Random

• MARK GOODACRE deals with the dating of Jesus' birth on his NT Pod 20 ~ link

• FROM CS Monitor story on religious freedom:

The majority of countries and territories across the world have laws or constitutions calling for freedom of religion. But religious freedom is not the reality for the majority of the globe’s people.

Nearly 70 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with "high" or "very high" religious restriction -- that’s the finding of a first-of-its-kind Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey. It notes that some of the strictest countries in the world are also the most populous. But no nation is fully free of religious restriction, it adds.

"We found that there’s sort of no discrimination in terms of who gets abused or discriminated against. Every religious group experiences discrimination of one sort or another..." ~ link

• "A MEXICAN Immigrant's take on American Christianity" ~ link

• THE trend continues -- more people leave California for other states than move in from other states. The loses are off-set by the number of people moving to California from other countries. ~ link