Jesus Was Gay, Says Elton John
THE TELEGRAPH: Sir Elton John has claimed that Jesus Christ was gay.

In a magazine interview, he said: "I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.

"On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving." >>> | Thursday, February 18, 2010

I Know Why Judas Betrayed Jesus, Says Gerry Adams in Channel 4 Documentary
TIMES ONLINE: Ever since Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus with a kiss 2,000 years ago theologians have argued about his motives. But one British academic has now given credit to Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin leader, for a new insight into one of the most controversial passages of the Bible.

The man who spent a lot of his youth “on the run” from the Army in Belfast yet still swears that he has never been a member of the Provisional IRA, believes that Judas was turned informer by the Roman security services of the time in Palestine, just as many of his former comrades in the Republican movement were induced to spy. >>> David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent | Monday, February 15, 2010

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi Invites 500 Italian Women to Villa and Lectures Them on Islam
Women were given religious advice by Colonel Gadaffi, accompanied by women guards, at the summit. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: Colonel Muammar Gaddafi invited hundreds of attractive Italian "hostesses" to a villa in Rome last night for an evening at which he urged them to convert to Islam and told them Christianity was based on a fraud, Italian reports said today.

The Libyan leader is in Italy to attend a United Nations summit on world food security. Reports said that Colonel Gaddafi's aides phoned an agency which provides elegantly dressed young women to act as hospitality staff at events.

The agency was asked to send 500 women to the residence of Hafed Gaddur, the Libyan ambassador in Rome, where Colonel Gaddafi is staying, over a series of evenings during the three day summit.

The agency advertised for "500 pleasing girls between 18 and 35 years of age, at least one metre 70 high." The women were asked to dress elegantly but soberly, with both miniskirts and cleavage-revealing decolletage firmly banned.

Those who replied were offered €60 (£53) to attend an evening at the villa for an "exchange of opinions" and to "receive a Libyan gift", which turned out to be a copy of the Koran. They were given nothing to eat or drink, however.

Paola Lo Mele, a journalist with the Italian news agency ANSA who posed as a hostess to enter the villa, said the 200 women who attended yesterday had to pass through metal detectors, before being ushered by white turbanned Libyan staff into a "sumptuous drawing room" with white and red divans arranged in a semi-circle in front of Colonel Gaddafi. He arrived an hour late. He sat next to an interpreter and two of his renowned female guards.

The Libyan leader said it was "untrue that Islam is against women" according to Corriere della Sera. He urged the women to convert to Islam, pointing out that whereas there were four different Gospels, there was only one Koran.

He then observed — to "general incredulity" — that Christ had not died on the Cross and been resurrected, as Christians believe, because the person crucified had been "a look-alike" who was substituted for the real Jesus.

"Convert to Islam. Jesus was sent to the Jews, not for you. Mohammed, on the other hand, was sent for all human beings," he reportedly said. "Whoever goes in a different direction than Mohammed is wrong. God's religion is Islam, and whoever follows a different one, in the end, will lose," Colonel Gaddafi added, according to La Stampa.

He said women must do only "what their physical condition allows them", and spoke about the role that women played during the Second World War. He claimed that in the West women "have often been used as pieces of furniture, changed whenever it pleases men. And this is an injustice." He then invited the women to travel to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

As the soiree broke up at midnight he handed out copies of the Koran, his own Green Book on the Libyan revolution, and a pamphlet entitled How to be a Muslim. >>> Richard Owen in Rome | Monday, November 16, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Colonel Gaddafi preaches Islam to 200 glamour girls: Colonel Gaddafi has lived up to his reputation for eccentric behaviour by lecturing 200 attractive young glamour models on the benefits of Islam. >>> Nick Squires in Rome | Monday, November 16, 2009

MAIL ONLINE: 'Give me 500 beautiful Italian girls': Colonel Gaddafi hires escort agency women during Rome summit and then tries to convert them to Islam >>> Nick Pisa | Monday, November 16, 2009

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Kadhafi: «L’islam n'est pas contre les femmes!» : ROME | Comme à son habitude, le colonel libyen s’est fait organiser à Rome des rencontres avec de jeunes Italiennes recrutées par agence. Il leur a lancé: "Convertissez-vous à l’islam!". >>> AFP | Lundi 16 Novembre 2009

Visions of Jesus Stir Muslim Hearts

Evangelical Christianity: It's Glastonbury for God
THE INDEPENDENT: Church of England pews may be empty, but the fields of Somerset are rocking with a series of evangelical festivals this summer. Jerome Taylor joined the faithful

Rich Nathan is just about to wrap up his evening sermon when a loud and piercing shriek erupts from the back of his congregation. A woman in the crowd of 3,000 worshippers is shaking uncontrollably and wailing. "Jesus!" she cries. "Jesus I feel you!" Nearer the front of the stage, a small and equally exuberant group of faithful is receiving the Holy Spirit in other ways. Some rock from side to side, others simply mutter in hushed tones or raise their hands skywards.

It could be a scene from the American Mid-West – Pastor Nathan is, after all, a prominent Jewish-born convert to Christianity who leads a church in Ohio. But today's energetic act of mass worship is taking place in the rolling countryside of Somerset, just to the south of the picturesque town of Shepton Mallet.

As the leaders of Britain's more mainstream denominations scratch their heads and debate how to revitalise their congregations, evangelical Christianity in Britain is going from strength to strength. The number of evangelical churches in Britain has risen from 2047 to 2,719 since 1998 and their followers now make up 34 per cent of Anglicans, figures show.

Nowhere is the strength of British evangelism more apparent than at the numerous summer festivals that have sprung up and attract tens of thousands of people every year. Britain's first atheist summer camp, attended by 24 children last week, made headlines around the world. But just down the road an estimated 60,000 Christians of many different but predominantly evangelical hues will pass through the gates of the Royal Bath and West Showground over the next five weeks for a succession of festivals that offers a heady mix of Glastonbury and God. >>> Jerome Taylor | Thursday, August 06, 2009

'Jesus in Jeans' Sculpture Unveiled
Wait for the demonstrations, the killings, the bombings of embassies, the hissy fits, and you’ll wait a long time. – ©Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: A church in East Sussex has unveiled a Marcus Cornish bronze statue dubbed "Jesus in jeans" depicting Christ as a man of the 21st century.

This bronze statue showing Jesus in his best baggy jeans has proved a hit outside Our Lady Immaculate and St Phillip Neri church in Uckfield. Photo credit: The Telegraph
Father David Buckley unveiled the £35,000 seven-foot high bronze statue at the Our Lady Immaculate and St Philip Neri Catholic church in Uckfield.

Cornish's sculpture was funded by money left by Winifred Gregory, 87, a member of the congregation who passed away last year.

Christ is wearing jeans and a shirt billowing in the wind while his hair and beard are neatly and fashionably trimmed.

Father Buckley said: "You are always looking for new ways to enrich people in the experience of Christianity and it is good people can be open-minded to appreciate it.

"On the continent you often encounter modern representations of Jesus but it is not so common over here. We wanted a figure of Christ not in suffering but dynamic and welcoming.

"We felt this design summed up the spirit and activity of Christ perfectly and I think it speaks for itself. >>> | Wednesday, May 13, 2009