A new reality show set to air this fall on the Oxygen Network will put on display the lives of six Los Angeles area megachurch ministers, many of whom live large as prosperity preachers.

Preachers of L.A. was recently announced by the network, which also released a trailer that provides a sneak peak into the broadcast.

“Known for their fiery sermons, community outreach and passionate followings, pastors have become iconic, beloved, and sometimes polarizing figures in modern culture,” Oxygen stated. “Yet, few people have access to these larger-than-life men away from the pulpit. Until now.”

The network advised that the reality show will provide a look at the “human side” of the men, one of whom admits to having a baby with his girlfriend following his divorce from his wife.

http://christiannews.net/2013/07/03/new-preachers-of-l-a-reality-show-to-feature-lavish-lives-of-megachurch-prosperity-preachers/

A book called Proof of Heaven is bound to provoke eye rolls, but its author, Eben Alexander, had space in a Newsweek story and on shows like of Fox & Friends to detail his claims. Read into those endorsements — and nearly 15 million copies sold — whatever you will, but in a big new Esquire feature, Luke Dittrich pokes large holes in Alexander's story, bringing into question the author's qualification as a neurosurgeon (which is supposed to legitimize his claim) and the accuracy of his best-selling journey.

In his book, Alexander claims that when he was in a coma caused by E. coli bacterial meningitis, he went to heaven. Of course, Dittrich's piece is not the first time that Alexander's text has come into question. In April, Michael Shermer at Scientific American explained how the author's "evidence is proof of hallucination, not heaven." But Dittrich calls into question not what Alexander experienced so much how he did. While Dittrich looks at legal troubles Alexander had during his time practicing neurosurgery, perhaps the most damning piece of testimony comes from a doctor who was on duty in the ER when Alexander arrived in 2008. Dr. Laura Potter explains that she "had to make the decision to just place him in a chemically induced coma." But that's not how Alexander tells it, according to the Esquire investigation:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/07/proof-heaven-author-debunked/66772/

It’s not always a bad thing when people break up. Irreconcilable differences sometimes are, well, irreconcilable.

Such was the case with the recent splintering of the former Gun Owners of Bucks County. The group’s recent breakup produced a new advocacy group that, we suspect, is more representative of mainstream gun owners. And by that, we mean folks who are not among the fanatical fringe.

The newly formed Pennsylvanians for Self Protection split from the parent group over a fringe issue that is both troubling and alienating, and ultimately proved to be divisive: openly carrying weapons at public rallies. Among those rallies was the recent and very controversial gathering at a public park in Morrisville, home to several baseball fields where hundreds of children play ball every Saturday throughout the spring ... with parents, siblings and grandparents in tow. In other words, lots of people.

The rally was organized by the Coalition for Peace Action to support reasoned legislation requiring background checks for all gun purchasers. As happened with other such rallies in the area, gun advocates staged a counterprotest. Fortunately, the baseball games were canceled and the demonstrators and counterdemonstrators got the park all to themselves.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer_news/opinion/editorials/new-gun-group-tempers-its-message/article_60ae13f7-04ce-58c5-a011-7bfc94ae70b9.html

WASHINGTON — Government in America must be neutral among religions and neutral between religion and non-religion — at least that’s how the U.S. Supreme Court interprets the Establishment clause of the First Amendment.

But escalating conflicts involving government treatment of the nonreligious — atheists and humanists — reveal that far too many government officials are confused and conflicted about the meaning of “neutrality.”

In this month alone, an atheist monument stirred controversy in Florida, an atheist applicant for citizenship was instructed to join a church and a congressional committee nixed atheist chaplains.

Let’s start with the first-ever atheist monument, a 1,500-pound bench erected alongside a Ten Commandments monument in front of the Bradford County Courthouse in Starke, Fla.

http://chippewa.com/news/opinion/columns/haynes-a-right-for-the-religious-is-a-right-for/article_a38b3afc-e269-11e2-ad85-0019bb2963f4.html