In some cultures and eras, apostates face certain death. In America, it's the church that's dying from apostasy.

Apostate — it's not exactly a common word. But for those doomed to hear its rare pronouncement, it can mean imminent death or serious eternal consequences.

Like repentance, apostasy implies a rejection or abandonment of a practice, ideal, or belief. And one religion's penitent is another one's apostate.

This irony became apparent in the first formal court case involving charges of apostasy in Kuwait. The court found Hussein Qambar Ali guilty for converting from Islam to Christianity in December 1995. Since Shari'ah law in Kuwait (and many other Islamic societies) prescribes the death sentence for apostasy, the court called for Ali's execution, along with the termination of his marriage and the distribution of his possessions to heirs.

"Apostasy in the Islamic world is serious," said Ali. "Anyone, even an ordinary person, has the right

In case you haven't noticed, over the past several days I've been trying to bring my "Pneuma" pages up-to-snuff within the new design and to make them all a bit more usable.

Just now I've added a third page to my collection: PneumaSearch. Yes, that's right, I've gone crazy with the whole "Pneuma" prefix, just like I've irrationally appended "Rodent" to everything else. I guess, in the tradition of Web 2.0 mash-ups, I'm the PneumaRodent. But that may be carrying things too far. (Talk to my editor about it.)

Anyhow here's what's new:

I've finally gotten around to evaluating everybody who's been asking for consideration, and it shows. My paltry list of 70-80 PneumaBloggers has shot up to 130+. That number could change daily, or weekly.

Also, previously, I've used the built-in "BlogRoll" or "Links Manager" function of WordPress to manage my ever-growing

These are a few of the things I've recently found of interest, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

Just a very quick note to say that I've updated the PneumaBlogs list in recent days to include some stellar new names, including:

Christianity Today just published an interview with Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. It’s a concise and interesting interview, well worth the read. It comes on the heels of his latest book: The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism. According to editor Mark Galli, in this book, Witherington “makes a positive argument for how biblical interpretation should be done in an increasingly postmodern setting.”

Here’s the link to the article:

Here’s an excerpt that is clearly relevant for Pentecostals:

I’ve been adding a few links here and there when I find them. So, check back to see what’s new. Also, I’ve updated the ordering of the list so that the newest items float to the top of the list.

PneumaBlog: Pentecostal & Charismatic & Assembly of God Blogs

[tags]BlogRodent, assemblies-of-god, assembly-of-god, blog, bloggers, charisma, charismatic, chi-alpha, church-of-god, division-of-foreign-missions, division-of-home-missions, evangelical, foursquare, gifts-of-the-spirit, glossolallia, holy-spirit, pastors, pentecostal, pentecostals, pneuma, pneumablog, pneumablogs, pneumatology, spirit, tongues, viral-blogs, weblog[/tags]

Hi.

Here’s my current list of active Pentecostal, Charismatic and Assembly of God bloggers. I hope you enjoy it. And feel free to add to it with your comments.

   PneumaBlogs: Select Pentecostal/Charismatic Bloggers

Rich.

[tags]assemblies-of-god, assembly-of-god, blogger, blogging, BlogRodent, charismatic, church-of-god, foursquare, god-blogger, god-blogging, godblog, godbloggers, godblogs, pentecostal, pneumablog, pneumabloggers, pneumablogging, pneumablogs, spirit-filled[/tags]

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This is my personalized (and subjective) list of the best Pentecostal and charismatic bloggers I've found. I focus on "idea" bloggers who add value by doing more than journaling cat photos, family activities, or romantic frustrations. Though a bit of that is fine, I'm interested in highlighting reflective, thoughtful bloggers from my faith tradition.

I also focus on the more "orthodox" of Evangelical movements. So, if you identify with the Assemblies of God, traditional Pentecostal, Foursquare, Church of God (Cleveland, TN), or Reformed / mainline charismatic traditions, you're welcome here!

Contact me if you want to be considered for this list. Please provide your name, email address, the name of your blog, your blog's URL, and a short one-line description of what your blog is about.

My only request is that you either link to this list in your