The situation in Sri Lanka for the Tamil people, many of whom are Christians, is very dire. The United Nations reports that 6,500 people have been killed and 14,000 injured in last three months alone. You can read more about this in a news article through the link provided at at the bottom of this report.  This Friday a protest against this bloodshed is planned at the United Nations. If you're able to attend or if you can forward this e-mail to people who can attend I encourage you to do it. This is something we must decry.

Several years ago our readers responded to the emergency of the tsunami by helping the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka through Godfrey Yogarajah, its general secretary. We raised more than a quarter of $1 million. read more

I know many of you have heard about the stance that Miss California took at the recent Miss USA contest. She said: "I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised." Although she has been maligned by some, many in the Christian community have supported her. You can read an interesting article about it here.

Watch the video of her reception at the recent Dove awards and a video of her at The Rock Church in San Diego with pastor Miles McPherson. read more

You may have heard the news that late Wednesday afternoon the so-called Hate Crimes Bill, HR-1913, passed the U.S. House with a vote of 249 - 175. Around 5 p.m. a motion to reconsider was agreed to without objection.

I believe that this is a real blow to our liberties as outlined below. We must get the word out to as many people as we can so that this is defeated in the Senate, since President Obama has said that he will sign the bill rather than veto a similar bill as President Bush did.

I also want to call our intercessors to pray because this is much more than just a political battle. I believe this is also spiritual warfare.

On Tuesday Robert A. J. Gagnon sent out an interesting letter detailing why Christians need to be proactive in fighting this hate crimes bill. You can read it below.

Support for a "hate" bill that enshrines "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" into federal law (note that it is not yet so enshrined) does not mean merely that you oppose hateful, violent acts against persons who self-identify as homosexuals, transsexuals, and cross-dressers. Laws are already in place protecting persons who identify as homosexual or transgendered. They are the same laws that protect all of us from violent physical or verbal attacks. read more

Numerous blogs and columns have been surfacing about Christianity's "decline." Most recently, during the week of Easter, Newsweek's cover story cavalierly announced Christianity's impending doom and eventual destruction. This week, I ran across a telling article at realclearpolitics.com called The Decline and Fall of Newsweek. The author, Brent Bozell, questions how Newsweek, a magazine whose circulation has decreased by 52 percent since 1990, could say that Christianity is heading for doom because 10 percent fewer people identify as Christians than did in 1990. The article is a quick read and one I believe you will enjoy. After you've read it, come back and tell us your thoughts on the issue. Click here to read it. read more