sin cannot be classified as a part of the Body of Christ.

“I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I don’t think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian,” Broussard said.

Granderson disagreed, stating that people interpret the Bible differently.

“My response is that faith, just like love, just like marriage, is personal,” Granderson commented, “And if you try to use a broad brush to paint everyone’s faith, what you really are painting is a world that’s comfortable for you and not a world in which  in this country we’re allowed varying forms of religion.”

“And just because someone doesn’t agree with one person’s interpretation of the Bible vs. another, doesn’t mean that they have exclusive rights to dictate how that person should live,” he continued. “I would love not to have premarital sex, but in this country, I’m not allowed to get married.”

Broussard said that there are number of Christians in the NBA just like him, and they do not like to be called “bigots” or “ignorant” simply because they choose to follow the Creator’s design, nor do they call anyone else names even though they disagree with their lifestyle.

Jason Collins, center for the Washington Wizards, had announced his homosexuality today in the form of an article published in Sports Illustrated.

“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay,” he wrote in the lengthy personal piece. “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation.”

“I’m from a close-knit family,” Collins continued. “My parents instilled Christian values in me. They taught Sunday school, and I enjoyed lending a hand. I take the teachings of Jesus seriously, particularly the ones that touch on tolerance and understanding.”

Broussard is now under fire from those who resent his comments. ESPN has so far declined to speak on the commentator’s remarks.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians—including chaplains—sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of treason, and of committing an act of spiritual rape as serious a crime as sexual assault. He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are enemies of the Constitution.

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime—possibly resulting in imprisonment—for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)—whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction or comfort.

This regulation would severely limit expressions of faith in the military, even on a one-to-one basis between close friends. It could also effectively abolish the position of chaplain in the military, as it would not allow chaplains (or any service members, for that matter), to say anything about their faith that others say led them to think they were being encouraged to make faith part of their life. It’s difficult to imagine how a member of the clergy could give spiritual counseling without saying anything that might be perceived in that fashion.

In response to the Pentagon’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), said on Fox & Friends this morning: “It’s a matter of what do they mean by proselytizing. … I think they’ve got their definitions a little confused. If you’re talking about coercion that’s one thing, but if you’re talking about the free exercise of our faith as individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, especially for the chaplains, they I think the worst thing we can do is stop the ability for a soldier to be able to exercise his faith.

FRC has launched a petition in Washington, D.C., which has already collected over 30,000 signatures, calling on Secretary Hagel is stop working with Weinstein and his anti-Christian organization to develop military policy regarding religious faith.

Ken Klukowski is senior fellow for religious liberty with the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University School of Law. This article originally appeared on Breitbart News.

Herbert and Catherine Schaible belong to a fundamentalist Christian church that believes in faith healing. They lost their 8-month-old son, Brandon, last week after he suffered from diarrhea and breathing problems for at least a week, and stopped eating. Four years ago, another son died from bacterial pneumonia.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that a decision on charges will be made after they get the results of an autopsy.

Catherine Schaible’s attorney, Mythri Jayaraman, cautioned against a rush to judgment, and said the couple are good parents deeply distraught over the loss of another child.

“There are way more questions than answers at this point. We haven’t seen the autopsy report. We don’t know the cause of death of this child,” Jayaraman told The Associated Press. “What we do know is Mr. and Mrs. Schaible are distraught, they are grieving, they are tremendously sad about the loss of their most recent baby.”

A man who answered the phone at a listing for Herbert Schaible declined to comment and hung up.

A jury convicted the Schaibles of involuntary manslaughter in the January 2009 death of their 2-year-old son, Kent. The boy’s symptoms had included coughing, congestion, crankiness and a loss of appetite. His parents said he was eating and drinking until the last day, and they had thought he was getting better.

The Schaibles were sentenced to 10 years’ probation.

At a hearing Monday, a judge told the couple they had violated the terms of their probation, noting the Schaibles had told investigators that they prayed to God to make Brandon well instead of seeking medical attention.

“You did that once, and the consequences were tragic,” Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner said, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Prosecutors on Monday sought to have the couple jailed, but Lerner permitted them to remain free because their seven other children had been placed in foster care.

“He feels they are a danger to their children — not to the community, but to their own children,” Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore, who prosecuted the couple in 2010, said Tuesday.

Herbert Schaible, 44, and his 43-year-old wife grew up in the First Century Gospel Church in northeast Philadelphia and have served as teachers there. The church’s website has a sermon titled “Healing — From God or Medicine?” that quotes Bible verses purportedly forbidding Christians from visiting doctors or taking medicine.

“It is a definite sin to trust in medical help and pills; and it is real faith to trust on the Name of Jesus for healing,” says the message, from last May.

A phone message left with the church on Tuesday was not immediately returned.

The church’s pastor said in 2010 that the couple had never received medical care themselves beyond the help of a lay midwife who attends home births.

The Schaibles did take their children for medical checkups as required by their probation, according to Jayaraman, the defense attorney. Jayaraman said that Brandon was checked by a doctor when he was 10 days old, but she did not know whether the child had seen a doctor since.

“Nobody argues that these aren’t very loving, nurturing parents,” she said Tuesday. “Whether their religion had anything to do with the death of their baby, we don’t know.” AP

“I am honored to be named to TIME’s 100. It’s a great privilege to be a voice not only for the Latino Christian community, but also for the poor and voiceless in our society,” said De Jesus in a public statement. “The Hispanic community in the U.S. is over 51 million strong. We’re people God has chosen to govern and to lead communities and cities with conviction, unapologetically. There are many great leaders in this community, and I am truly humbled by this recognition.”

De Jesus’s Chicago, Ill., megachurch is home to 5,000 members locally, and a total of 14,000 globally through New Life Covenant Ministries’ church plants and various outreach programs.

The Assemblies of God pastor is also vice president of social justice for the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and director of its Illinois chapter. The NHCLC is a grassroots coalition of more than 40,000 churches representing nearly 16 million Hispanic born-again Christians in the U.S.

De Jesus is described in the Time “100 Most Influential People” feature by Pastor Warren, previously named to the list in 2009, as embodying “the true definition of what Christ said the church should be.”

“As the senior pastor of New Life Covenant Ministries, one of the fastest-growing churches in Chicago as well as one of the largest Assemblies of God congregations in the nation, Pastor Choco encourages others to go out into the community not just with words but with his own actions. Under his leadership, New Life is reaching out to the outcasts and forgotten in our society – the homeless, women suffering with addiction and prostitution, and young people in gangs,” writes Warren, adding that he expects De Jesus to “continue to be a strong, ardent voice on the direction of our country.”

The Pentecostal minister is one of three religious leaders chosen for Time’s “100 Most Influential People,” a list in its 10th year and previously described by Time’s managing editor as comprised of individuals “who are using their ideas, their visions, their actions to transform the world and have an effect on a multitude of people.”

The other two faith leaders included in Time’s list are Pope Francis I of the Roman Catholic Church and Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish author and educator and Islamic scholar.

Both De Jesus and NHCLC President the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez were interviewed for Time magazine’s April 15 cover story on the Latino Reformation highlighting the influence of America’s growing Hispanic evangelical Christian population.

De Jesus, 48, began serving as senior pastor of New Life Covenant Ministries in July 2000, after serving the church in various other capacities. Under his leadership, the Chicago megachurch developed several programs to minister to surrounding communities, such as a homeless shelter, an after school program and an intensive discipleship program for college-age students.

“When you live in the inner city, it shapes you because you see the injustice and you can’t just preach on Sunday and then ignore it like it doesn’t happen. You have no other choice but to jump in the middle of that fight and speak for people,” De Jesus recently told CharismaNews.com.

“I’m really humbled to represent the Christian Latino community. I now bear a responsibility for that image and what it represents for millions of Hispanics around our nation and the world, that they would see that and feel proud. I’m humbled by it, but I also understand that with revelation comes responsibility.” Christian Post

Billy Graham

WILL Graham, the grandson of well-known evangelist Billy Graham, says that his grandfather is preparing hard for likely his last sermon in November and has started filming for “My Hope America with Billy Graham.”

“This is so exciting for me as a grandson to see my granddaddy end well. He can’t see well; he can’t hear well. So it’s hard for him to study the Bible,” Will Graham told The Christian Post last week. “So he’s trying to memorize and get things just right for the few minutes he will be before the camera.”

“My Hope America with Billy Graham” is a massive nationwide evangelistic effort to take place throughout November (Billy Graham turns 95 on Nov. 7) in which Christians will invite their neighbors and friends who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to their home for a meal and invite them to watch the TV broadcast of “My Hope America with Billy Graham,” or the DVD version where Billy Graham will share his new message.

After the message, Christians can share their personal testimony about how Jesus gave them hope and what He is doing in their life today, and lastly they will ask their friends if they want to make a decision to receive Jesus Christ. In addition to the TV and DVD version of “My Hope America with Billy Graham,” people can also watch it on their laptop as well as their mobile devices.

According to Graham, his grandfather has done a “fair amount of filming” and will be doing more in the next few months. “We’ll usually shoot about 20 minutes of him at a time, and out of that will come his sermon,” he says.

The “My Hope” project began in 2002 with the goal to do world evangelism through television. Instead of Billy Graham delivering the Gospel message to a stadium full of people, he would be broadcasted on national television or be shown on DVD in people’s homes and be able to reach millions of people. The first Mi Esperanza (My Hope) project took place in El Salvador in 2002, with more than 60,000 Operation Matthew house parties taking place.

My Hope calls on Christians to become a “Matthew” and host a viewing party for the Billy Graham message. Like Apostle Matthew invited people into his home to meet Jesus (Matthew 9:9-10), Christians around the world can also invite their friends and family into their homes to hear the Gospel message.

The My Hope television outreach has taken place in Costa Rica, Honduras, Russia, Venezuela, Columbia, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Moldova, India, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, Brazil, Thailand, Haiti, Spain, Portugal, Zambia, among others.

According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, My Hope has reached 57 countries to date, and more than 10 million people have chosen to accept Jesus Christ as a result of the project. Each person who makes a decision through My Hope fills out a response card, and they receive encouragement and discipleship through the host family under the leadership of a local pastor, and are integrated into a local church. Nearly 300,000 churches worldwide have participated in My Hope.

This November will be the first time My Hope will be brought to North America, with the event aimed at reaching people living in the United States and Canada.

“Ever since my granddaddy’s last public Crusade in New York City in 2005, he’s had a burden to preach one more message to America,” said Will Graham to CP. “He cares so deeply about people and he wants to see them know Jesus.”

Billy Graham’s latest book, Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well, released in October 2011, was a reflective guide on growing older with grace and finding God’s purpose as one ages. Will Graham sees the My Hope with Billy Graham event in November as another effort by his grandfather to “end well” and preach the Gospel as long as he can.