The following is another installment of the Friday Church News Notes designed especially for use in churches. It is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.

CALVARY CHAPEL’S UNMITIGATED LOVE FOR ROCK & ROLL (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Calvary Chapel fellowship of churches founded the Jesus People movement in the 1970s, which birthed the rock & roll Christian philosophy. The movement began when California hippies began to “come to Christ” through the ministry of Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. While rejecting the gross immorality and drug abuse associated with the hippy movement, they kept their long hair and rock & roll. The Jesus People founded the Contemporary Christian Music movement and popularized the philosophy that music is neutral and that sensual party music can be used for the worship of a holy God. Today there are more than 1,000 Calvary Chapels, and they are still at the heart of the CCM movement. For example, Calvary Chapel Redmond (Washington) is pastored by Michael Bloodgood, founder of the CCM rock band Bloodgood. In a biographical sketch at the church’s web site, Bloodgood mentions the Beatles at least 13 times in the most favorable manner, with not a hint of warning. He lists the Beatles as one of his favorite bands and one of the bands that influenced him the most (together with such morally vile bands as Nirvana, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and Dio). He lists watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show as one of his favorite childhood memories. Collecting Beatles memorabilia is one of his favorite interests, and “The Word” from the Beatles Rubber Soul album is the song he would most like to cover. There is no excuse for this type of thing on the part of a man who claims to love the Lord, a pastor, no less. The Bible plainly states that you cannot love Christ and the devil at the same time. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:21).

CHURCH WITH THE ROMANTIC NIGHTCLUB FEEL (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The West Ridge Community Church in Elgin, Illinois, was described by a secular newspaper as the “house of worship” with “a nightclub feel” (“Church Playing It Cool,” Chicago Sun Times, March 4). This nine-year-old contemporary church recently moved into a new facility that was built to look like a nightclub, the House of Blues in particular. It features a “dimly lit sanctuary in the shape of a piano, flanked by cafe tables, couches, and comfy chairs.” The music, which is a vital aspect of the contemporary worship experience, is described as “everything from tribal rhythms on Irish bodhrans to U2-ish sounding praise songs.” The church is not only described as nightclubish but also as romantic. “And throughout the service, the flickering light from a couple of dozen pillar candles on the stage and tiny tea lights on the cafe tables gave the sanctuary an almost romantic feel.” A true New Testament church does not imitate the world, nor does it seek to make sinners comfortable by means of worldly music and a toned down message. The apostle Paul said that if a church is doing right and prophesying (preaching) boldly and biblically, sinners will be convicted of their sin (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

ANOTHER ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE FILES BANKRUPTCY (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The Roman Catholic diocese of San Diego, California, filed for bankruptcy protection from the 150 sexual abuse lawsuits that have been filed against it. Previous bankruptcy filings were made by the Catholic diocese of Davenport, Iowa, in October 2006, the diocese of Tucson, Arizona, and Portland, Oregon, in 2004. The total number of accusations of sex abuse since 1950 is 12,000 (“Abuse Cost Churches,” Boston Globe, March 31, 2006), and the cost has exceeded $1.2 billion. A conservative Catholic organization documented this wretched business in the fall/winter 2002 issue of the magazine Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, observing: “… the overwhelming majority of sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church--about 90%--involve homosexual priests preying on teenage boys. The major media and the U.S. culture at large want to deny or spin the homosexual factor out of the scandal.” We would also comment that the judicial system in America is nearly as corrupt as the child-abusing Catholic priests. If a “minister” is guilty of a heinous crime, he should be held liable and should pay for his crime, and if a fellow “clergyman” is found to have contributed to the crime by trying to cover it up, then he, too, should be made to pay. But an entire group of churches should not be bankrupted by greedy lawyers as the present system unjustly allows. The American judicial system is no longer about justice for those who have been wronged; it is about money, which it drains from every victim that falls into its uncaring clutches.

PENSACOLA CHRISTIAN COLLEGE STUDENTS ON MYSPACE (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - This week I was informed that there are groups on MySpace for current and former members of Pensacola Christian College. The content of these sites is shocking for a Bible believing Christian. A co-worker and I spent a few minutes one evening examining some of these. The pictures are indecent. The music is raunchy. The overall atmosphere is that of a very worldly party. Consider one anonymous example. The owner of this particular MySpace site within a Pensacola grouping has a fish symbol and a “Jesus is Lord” statement and quotes a daily Bible verse, but she also posts indecent pictures, lists herself by her astrological sign, has links to unwholesome movies, and features rock & roll music. This is an attempt to love the world and Christ, too, which is impossible. It is probable that students at other fundamentalist schools are also on MySpace, but it is Pensacola that we are focusing on here. If you have a student there it would be wise to check closely on this matter. Our article “My Space or God’s?” can be viewed online at http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/myspace-or-gods.html.

STUDY CONFIRMS OUR WARNING THAT YOUTH TODAY ARE MORE NARCISSISTIC (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Study: College Students More Narcissistic,” The Associated Press, February 26: “Today’s college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society. ‘We need to stop endlessly repeating “You’re special” and having children repeat that back,’ said the study’s lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. ‘Kids are self-centered enough already.’ Twenge and her colleagues, in findings to be presented at a workshop Tuesday in San Diego on the generation gap, examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006. The standardized inventory, known as the NPI, asks for responses to such statements as ‘If I ruled the world, it would be a better place,’ ‘I think I am a special person’ and ‘I can live my life any way I want to.’ The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982. ... Twenge, the author of ‘Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable Than Ever Before,’ said narcissists tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others. The researchers traced the phenomenon back to what they called the ‘self-esteem movement’ that emerged in the 1980s, asserting that the effort to build self-confidence had gone too far. ... Current technology fuels the increase in narcissism,' Twenge said. ‘By its very name, MySpace encourages attention-seeking, as does YouTube.’ ... [The study’s co-author W. Keith] Campbell said the narcissism upsurge seemed so pronounced that he was unsure if there were obvious remedies. ‘'Permissiveness seems to be a component,’ he said. ‘A potential antidote would be more authoritative parenting. Less indulgence might be called for.’”

AL GORE’S BOGUS “CARBON OFFSETS” (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Gore’s ‘Carbon Offsets’ Paid to Firm He Owns,” WorldNetDaily, March 2: “Gore has described the lifestyle he and his wife Tipper live as ‘carbon neutral,’ meaning he tries to offset any energy usage, including plane flights and car trips, by ‘purchasing verifiable reductions in CO2 elsewhere.’ But it turns out he pays for his extra-large carbon footprint through Generation Investment Management, a London-based company with offices in Washington, D.C., for which he serves as chairman. The company was established to take financial advantage of new technologies and solutions related to combating ‘global warming,’ reports blogger Bill Hobbs. ... Hobbs points out Gore stands to make a lot of money from his promotion of the alleged ‘global warming’ threat, which is disputed by many mainstream scientists. ... As WND reported, Gore, whose film warning of a coming cataclysm due to man-made ‘global warming’ won two Oscars, has a mansion in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville that consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, citing data from the Nashville Electric Service. The think tank says since the release of Gore’s film, the former presidential candidate’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kilowatt-hours per month in 2005, to 18,400 per month in 2006.”

A PURE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from The Constitution of the Church by Davis Huckabee: “So long as the churches fail to preserve a pure membership, so long as they refuse to purge out the obvious leaven, so long as they fail to seek to reconcile those who may have been excluded, there is little hope for any improvement in the condition of the churches, and good reason to expect the churches to move in the opposite direction.”

TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF A TRIAL IS TO DESTROY ITS OBJECT (Friday Church News Notes, March 9, 2007, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Every book of the Scripture is an essential part of the divine revelation that makes up the complete Bible, and each book has its own powerful message. The book of Job is no exception. It deals with the subject of why the godly suffer. It is important to note that Job did not know the reason for his affliction and it was essential that he not know. “The fact is, Job was not meant to know the explanation of his trial; and on this simple fact everything hangs. If Job had known, there would have been no place for faith; and the man could never have come forth as gold purified in the fire. We are meant to understand that there are some things which God cannot reveal to us at present, inasmuch as the very revealing of them would thwart His purposes for our good” (J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book). Alfred Edersheim rightly observed: “We cannot understand the meaning of many trials; God does not explain them. To explain a trial would be to destroy its object, which is that of calling forth simple faith and implicit obedience. If we knew why the Lord sent us this or that trial, it would thereby cease to be a trial either of faith or of patience.”