While there are very real concerns about what unbelievers do with the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, commonly (and regrettably) known as Easter, the more pressing concern is what Christians often do with the celebration.

Steven Waldman, editor in chief of Beliefnet, offers a survey of the religious left at Slate.com. He divides the left into five groups: “Bible-thumping liberals,” “pious peaceniks,” “ethnic churchgoers,” “conflicted Catholics,” and and “religious feminists.” Here’s how he describes each group:

My colleague, Professor Mark Coppenger, has contributed a good word on the prayer “research” controversy. His commentary is available at Baptist Press. Here are a few excerpts:

When studies in recent years purported to show that prayer “works,” quite a few Christian leaders championed the research as evidence that prayer can be scientifically and medically verified and validated. I did not join in that celebration for three reasons. First, I do not believe that Christians should look for any validation of prayer (or any other Christian doctrine or discipline, for that matter) from the world of science or empirical research. Second, I do not believe that Christians should accept a generic definition or conception of prayer in the first place. Those earlier studies made reference to prayer without stipulating to whom the prayer is addressed. Third, Christians do not believe that prayer heals, but that God heals. Prayer is often involved in the healing that God grants, but it is not the prayer that heals.

Last week, Londoners were treated to a public celebration of the 30th anniversary of The Selfish Gene by Oxford scientist Richard Dawkins, a vociferous opponent of Christianity. The event, held at the London School of Economics, was a big event, and it drew many of the biggest names in modern science.

I am honored to be with John MacArthur and so many others at the 2006 Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. Thousands of preachers are here, and it is so encouraging to see such fervor for biblical preaching and the Gospel. I will be preaching on Colossians 1:24-29 at the Thursday evening session and I will also speak at the Saturday morning session on “Postmodernism and the Question of Gender.”

Newsweek magazine recently published this correction:

The Presbyterian Church (USA), based in Louisville, Kentucky, now projects a loss of 85,000 members in 2006, after an estimated 65,000 loss in 2005. That adds up to a projected loss of over 2 million members since 1967.