One of the lead stories on yesterday's Yahoo home page was about a church that turned an interracial couple away from its fellowship.  Hideous, no doubt; anti-Christian, absolutely.  I taught in South Carolina for three years in my early twenties, and am proud to say that a performance of my fledgling ministry resulted in the first racially integrated service in the Summerton, SC Methodist's Church history (100+ years).  Not only was the audience integrated, but the performance was, too, as my friend, Yoseph, played piano before the performance.

So, when I saw the headline "Kentucky Church Bans Interracial Couple From Joining", I was revolted.  but I had another response as well:  'Why don't the good things churches and believers are doing get reported more often?'  Maine is a state with less than 30% regular church attenders.  The 70% who are not part of a house of faith must think we're all hypocrites, false prophets and bigots.  Where are the stories about David Wilkerson, who, for over 60 years reached out to addicts, gang members and prostitutes in New York City, and started Teen Challenge, which is in over 80 countries and scores of US cities?  Occasionally, a story is so big, that there's no way it can't be told.  Todd Beamer, a devout Christian, for example, led the revolt against the 9/11 high jackers and brought the plane intended to crash into the capitol building down into a field in Pennsylvania, instead.  His faith was inseperable from the story as a whole.  Cassie Burnall and Rachel Scott's faith in Christ were an inseperable part of the story of the 1999 Columbine shootings.  But often, modern heroes of faith are all but overlooked in the media.  I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but I do think people like scandals, religious or otherwise, more than inspiring news stories.

That's why I'm so pleased with an article out today in a local paper about three of my students at Windham Christian Academy.  These three teens have filled their living room with donations for the homeless community in Portland, ME as a way to bless them this Christmas (see article here:  http://www.keepmecurrent.com/lakes_region_weekly/news/windham-christian-academy-students-take-on-project-jesus/article_4d830e94-1c5b-11e1-8c82-0019bb2963f4.html ).  most inspiring, all three of these young people gave all the glory to God as they described 'Operation Jesus' to the reporter, and the Lake Region Weekly  did an outstanding job highlighting the faith angle of the story.  Now that's good news.