While California remains embroiled in controversy over Proposition 8, West Virginia lawmakers are moving to ink a marriage protection law.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers will introduce and sponsor a Marriage Protection Amendment to the West Virginia state constitution during the upcoming legislative session. The lawmakers are introducing the bill for the sixth straight year.

“The Marriage Protection Amendment will constitutionally protect marriage as only between one man and one woman, preventing activist judges from radically redefining marriage in our state,” says West Virginia Family Foundation President Kevin McCoy. “The amendment will also preserve the unique legal benefits that are provided for this sacred institution and prohibit counterfeit relationships such as homosexual ‘civil unions’ and ‘domestic partner benefits,’ which are homosexual ‘marriage’ by another name.”

McCoy is calling on the West Virginia legislature to “stop obstructing the people’s right to join 30 other states in constitutionally protecting the definition of marriage as only between one man and one woman.”

The text of the amendment states: “Only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this state and its political subdivisions. This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for same-sex relationships to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities or effects of marriage.”

McCoy noted that the state Supreme Court of Appeals has already established so-called “sexual orientation” as a “protected class” in its Code of Judicial Conduct Canon. Three other state supreme courts—California, Iowa, and Massachusetts—cited their state’s adoption of identical policies as validating their rulings declaring so-called homosexual “marriage” a constitutional right.

“It has been six years since we first introduced the Marriage Protection Amendment, and in that short time, voters in 30 other states have adopted such amendments,” McCoy says. “The Legislature needs to stop making excuses and allow West Virginia voters the right to vote on this issue and the opportunity to join voters in neighboring states who have already protected marriage in their states.”

An analysis of the religious composition of the new U.S. Congress offers an interesting revelation about the Christians makeup.

Like the U.S. population, elected leaders are less affiliated with mainline protestant churches than ever before, according to a survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The study shows that 97 members of Congress were Methodists in 1961, making up 18.2 percent of the legislative body. In the current Congress, the figure has shrunk to 50 members making up 9.5 percent.

Other mainline churches show similar declines, dropping from 73 to 45 members for Presbyterians and 66 to 41 members for Episcopalians over the same period. Most dramatically, Congregationalists have dropped from 27 members of Congress to only four.

Here’s perhaps the most interesting part: While those who are associated with the mainline churches have declined, Protestants who do not specify a particular denomination grew the most from the 111th to the 112th Congress, increasing their ranks by 19 members, to a total of 58. It’s not clear if those members are Pentecostals or Charismatics, but it’s a possibility.

Protestants who do not specify a particular denomination now comprise 11 percent of Congress, up from 7 percent two years ago. Baptists have also seen a modest increased their numbers, from 62 members of Congress to 68. No member of Congress was described as religiously unaffiliated. Five members were from traditions outside Christianity or Judaism.

“The religious composition of Congress shows a continued American religiosity, but one that is decreasingly associated with Mainline Protestantism,” says Institute on Religion and Democracy President Mark Tooley. “Just as Mainline Protestantism no longer occupies the central place in public life as it did a generation ago, we are seeing fewer and fewer elected Representatives from those denominations. Solid growth among the percentages of Catholics, Baptists and unspecified Protestants mirrors overall religious membership trends in the United States.”

Are you weary of hearing the debates between the left and the right about who’s to blame for the Tucson shootings? You are not alone.

Now, more than 50 high-profile faith leaders—including T.J. Jakes, Joel Hunter and Sam Rodriguez—are taking action.

Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have banded together to pen an open letter to Congress. The letter calls for national “soul searching” and praying for members of Congress after Saturday’s shooting spree in Arizona, which left six people dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically injured. 

The open letter is signed by more than 50 prominent national religious leaders, including heads of evangelical, mainline Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim denominations, congregations, and organizations. The signers urge members of Congress to reject vitriolic and rancorous rhetoric, consider the consequences of their words, and engage political adversaries in a spirit of shared American values of civility and cooperation.

Here is the text of the letter:

Dear Members of Congress,

As Americans and members of the human family, we are grieved by the recent tragedy in Tucson, Arizona.  As Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders, we pray together for all those wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as she fights for her life.  Our hearts break for those lives lost and for the loved ones left behind.  We also stand with you, our elected officials, as you continue to serve our nation while coping with the trauma of this senseless attack.

This tragedy has spurred a sorely needed time of soul searching and national public dialogue about violent and vitriolic political rhetoric. We strongly support this reflection, as we are deeply troubled that rancor, threats and incivility have become commonplace in our public debates.

We appreciate the sacrifices you make and risks you incur by accepting a call to public service, and we urge you to continue to serve as stewards of our democracy by engaging ideological adversaries not as enemies, but as fellow Americans.

In our communities and congregations, we pledge to foster an environment conducive to the important and difficult debates so crucial to American democracy. In our churches, mosques and synagogues, we come together not as members of a certain political ideology or party, but as children of God and citizens called to build a more perfect union.  We pray that you do the same.

Jack Hayford and Billy Wilson, co-chairs of Empowered21, held a two-day Global Council meeting in Los Angeles this week. The council discussed and offered oversight to a series of 11 regional leadership teams forming to focus on critical issues Spirit-filled churches are facing around the world.

The Council also adopted vision and purpose statements for the Empowered21 effort. The focus of Empowered21 remains finding ways to help every generation be empowered by the Holy Spirit for effective Christian living.

“Human history stands embedded with social, economic, and political movements. The 21st century world will witness a fresh movement with far greater outcomes,” says Samuel Rodriguez, president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Empowered21 Global Council attendee. “This is a fresh movement of God’s Holy Spirit. Movements liberate and empower. Via Empowered21 the world will experience a movement that will usher in Holiness, spiritual freedom and demonstrate the power of Christ.”

In many cases, Empowered21 meetings mark the first time leaders of the Spirit-filled movement in a given region have ever connected at this level. The group reports new networks are forming in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, United States and beyond. What’s more, an Empowered21 Youth Ministries Network is coming together as the first-ever international network for Spirit-filled youth leaders.

“These are very exciting times as leaders focus on the future of the Spirit-filled movement,” says Billy Wilson, executive director of International Center For Spiritual Renewal and Co-Chair, Empowered21 Global Council. “The potential to see an earth shaking renewal that will draw new generations into the greatest harvest in human history is before us.”

The best way to reach Haiti’s indigenous population with the Gospel is to equip other Haitians to do the work of an evangelist.

That’s Rae Burnett’s strategy.

Burnett is Christian Aid Mission’s Haiti Director. She directed emergency response to last year’s deadly earthquake and is in regular touch with indigenous missions there.

As Burnett sees it, millions of dollars poured in, and foreigners flooded the country—but humanitarian aid alone will never solve the problems of Haiti. Only the Gospel can bring lasting change.

“As Christian Aid’s Director for Africa, I have seen it over and over,” Burnett says. “A native takes the gospel to a previously unreached area. Villagers respond, and a church is planted. Little by little, as the light of Christ permeates their lives, they change. Their spiritual life affects their physical life, and conditions are transformed. Christ does it through them. It is not imposed on them from the outside.”

Burnett says Christian Aid Mission’s job is to provide the financial means for local ministry workers to do the restoration and building they need to fulfill what the Lord has called them to do in their country. That work then opens the door to the Gospel.

“I knew that Haiti was settled by African slaves, but even I was shocked to see the similarities. Little has changed but the location. The culture and mentality is 100 percent African,” Burnett says. “Voodoo, brought from the homeland and mixed with Roman Catholicism, assures the place of darkness, fear, and hopelessness. The Gospel is the only answer, and it comes most effectively by far through native missionaries.”

Bob Finley founded Christian Aid Mission in 1953. The organization currently assists 796 indigenous missions that deploy 80,000 native missionaries working among 3,000 tribes and nations.

Earlier this week, Charisma reported that Vanderbilt University was forcing nurse residency applicants to pledge that they will participate in abortion procedures. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has succeeded in getting the university to back off.

Vanderbilt announced in an e-mail to applicants that it had modified its policy a day after the ADF filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services. The e-mail read:

“While Vanderbilt expects all health care providers, including nurses who participate in the Nurse Residency Program’s Women’s Health Track, to provide compassionate care to all patients, no health care provider is required to participate in a procedure terminating a pregnancy if such participation would be contrary to an individual’s religious beliefs or moral convictions…. Attached to this communication is an information sheet that replaces the Women’s Health Acknowledgment form that accompanied the application packet.”

Vanderbilt receives more than $300 million in federal tax dollars each year, and federal law prohibits grant recipients from forcing students or health care workers to participate in abortions contrary to their religious beliefs or moral convictions.

ADF attorneys filed the complaints on behalf of two fourth-year nursing students at other universities who wished to apply to Vanderbilt’s nurse residency program but have been unable to do so because page 15 of the nurse residency application required them to promise to participate in abortions.

“Christians and other pro-life members of the medical community shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions to pursue their profession. That’s what federal law says, and that’s why Vanderbilt is doing the right thing in changing its policy and application,” says ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “We will be monitoring the situation to make sure the university continues to comply with the law. It’s ironic that Vanderbilt changed its policy one day after denying that it required the pledge.”

Massive tent camps. Rampant cholera outbreaks. Civil unrest.

Despite the many obstacles to rebuilding Haiti after last year’s massive earthquake, seeds of hope in the form of permanent housing are starting to sprout up.

Fifteen families have been able to move out of the tent camps, away from disease and destruction, into simple decent solid homes through the work of the Fuller Center, a non-profit ecumenical Christian housing ministry working to eliminate poverty housing worldwide.

“It’s been devastating to see the suffering and destruction,” says Heather Nozea who’s been on the ground in Haiti with her husband, Gerson, helping build homes with The Fuller Center. “But I feel great joy that we’ve been able to help these families and plans are underway to help many more families in the future.”

Nine of the 15 Fuller Center homes were built in Leogane, four in Saint Ard, and another two in Bellanton. The homes were built using earthquake- and hurricane-resistant techniques.

“All too often we have seen how temporary housing becomes the slums of the future,” says Fuller Center President David Snell. “Our focus is to provide permanent housing solutions.”

The Fuller Center is collaborating with numerous organizations including Homes from the Heart, Fe y Alegria Haiti, Baptist World Alliance, Lott Carey, Grace International, Growing Hope for Haiti, Sundouloi Ministries, Inc. and the University of Notre Dame.

In addition, the Haiti Housing Network—a partnership of The Fuller Center, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Conscience International, and the Baptist General Convention of Texas—plans to construct 1,000 houses in the next three years.

Is enough being done to help Haiti a year later? What more can Christians—or should Christians—do?

As news reports reveal that 23 people were killed and more than 90 injured in the New Year’s Day attack on Egyptian Christians, some leaders are looking to the U.S. government to step in.

Indeed, Michael Youssef, founder and president of “Leading The Way,” a weekly television broadcast that airs in more than 200 countries in 20 languages, is asking U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to pressure the Egyptian Government to bring back law and order, and to grant Christians the same liberties as Muslims.

“This so-called religion of peace sent out another message of carnage and bloodshed outside of a Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt on New Year’s Day,” says Youssef. “This is one in a series of recent, planned attacks. These terrorists must be stopped.”

Youssef points to eye witness accounts of the attack that reveal a car bomb was used with the words “More to come” written on the car. Moreover, he notes a memo recently published by al-Qaeda that listed Egyptian churches and pastors as targets in their ongoing war against believers in Jesus Christ. The violence has increased dramatically in recent weeks.

“I believe these recent attacks reflect the impotence, or should I say selective impotence, of the government of President Mubarak,” stated Dr. Youssef. “In the past, terrorist activities by Islamic extremists that impacted the Egyptian economy caused the government to move swiftly to eliminate the perpetrators. But of late, as attacks on Christians happened again and again and again, the government and its security apparatus dragged its feet.”

Youssef was born in Egypt, lived in Lebanon and Australia before coming to the United States. In 1984, he fulfilled a childhood dream of becoming an American citizen.

Clinton was not immediately available for comment. Charisma will report back if Clinton responds.

If the bird and fish deaths in Arkansas weren’t spooky enough, millions more dead fish have turned up in Maryland. And the United Kingdom and Italy are also reporting unusual animal deaths. What’s going on?

It all started on New Year’s Eve when reports came in that 5,000 blackbirds dropped out of the sky in Beebe, Ark. The next day, about 100,000 dead drum fish floated to the shore of the Arkansas River.

If that’s where it ended, it might not have gained national attention. But a few days later, about 2 million juvenile spot fish were dead in the Chesapeake Bay.

Arkansas authorities said disease likely killed the drum fish and experts think the blackbirds somehow became disoriented and flew towards the ground. Meanwhile, the Maryland Department of the Environment reported cold water stress exacerbated by a large population of the fish appears to be the cause of the kill in Chesapeake Bay.

This is not merely a U.S. phenomenon. In the United Kingdom, 40,000 velvet swimming crabs died early this year. Authorities believe a sudden temperature drop was the cause. Then, in Italy, another 1,000 birds were mysteriously killed.

Again, what is going on?

That’s what CNN reporter Anderson Cooper asked Kirk Cameron, an atheist-turned-follower of Christ that gained celebrity status as a child actor in “Growing Pains.” Cooper asked the Left Behind movie star if the animal deaths were a sign of the apocalypse.

“Well, I first think that they ought to call a veterinarian, not me. You know, I’m not the religious-conspiracy-theorist go-to guy, particularly,” Cameron said on CNN. “But I think it’s really kind of silly to try to equate birds falling out of the sky with some kind of an end-times theory.”

Cameron went on to say that people love to find codes and signs of future events and see if they can decipher them before anybody else—but that birds falling from the sky has more to with pagan mythology.

Cindy Jacobs of Generals International believes the animal deaths are natural occurrences, however, she adds, there are some interesting thoughts to consider in the wake of this phenomenon. In a video update, she read from Hosea 4:1-3:

“Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.”

“There is a connection biblically between the actions of people who live in a nation and what we might consider natural phenomenon,” Jacobs says. “Sometimes when we pray we can do what it says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 where we pray and repent for sin where we have transgressed God’s law and then what happens after that is God heals the land.”

Click here to read the entire Jacobs video.

Christian recording artists Moses and Erica Lugemye are commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake with the release of their new song “Alive.”

All proceeds from sales of the song will benefit the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Haiti Homes of Hope program, which provides concrete houses for homeless people in Haiti.

The strongest earthquake in over 200 years struck Haiti just before 5 p.m. local time on January 12th, 2010. The whole world watched in horror as 230,000 people were killed, many thousands were injured, and 1.5 million left homeless. Today marks the first anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, and an estimated 1 million people are still homeless.

“Alive was born through watching a television broadcast from Haiti where children could be heard singing in the midst of the rubble,” Moses says. “The song is a passionate declaration of hope over the nation of Haiti, set to an Afro-Caribbean beat with prayers from East Africa. At the end of the song we sing in French so the people of Haiti can understand the message of hope we’re sending.”