How should Christians respond to Halloween? Read what Tim Challies has to say about the subject.

Five year old children have been diagnosed as having “gender dysphoria” and are being allowed to register in Kindergarten as the opposite gender. Read more in Albert Mohler’s article, including the case of a school in Oakland.

The Charismatic/Pentecostal movement is here to stay. Get used to it. Earlier this month The Pew Forum released a new study titled “Spirit and Power: A 10-country survey of Pentecostals.” The survey contained a number of interesting facts:

• At least a quarter of the world’s 2 billion Christians are Charistmatic or Pentecostal
• In five of the nations surveyed (Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Kenya and the Philippines) more than two-thirds of Protestants are either pentecostal or charismatic
• In three countries (Brazil, Guatemala and Kenya) Pentecostals and Charismatics as a percentage of the total population approaches or exceeds 50%

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Here is a helpful article on Good Blog Writing Style. (Sighted on Bloggingpro)

The Fall Biola Connections magazine has an article on What Should Christians Know About the Religious Views of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? (scroll down to page 7 of the pdf file). The authors explain,

Ahmadinejad is a “Twelve-Imam Shia” (also known as a “Twelver”), the largest sect of Shia Islam and Iran’s state religion. Shia Muslims are a minority sect in Islam and are ignored by most Western academia and media. Yet, Shias remain influential, representing 10 to 15 percent of Muslims worldwide. They are the majority religious population in a number of countries including Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Lebanon and Bahrain.

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On Creating Passionate Users, technologist Kathy Sierra writes about the importance of your work environment in fostering creativity. (Sighted on Bloggingpro)

To celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 4, many Catholics hold a ceremony for blessing of pets, including at big city cathedrals. I’ve always wondered what sort of benefit blessing was supposed to give a pet “animal companion”, but I suppose that it makes their owners “human caretakers” feel better. But a church in Berkeley has gone far beyond the annual animal blessing ceremony to welcome animals as members of their congregation.
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