Conservative Christians are having a hard time rallying behind the Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney.

A group of movement conservatives has called an emergency meeting in Texas next weekend to find a “consensus” Republican presidential hopeful, POLITICO has learned.

“You and your spouse are cordially invited to a private meeting with national conservative leaders of faith at the ranch of Paul and Nancy Pressler near Brenham, Texas, with the purpose of attempting to unite and to come to a consensus on which Republican presidential candidate or candidates to support, or which not to support,” read an invitation that is making its way into in-boxes Wednesday morning.

The meeting is being hosted by such prominent conservative figures as James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Don Wildmon, onetime chairman of the American Family Association; and Gary Bauer, himself a former presidential candidate.

This is code for “We’re going to begin strongly endorsing Rick Santorum.”

When I was attending City Bible Church as a youth, I was always told that Mormons were a cult. (along with Jehovah Witnesses, Buddhists and most Catholics). And I remain convinced that Evangelicals will not vote for a Mormon. I am not saying they will vote for Obama.  But if the choice next November is between a Democrat or a Mormon, my guess is they just stay home.

OK sports fans, here is a topic of conversations for you.  In an interview with TMZ this week, Pastor Wayne Hanson of Summit Church in suburban Denver said that the Denver Broncos winning streak under quarterback Tim Tebow is not luck, but rather God's favor.  God is rewarding Tebow for his strong religious beliefs, and if he wasn't such a strong believer they would not be winning games.

Now we all know that a lot of pastors say a lot of stupid things.  They are human like everyone else, and often not very "street smart" in how to handle media attention.  But this pastor talking with a site like TMZ about God intervening in professional football has to be near the top of the list as one of the stupidest things I've heard a Christian leader say.  Now I don't doubt that God is working in Tebow's life, keeping him healthy and safe, blessing him with good fortune and using his faith as a way to advance the Gospel (as He does with all of us who chose to follow him), but to think that the only reason the Bronco's are winning is because God is making it happen just shows me how ignorant some people can be.  I mean of all things in this world for God to intervene in, making sure that a guy who makes millions to play a sport for a living wins a few games is probably pretty low on the important list.  At least I hope that is the case.  I would much rather have my God taking care of the sick and starving kids across the globe than helping a quarterback throw a few more touchdowns, but hey maybe that's just me. 

And if you really think about it, men and women of faith are on every sports team, in every kind of sport, in every part of the world.  These people have won games, championships and awards for generations.  There have been hundreds who came along way before Tim Tebow and hundreds that will come along after him.  Yet for some reason this guy has become the poster child for the Christian athlete and I just can't seem to figure out why.  My biggest fear is that the more people refer to him as the second coming of Christ, the harder the fall will be when his human side comes out. I guess only time will tell.    

The Christian world has been somewhat abuzz about the recent news of Bishop Eddie Long, who has announced a leave of absence from his pastoral position at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church just outside Atlanta Georgia, after his wife of 21 years filed for divorce last week.  Long's mega church has 25,000 members and he is considered one of the most influential Christian leaders in America, but in September of 2010 four men filed separate lawsuits against Long claiming an abuse of power and coerced sexual relations with him.  Long, who has been very vocal about his stance against homosexuality, eventually settled the claims out of court.  Then in October of this year, ten members of his congregation filed another suit, claiming they lost more than $1 million in fraudulent investment schemes orchestrated by the pastor.  All of this has taken its toll on the church and Long is doing his best duck and cover routine, taking a break from a position he has controlled for almost 25 years.

After reading about Long and learning more about the way he pastored his church, it is pretty clear that something bad was going to happen here.  He had unilateral control, surrounded himself with yes men and ran a virtual one man show.  There were no checks or balances and he was generally worshiped as one of God's chosen prophets of our day.  He was also a very prominent prosperity teacher, lavishing himself with luxury cars, a million dollar home, custom jewelry and even a private jet.

So I bring this up as another reminder to our readers and anyone who may stumble across this blog, please don't go to churches where the pastor is king.  The story of Eddie Long shows us once again that money, power, control and greed are things that have no place in the church.  Don't give of your time and money to places like this.  Churches are corrupt because we the people let them be.  Don't sit and listen week after week to anyone who tells you that you have to give to get, even if it means you have to walk away from your friends and family.  It may take some time but eventually you will find a place with a humble, God fearing pastor that wants to serve people over themselves.

From the "I lack complete self-awareness" file, you get this lovely story from a bankrupt megachurch in California:  

Some members of a bankrupt Orange County, Calif. megachurch are expressing outrage after fielding an email request for congregants to deliver food to waiting limos so that it can ferried to the founder's sick wife. The appeal comes weeks after a lawsuit charged that the founder of the Crystal Cathedral house of worship, Rev. Robert Schuller, and his family had been paying themselves lavish salaries and other benefits while the church was in financial straits.

I know what you're thinking, "Why don't they just sell the limos and then use that money to buy food?" Fool! Where is the fun in that? Everything tastes better after it has been delivered in a limo: pizza, corndogs, snow-cones. Seriously, everything.  You people should try it.

Sometimes, I think this is all big joke with these pastors and they are all trying to figure out who can get their congregation to do the most ridiculous thing. Frank Damazio had "Faith Harvest."  Reverend Robert Schuller has "Deliver My Wife Food in a Limo."

Your move, Frank.

I've tried looking for something to write about these last few days, and frankly nothing has sparked my interest. I've looked for more information on the Church at South Las Vegas, but haven't seen anything. If any of you have any new information on how the bankruptcy is playing out, please post in the comments.

I was tempted to mention Pat Robertson's recent statement that it is okay to divorce your spouse if he/she has Alzheimer's. But then I actually saw the clip where Pat made his remarks and all I could think was, "Wow. These are the ramblings of an old old man". I just don't take him seriously anymore. 

Lastly, any of you who are new to the blog and have a distaste for the Prosperity Gospel, check out this YouTube clip from John Piper. We have posted it a few times before, but I thought it would be good to post again. The clip, to use the parlance of our times, is brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s 

Consider this an open thread. 

A reader asks a question:  

I have been reading this blog and I would like to know if this is the same as the Church of the Harvest in Oklahoma…my daughter just left to do an “internship” there…she had to pay them $5000 and that only gets her a room with 5 other people…our family is devistated and tried desperately to keep her here, but she was not listening to reason. She is a totally changed person…(not in a good way) and told us she had to leave her family and give up everything and hate everyone and hate the world if she wanted to walk with Jesus and be his disiple. We are scared for her mental and physical safety and don’t know what we can do. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a fun prayer that took place at a NASCAR event a couple of weeks ago.

I like the completely non-religious aspect of the prayer.

In my quest to find Evangelicals who are actually living Christ-like lives, I give you this article from Nick Kristof. He notes the many Evangelicals who are doing amazing things for the poor and needy across the world.

Those self-appointed evangelical leaders come across as hypocrites, monetizing Jesus rather than emulating him. Some seem homophobic, and many who claim to be “pro-life” seem little concerned with human life post-uterus. Those are the preachers who won headlines and disdain.

But in reporting on poverty, disease and oppression, I’ve seen so many others. Evangelicals are disproportionately likely to donate 10 percent of their incomes to charities, mostly church-related. More important, go to the front lines, at home or abroad, in the battles against hunger, malaria, prison rape, obstetric fistula, human trafficking or genocide, and some of the bravest people you meet are evangelical Christians (or conservative Catholics, similar in many ways) who truly live their faith.

I’m not particularly religious myself, but I stand in awe of those I’ve seen risking their lives in this way — and it sickens me to see that faith mocked at New York cocktail parties.

Why does all this matter?

Because religious people and secular people alike do fantastic work on humanitarian issues — but they often don’t work together because of mutual suspicions. If we could bridge this “God gulf,” we would make far more progress on the world’s ills.

And that would be, well, a godsend.

The wrong pastors get all the headlines.